PHOTO EXERCISE 04: JUXTAPOSITION

One of the trade secrets or strategies of advertising and contemporary art is the unexpected juxtaposition of things unrelated to attract attention, shock, puzzle, or question people's perception of those things. We can look at Oliviero Toscani's works for example for the United Colors of Bennetton campaign.

This is just one example of many. And when we realize this, we can start to be aware that we are a part of the photograph, because as a viewer, we start to interpret what we see according to our background knowledge, and give NEW meaning to the things posed together on the same scene/photo. So meaning doesn't necessarily comes from the photo, but from the viewer.

Ok, before going too deep with this... Because this is a hard one.
THE CHALLENGE IS "SIMPLY" TO MAKE PHOTOS OF JUXTAPOSED THINGS. AND THERE ARE TWO TYPES THAT WE COULD EXPLORE:
1. JUXTAPOSITION OF THINGS RELATED AND CONSIDERED PAIRS OR OPPOSITES
2. JUXTAPOSITION OF THINGS UNRELATED AND GIVE NEW MEANING(S) TO THE THINGS PICTURED TOGETHER
...AIM FOR NUMBER 2.

A good example would be a Popeye action figure next to an olive fruit. Although these two are unrelated in the type of object they are, when juxtaposed together in the same scene the olive fruit gains new meaning (because of our knowledge of Popeye's wife's name "Olive").