Revolution - Five Digital Stills

by Tarald K. Tvedt 3:35 pm 0 comments Photography Year 1

"Revolutions force nations to change"

My second idea is the one I went with.

This is what I thought: It’s not only I who have grown up. The world has as well, and what events, what happenings have brought us to where we are today? And the answer is of course a lot. There are so many variables that it’s almost impossible to pin down 5 instances, but in the end I chose to focus on revolutions. Revolutions force nations to change, often for the better, and they are clear markers for change in the world.

I discussed this with Leah during our tutorial yesterday, and we both found it difficult to portray revolutions in five pictures. I was thinking about maybe recreating pictures from the revolutions, like this painting from the French revolutions:

But we both decided that would be too difficult, and not necessarily original enough for my project.

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I then happened to mention that the french flags colours symbolise freedom, and that that is because of the French revolutions. Leah then mentioned that after the Haitian revolution, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, took the French tri-colour, and ripped out the white part to symbolise the removal of white power in Haiti. This is when we thought of the idea that the story behind flags might be an interesting idea for my project. I decided to research other revolutions, other flags, and meanings behind them. I also had a look at the work of Alighierio Boetti. His work with flags is quite fascinating, and I will definitely use him as an inspiration.

"bringing the world into the world"

The French Revolution:

So as I said earlier in this post, the French tri-colour represents freedom, which is why so many countries today use the colours red, blue, and white in their flags. This is also represented in the revolution, which was all about liberty, equality, and fraternity. So I decided to create a picture of three people in the French colours hanging out to symbolise this equality. This picture also has a part to play in my picture for the Haitian revolutions though.

The Haitian Revolution:

Now, when I created the picture for the French revolution I already had a plan for what I wanted to do with the Haitian picture based of the story behind their flag. So, I will take the picture for the French revolution and rip out the white part, before sowing the two halfs together, thus representing the history behind the flag.

(I was not able to put a picture of my Haitian picture on my blog because I did not have time after the stitching)

The American Revolution:

Now there is a lot of wrong with America - no doubt. But their revolution were for a good cause, and it’s definitely something we can learn from. Standing up for your rights, and telling those in power that enough is enough, is a memory we should all use in todays society. But I did have a bit of a struggle coming up with an idea for this picture, after all, this revolution happened for a lot of the same reasons as the French one. Then I stumbled upon a haiku about the flag. Although the author is unknown, the haiku still has a lot of power:

"American flag

Is red with blood, blue with tears,

And white with privilege."

And I thought that this would be a great foundation for the commentary I wanted to make about the effect of the American revolution, how far they have come. The process of making it was quite interesting, so I want to go through it step for step.

1. Get cardboard from whatever back alley you can find.
2. Spray paint it white for a nice background