Renee Introduction

Renee Matthews PictureBook __________________ is a set of 8 photographs which show the feelings and action associated with the feared morning routine of waking up. All of the pictures are black and white, a rather ingenious insight. There is in every picture a contrast between an extreme dark value and an extreme light value with myriad grays in between. The movement of the viewers eye over the image takes them from the light to the dark (except for in the case of the faucet) This allows the person viewing the book to see the stark contrast between being asleep and being awake as well as the gray are in between often experienced when someone has just woken up.

The pictures are almost all balanced in a similar way and seem to share a repetition in placement of the subject of the photograph. This is not to say that the subject is always located in a certain place in the picture, but rather that the subject is never located in the exact center of the image. The images are balanced so that one side or another has a subject crisp and clear in the foreground and next to it lies either a blank wall, dark window or balled up blanket, all of which are just barely out of focus. We see this general pattern until the last picture. This better allows us to see the not so fine line that that each of us treads as we traverse the hallways and rooms of our homes early in the morning. The use of space through the placement and size of the subject is almost the exact same in every picture. The main point of focus always takes up around fifty percent of the image This further helps to balance the image in a manner which chows the uncertainty and fog which clouds our minds upon first waking up.

________________ makes me feel tired, but in a good way, as well as exhilarated. By this I mean it make me remember, and through that feel, like I do every morning upon first waking up. It evokes for me that feeling of wanting to crawl back under the blankets into the warmth so that I can sleep, but also the feeling that you experience once you have fully woken up and gone through your morning routine. These pictures create a mood more then they do a meaning. Admittedly, we have all experienced what they portray and therefore the pictures have a different meaning to all of us, but the way in which they were shot seem to evoke a sort of grudging acceptance of what is to come in the day ahead.