Final Constructed Image: Amelia Earhart

When the assignment was first presented to the class I began to think in three-dimensions (something like the reading over the architectural competition poster design had described). Although my sketches were a bit illegible, I had formulated a loose idea of a constructed image involving a runway, text and cut paper. However, after the examples that were shown in class the following period, I was able to refine my loose ideas and develop an idea that I was much more excited about.

Wanting a specific space to arrange and create my indexes and symbols in, I chose a book (Earhart: loved to read as a child and a geography book seemed to indicate her love for traveling). After cutting a space in the pages, I covered the text with maps of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (Earhart: was the first female to successfully land a non-stop flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Later in life, she disappeared on a flight over the Pacific). I included different representations of her personal life as well her professional accomplishments including; the red cross for her work as a military nurse, red plane for the Lockheed Vega 5b, the compass for her love of flying, the blue water/shore for the oceans, pearls for her signature item of jewelry (and/or sewing pin), sewing patterns and tag with her name for the clothing line she designed and sewed herself (as well as their connection with flight pattern and direction). In addition to this, the quote, "Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do" represents her opinion of life as well as a type of motto on how she lived it.

Amelia Earhart was an amazing woman and would never have found this out if I hadn't been motivated to find out personal aspects of her life. Although flying solo across the Atlantic is a great accomplishment, I find her job as a clothing designer to be very interesting and unusual, especially considering her feminist approach to professional women, marriage, and even flying. In regards to the project, I realized how difficult shooting an interesting photograph can be complex when the composition rests inside of a book. Regardless, playing around with the angles was part of the challenge and was still interesting. An area of improvement is definitely visible in large print where my resolution and/or size wasn't as crisp or precise as I would have liked. Using a macro-lens would have been a good option.