Emotional Photos: Filth

Wow I had a great time with this assignment.  I could have easily done a conventional emotion that anyone could list off the top of their head, however I wanted to take an alternative approach to this assignment!  I wanted to convey an emotion that I felt as I was taking the photo, and see how well that emotion transfers from viewer to viewer.  The particular feeling that chose for the assignment was filth.  Filth is an emotion, it's synonymous with that of grotesque, gross, disgust, and sickness.  It is an emotion that we live with everyday.  I took images of everyday encounters and plain sights that I come across everyday as well does everyone else.  Now I am making my disclaimer now, I did not use any photos of any sort of bodily fluids, that is disgusting, and undermines the integrity of this assignment!  Tolerance of the filth we live with in the world around us can give us insight into how everyday uses, practices, and objects we come into contact with are simply negated by our mind at first glance.  We simply don't "bat an eye".  Yet when forced to view the filthy things in life we are overcome with this feeling of disgust, and a natural instinct to look away.  Try not looking away at these images, and maybe after the hair isn't raising on your arm anymore, you wont succumb to your instincts.

 This was a sink that has been backed up for a couple of weeks now.  The debris at the bottom is believed to be soap scum.  There was no odor however which was surprising.
 (Top View)

This is another dirty drain having calcium and lyme buildup problems.  The dull lighting still gave it a warm tone which sort of adds to the depressing look of the drain in my opinion.

This is a dirty oil rag that was in my fathers work shop.  It took a minute for me to position my camera into the appropriate angle for the shot (there isn't much going on in the photo so it had to be made more interesting).

  This was the toilet from the abandoned house that I've been going on about.  I chose to put a black and white filter over it to make it more interesting and so the viewer won't immediately look away from it.  There is only debris in that drain, don't get any ideas.

 This is why your mom taught you manners!  These two things are my biggest pet-peeves!  Whenever I see someone either eating with their mouth open or picking their nose I want to throw up.  These photos need little explanation as to why they pertain to the topic of filth.  I know people who still have these bad traits, and it shocks me.  I've never been more embarrassed to go out to eat with someone who chews with their mouth open.  It's just wrong.

 The above shot took more shots than you would have thought to take.  I am of course giving the illusion that my tongue was touching the flyswatter, yet I must admit I did make the mistake of barely touching it and immediately I washed my mouth out. The moth below is just incredibly detailed and strange to view.  This photo shows off the anatomy of the moth and makes you wonder how different you are compared to the moth.

 Don't throw up.  This is a bucket of food waste that is fed to farm animals such as pigs and chickens.  This is the stuff of gold to those poor animals, if they could only know better.  In the bottom left hand corner is a cricket, he was hanging out in there probably enjoying his time.

 This was an awesome image I was able to take at night of multiple deer racks hanging off of my dads workshop.  I learned about Chiaroscuro lighting, I do believe I spelled that correctly.  I figured this would be an alright example of such and the decay of the fur to bone and the light reflecting off the bone gives a great contrast to the photo

 And of course...it's what we all see every day of the week.  This was a possum photographed at noon.  There are no shadows.  It's in our view all the time and yet we drive right by.  In essence, when I see a helpless creature on the road dying in agony, I feel as if I have taken apart in a murder, as was the case when I smashed a squirrel the other day.  Yet I regain strength and collect my resolve and remember that the poor thing wouldn't have died if it wasn't so stupid...........