Back To The Beginning

Looking through other artists' portfolio always fills me with inspiration and just a little bit of jealousy.  Looking through German photographer Christian Plochacki did just that, but also made me feel an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and peacefulness.

This Weight On My Shoulders
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heist_mine/5271676430/in/photostream

Picture Perfect
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heist_mine/5158258671/in/photostream/

It may be the lighting, colour tones and focus that make the feelings of nostalgia and peacefulness that much stronger for me.  The lighting is muted - neither too bright nor overly dark - and give me a sense of remembrance.  The colours are also muted, the right shade for the audience to recognize the subject, and not too bright as to be so obvious.  Having the background blur and not as emphasized puts more focus on the subject that Christian really wants his audience to acknowledge.

These three things are probably the main reasons for my sense of nostalgia and peace.  When I think about my past, it is not very clear.  There are those blurry events that I would not be able to play back in vivid detail and colour.  However when I do think about the past, I remember happier, simpler times.  These two photos no not have a lot going on, but they are beautiful nonetheless.

So many more of Christian's photos evoke emotion, which is awesome.  I believe the best art and artists make their audience feel something, so I have great respect for this photographer, Christian Plochacki.

The Rescue

Few songs are able to evoke different emotions when heard, depending on what you were feeling at the time.  Besides this, there are so many talented people out of the spotlight that create (usually) even better music than those who are more popular / famous artists.  Tyler Ward is one of them:

When I first watched this video, I focused more on the clips of the people rather than the music - a first for me.  But I think it was a great idea for Tyler to choose this method as a platform this song.  Allowing people to express and share their weaknessess and insecurities helps everyone, including them, come to accept their situation, learn that others are dealing with the same things as them, and hopefully find a solution.

After watching the video's clips, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the music and lyrics.  I thought the clips were already pretty inspirational, but I imagine just listening to the song would probably make me feel a whole lot better if I were in a bad mood.

Inspirational songs are hard to come by.  So many songs now have no emotion, written by others for an artist that may or may not have gone through the same situation, and therefore not have experienced the same emotion as the song requires to make it effective.  Even if the emotion is there, sometimes after watching the video, the song becomes less of an inspiration for me.  It's sad.

However, there are exceptions.  This, for one, rescued me from accepting this sterotype to be fact.