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"I see that the Academy loves to assign written assignments for every occasion... Good thing I refused that journalist's survey, or else it would have been 'explain and answer and tell.' That would make you go gray before your time."
Anyway, I had to start grading in any case...
[spoiler=Photography Contest]First of all, I want to note that it wasn't easy judging photographs across such diverse genres. Sometimes even within a single genre, it's difficult to determine which work of art you like more, they evoke such different emotions. The problem is compounded by the fact that all the works were made by my fellow students, not professionals. Although you told us everything necessary, it probably takes years of work to truly understand a camera. Should we grade students leniently because they haven't had those years yet?
Still, many works are, in my opinion, wonderfully executed, with a full understanding of the subject, which can't help but please.
1.
Sometimes artists make portraits that seem to follow you wherever you go. Sometimes objects, upon close inspection, turn out to be not what you first think. There are countless illusions; you can deceive the viewer by playing with scale, perspective, color—in special attractions, the floor can fall from under your feet, or a person-avalanche can rush right through you as a colored black haze.
But I don't know how to make flowing water on paper. Upon closer inspection, it seems to me to be some kind of shiny paint that changes luster at different angles depending on how you look at it, but still there are too many questions: printing photos is a process in itself—how can you adjust equipment to be capable of such wonders? I'll try to find out.
From a compositional standpoint, it seems decent enough: island motifs and the union of three elements—water, earth, and air (the latter in the form of foam). It deserves a high grade.
2.
I recognize the model in the photo... Honestly, I wouldn't have dared to do something so revealing, but I can't deny: Nirianna looks very good in that swimsuit. Perhaps even sufficiently modest.
The photo seems to contain a backstory: flowers, clear water in the lake, evening, an abundance of petals and white fabric. It looks like the girl in the photo just got married and is now happily gazing at her fiancé, alone with him. Why were we allowed to see this deeply personal moment? Is it because it's someone's distant, happy memory, so old that there's no longer any point in being ashamed of it?
I'm not sure such a story was intended, but then again, is the viewer allowed to have their own interpretation?
3.
"Okay, I think I know what this place is, but why? Isn't it too bold? Ah, I get it, it's a hidden message from Futaba. Maybe even unintentional, but she decided to show us the cornerstone place where everything happens. Alright, I need to judge it properly."
In this photo, we see the royal villa, and the logic behind choosing this location is understandable. Just as a monarch is a reflection of the people's will and authority over them, so their dwelling is a reflection of the monarch's soul, and can say much about His Majesty. Here, I see strict geometric forms, an ideal execution of the villa and its surroundings, coupled with a lack of any ostentatious needless flamboyance. The building has a protruding wing that breaks the symmetry: it's hard to say exactly what that indicates, but on the other hand, it's obvious that most people would either break their own pedantry elsewhere by deliberately creating a naturalistically irregular composition, or follow geometric strictness to the last letter. So, it's probably not without reason.
From my perspective, the photo's authors didn't put as much effort into finding a composition as many others, but they still made their viewers think about important things, for which any resident of Sakura Moria can't help but be grateful to them.
4.
A pleasant landscape, a fairly spacious photo with many dimensions—upward and sideways... Mountains, clouds, gusts of wind, wheat... So too do we ripen here, studying at the Academy, like those ears of grain.
"And then perhaps the well-known reaper in the person of His Majesty will come and try to mow us down."
I think finding such landscapes is a useful skill for a photographer, although the question does arise whether it would have been worth wandering around that field more to find something that would distinguish the resulting composition, be it an insect in the frame or a sheep grazing in the distance.
5.
I like photos that contain a touch of magic and fairy-tale quality, and this is one of them. It seems like an ordinary forest, an ordinary riverbed, but at the same time, the chosen time of day and angle transform the picture into either wild, dangerous, dark jungles or a fairy dwelling. This isn't cultivated wheat; a person here is clearly alone with nature and the forces contained within it. Whether they will be kind or hostile towards you is another mystery.
6.
"Never... I would never have thought that Oleg and Iori would talk Michaela into such a photo! Of course, it's summer, so the desire to swim is understandable, but still... Strange."
