Eric Watters - Task 2: Amy Stein

Amy Stein's work was impressive and captivating. Her photos kept my interest and they kept me wanting more. I love her series 'Stranded' and all of her portraits that she shot. I love the lighting she uses: making the highlights and shadows prominent.

For my shot inspired by Stein, I went off of the series 'Women with Guns'. After reading many articles and interviews, many people did not settle easy with this series. They didn't like the way these photos depicted American women and what this society has come to. To me, these shots were intriguing because of the obvious opposite stereotype: "Women with Guns". When you think guns, you think men. I kept rolling off the idea (also keeping in mind that I wanted to do a portrait) and I came up with "Men with Dolls". The idea was to create a photo that had the same sense of 'wait... what?' as I did when I saw her original series. The Women with Guns showed women no-longer vulnerable, rather powerful. And so, what I did was shot men no-longer powerful, rather vulnerable.

I used natural light for this shot, much like Stein's work. I cropped it into a square much like her shots. And I also shot it in the model's natural habitat (his room) to make him comfortable and make the shot more candid than staged.

One thing I want to know is: does the shot work well in his room? Does it suit the photo's atmosphere?