Assignments – Real to Real

Walking the streets of Melbourne, it is almost impossible to avoid a buzzing café. The demand for talented baristas in this city is as high as the standards for perfecting coffee itself. Hence, I wanted to use the popular coffee cup as my centrepiece; my ‘muse’ if you will. But the images needed something more to reflect the beautiful city I call my home.

Street-art, graffiti, however you may think of it, is also a fundamental part of Melbourne’s culture. Hosier Lane and Fitzroy’s laneways inspired me with the art’s bright and colourful elements. It created not just a backdrop for my images but made the simplicity of the white coffee cup pop amongst the contrast of colours. Behind the lens, I was constantly realising how powerful street-art can be. One of my favourite photographs was of the street-art “NO ROOM FOR RACISM;” a political stance on recent events.

In terms of editing, I didn’t do much to the images. In fact, I was delighted with how my exposure turned out. I added a little saturation to make the colours pop and fixed some of the positioning. Next time, I hope to improve more on my exposure and taking time to properly frame my pictures.