the photograph collective

The Photograph Collective: Stop Playing With Your Food by Amanda Liew

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Project #4 was an interesting one: Shoot through the eyes of a child. I chose to take a break from the heavy topics and look into something a little more adventurous! For the project in it's native habitat with its critiques, please check out The Photograph Collective. “Stop Playing With Your Food”

For this project, I decided to take a whimsical approach and have a little more fun than I typically afford myself with photography. So often children are told to stop playing with their food, yet to me it represents an imagination and an excitement that we often lose as adults. I decided to make subjects of colorful candy and to bring them into an imagination setting by contrasting light & dark. I’ve always been fascinated and amused by how children can have a one-track-mind and wanted to focus attention on items that are normally not given much thought. Additionally, I chose to inject a little bit of my own childhood into the way I styled the food. I was quite the mini-adult growing up and was very particular about organization. Every day at lunch i would set out the perfect placement of my juice box, my entree, my snack, and even my napkin before I began eating. I wanted to reflect that child’s play is not always messy and chaotic, but can look different for each child depending on their imagination.

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The Photograph Collective: Namesake by Amanda Liew

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  “Namesake” by Amanda Liew We each have our own struggles, and mine is with love. For years, the lies I told myself have consumed me: You don’t deserve it You won’t ever have it You aren’t worth it You aren’t worth it You aren’t worth it You’ll never be worth it. There was a cry to God, One from the depths of my heart. And suddenly He made me remember: “Amanda. Worthy of love.” A literal translation. A declaration. A title. A namesake chosen before my birth to battle my greatest fear. A promise I can never run from. Amanda, You are worth it You are worth it You are worth it You’ll always be worth it. Love.

It's been such an amazing experience seeing The Photograph Collective take off. Our second project was on Self Portraits, and I chose to focus on my namesake. There was a time in my life when I was particularly struggling with being able to accept that I was worthy of love. From broken relationships to promises that were not kept, I allowed myself to interpret others' actions as a reflection of my own worth. When I was at Martha's Vineyard for FOCUS camp a few years ago, I was praying and sobbing with God - just wrestling over this emptiness and pain that I couldn't seem to get rid of. And then all of a sudden I heard "Amanda. Worthy of love." I realized then and there that yes, my name was a direct counter to my greatest struggle. It was a moment that left me in awe - to suddenly realize that before I was even born, God gave me a name so significant. A constant reminder that I was worthy of love, and more than anything worthy of His love.

To view the full post along with other projects, go to The Photograph Collective: http://thephotographcollective.com/2014/07/21/namesake-by-amanda-liew/

"Parallels in the Differences" - The Photograph Collective by Amanda Liew

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Though things have been relatively quiet here at amandaliew.com, I've been pulling in overtime at thephotographcollective.com. I'm truly amazed and humbled at how a simple idea has led to something with 11 (and hopefully soon to be 12!) other photographers across the country. For our first project we tackled "Life in Our Moment," and it has been such an honor to witness the amazing and brilliant ideas the other photographers have come up with. If you are a photographer (or just someone with a good eye!), I encourage you to leave comments with suggestions, critiques, encouragements on the posts. View my post at The Photograph Collective here.

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Introducing...The Photograph Collective by Amanda Liew

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One of the things I struggle with the most in the real-world is finding the motivation to make time for my hobbies. After I moved to New York, I took an unexpected hiatus from my blog and regretted it deeply. Even now that I'm settled in, it's been difficult to motivate myself in shooting and expanding my creativity. As much as I love what I've been photographing recently, I want to stretch myself for the sake of art. I loved being in my Digital Photography class where you had a set amount of time to work within the confines of a random challenge. It allowed me to experiment with abstraction and self-portraits, but also to get feedback from my classmates and professors on how to improve. I browsed around on Flickr for groups, but was intimidated by groups with 5000+ members and weekly challenges which had hundreds of submissions. Instead, I crave a smaller and more intimate group. Thus, I have launched a new idea: The Photograph Collective. A group of 5-6 amateur photographers who operate as a community with a mission of growing both technicals and creatively. Once every 6 weeks, 1 member will create a challenge based around a theme, either abstract or literal. At the end of the allotted time frame, each person will share their series with the group and share praises, critiques, and suggestions. Finally, the group's work along with corresponding responses will be published on thephotographcollective.wordpress.com. I'm so excited that two of the first photographers to join will be: 1) The amazing Stephen Turnock who I met in London, but is studying abroad in Évreux, France 2) The phenomenal Beatrice who I have known since high school, and is shooting in San Diego, California. This means that we are looking for about 2-3 more amateur photographers to join us - no matter where you are in the world!

If you are interested at all or know if anybody interested, please email us at thephotographcollective@gmail.com and introduce yourself!

Don't be afraid to join! I'm an amateur myself, having only started shooting about one year ago. I think this would be an amazing way to have a community of some sort.