Perhaps the most unexpected photo of all. From my point of view, the composition is slightly off: the rule of thirds would have made sense here, or the model could have been placed in the center, but not right at the edge like this. The model herself looks quite beautiful and, I dare say, modest, despite the attire. It's clear that for her, this is a summer necessity and there can be no talk of embarrassing people here (if anyone could have thought so). A truly pure person will be pure in any situation.
Setting aside the compositional flaw, the photo is otherwise quite pleasant.
7.
We wanted to create something unusual that required considerable effort in brainstorming the idea and preparation, something beautiful, wonderful, and thematic to our summer mood... and a bit surprising in terms of how we technically managed to create it, if the viewer isn't attentive enough! I hope we succeeded.
It's a bit of a shame, of course, that you can't apply multiple images to a faceted pururut, covering a portion of the first shot, for example—then you could create even more magical pictures.
8.
"Wow, I wonder how much Yumiko charged for modeling on the side?"
Here the composition is entirely in order: there's a central subject—a girl posing in a maid outfit—and a background in the form of decorations that smoothly transitions into what seems like a frame for the picture. The girl knows how to pose, so well and naturally that it's as if she was truly caught off guard, gently called by name.
"Which, of course, is unlikely; Yumiko would have set hungry guard dogs on the photographers for an illegal shoot of her beloved self."
9.
A pretty little bug. Perhaps the value of this photo lies in the fact that you don't always pay attention to the aesthetics of small things, but if you look closely, there are beautiful eyes, little veins on the wings, and tenacious legs.
"But spiders are much, much more interesting."
From my point of view, the subject of the photo is well chosen, but it turned out a bit... Motionless? Cicadas are characterized by their sound and jumping ability—I understand the second is hard to capture in a photo, and the first might not even be possible, but in my opinion, that would have made it better; as it is, this one seems tired and not moving.
10.
A very kind photo, showing something like a friendship between Man and Nature. A clear river flows in a specially built, landscaped channel. The cats inhabiting this place are clearly well-fed and content with life. Who fed them? Apparently, the girl sitting on the bank and carelessly swinging her legs must have had a hand in it! Even the trees in the background, behind the stone path, were clearly tended to by a forester, planted at the correct distance from each other, with dry branches pruned...
Nearby, city sounds can be heard—the creak of carts and the clatter of hooves—while on the other side, there's the trill of cicadas and the muffled calls of waking owls, but all of it reaches here barely audibly. It's a boundary, a dividing line, and at the same time, an excellent combination of everything mentioned above.
11.
Strict. Very much so... It's one of those cases where it's hard to guess the author of the photo and the purpose, but perhaps it's an attempt to replicate the idea of the third photo, approaching it from a slightly different angle, closer to the students' perspective?
If so, it's hard for me to say which specific character traits should be inferred here.
"Because it's highly unlikely Futaba chose the interior herself."
Perhaps the photo's authors should have focused on something else, something more indicative... I could think of epithets for the photo, such as this desk resembling a fortress or an ark, and some symbolism given its role would be fitting... But I still feel the authors weren't thinking about any of that in this case, so I'll simply say the work is flawless in terms of execution but has an unclear message.
12.
"What. A. Horror. Alidume!"
The picture doesn't inspire any desire to stand, evaluate, and look for meanings; instead, one wants to quickly find the scene of the action and free this unfortunate person.
"And tie the tormentor to a tree so they learn their lesson."
Alas, but perhaps the worst of the works. Though I wouldn't want to offend classmates who were hoping for a high grade, in this regard I can say that at least I have no technical complaints, and a certain fatalistic idea, even if I disagree with it, probably has its place. Still, as a viewer, I believe that a lack of an idea is better than one that does your head no good.
13.
No matter how much I think, I can't figure out where the photo's authors found such a landscape in Alme? Are there definitely no drawn elements in it, like in our team's photo? In any case, this is more than worthy—such a landscape that doesn't even hint at magic but actually screams it: this work deserves the highest praise.
Scouring the forest for such a place, waiting for sunset... Drawing or capturing or somehow depicting spirits in the photo... It must have been hard work, under certain conditions even a bit dangerous. Overall, the place is perceived that way: wondrous but slightly dangerous, because it's hard to say what the depicted phenomena are if you imagine they are truly real.
I would give the final grades as follows:
1. 8
2. 9
3. 8
4. 7
5. 8
6. 7
8. 7
9. 7
10. 9
11. 5
12. 4
13. 10[/spoiler]
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Happy Life
