Reese's Task Number Two

My mom bought this GAF Anscomatic 62 Super 8 movie camera during a stay in New York soon after the model’s release in 1971. She was in her early twenties then, living abroad from the Philippines and adjusting to sociocultural differences and a contemporary Western lifestyle. Considering that I am currently around the same age as her when she made most of the film that’s been preserved at home, it’s interesting to compare her footage with my everyday photographs. It’s a generally fun experience hearing my mother reminisce about her time before married life.

For this task, influenced by Rothko’s paintings, I created compositions using a palette consisting of the colours found on my mom’s Anscomatic. The three colours are red, black and grey (in the place of silver). The amount of each colour used is based on its respective percentage of surface area on the camera. These are three of the different shaped canvases I tried, thinking that perhaps the effect of the colours may differ depending on shape and orientation. However, the black is so prominent that it doesn’t seem to matter. In Western culture, black often connotes negative thoughts like evil, depression and death. In one’s aura, it would indicate blockage or something being hidden. Funny how these aspects contrast with the more positive feelings associated with the object from which this color palette originated.