#THESISIT: The Traveling Mermaid

One of the things I forgot to mention about my thesis is that it was about conceptual photography. I won't say what my thesis topic was exactly, but just know that it involved conceptual photography, which meant all shoots were conceptual/had a story to them. For Alex's, it was something akin to The Little Mermaid story, in that it was about a girl wanting to rise above the waters, finding her own feet in the world. It's also a metaphor to how some country gals want to become city girls, and how some people can forget their humble beginnings after reaching a certain status of success. (I discussed this more in the book, and indicate how some images depict these themes -- as I did in all the shoots -- but that's the gist of it.)

The thing about going for conceptual photography is that I had to come up with concepts before I planned the shoots. However, because I am a crammer, things went in reverse and I actually came up with Alex's theme while en route to her place on the morning of our shoot. For the most part I was brainstorming around the idea of shooting in a swimming pool, because Alex's place had that, and... well, I ended up with the traveling mermaid concept. I know it's bad to latch on to one idea and not move on from it, but the more I thought about it the more feasible it felt.

Ultimately, Alex's concept is actually the most joke time of them all, because of the relevance of what 'traveling mermaid' really is to the both of us. 'Traveling Mermaid' is what we call our beloved Demyx (yeah, from the Kingdom Hearts franchise) because we have a plot bunny that Demyx, pre-Nobody, was based in Atlantica and was a mermaid who would travel to worlds as a musician.

I know right. I can't believe I went with that concept either. But hey, it just goes to show how you can find inspiration in the most absurd of sources. Even fandoms.

Like most of my shoots with Alex, this was not without a certain level of fail to it. When Alex and I went downstairs to the swimming pool, and were done with the first set, we stopped and looked at each other and said, "Um. Towel?" I DON'T KNOW WHY OR HOW WHEN THERE WERE ALREADY TWO OF US BUT WE BOTH FORGOT TO BRING TOWELS TO DRY OURSELVES WITH HAHAHA.

But like most shoots with Alex, the outcome was wonderful, and the shoot became one of my favorites from my entire thesis.

Alex is easily one of my favorite people to photograph because LOOK AT HER FACE SKJGHSDKJG. I always have hundreds of photographs by the end of our shoots, and I had so many this time that I had a hard time cutting down which ones to include in the thesis. Terry's shoot was relatively lesser in number, but like I mentioned I wasn't able to think that shoot out very well. (I was actually considering doing a re-shoot with Terry, but I ran out of time.)

Below are some photographs that I didn't include in the thesis, but still really liked nevertheless.

Thank you again Alex for all the help! I'm sorry for making you lie down on the swimming pool steps even if it hurt, but thank you for being so game. I'm sorry you got stuck with the joke time concept, but I don't think I could make art out of that concept if it were with anyone else. I love you.