David White Design Process Blog: Smokin Virtues

I chose the seven virtues for this photography set because I admire virtuosity. My original ideas involved portraying the sins or virtues in a way that didn't give positive connotations to virtues or negative to sins. For the sins I wanted to glorify them in a way. Show maybe why people commit them. Or maybe show what people gain from them or have to gain from them. For the virtues I wanted to show how they can hurt or if pursued to an extreme neglect the virtuous. In a way, I wanted to show how being virtuous neglects the physical self.

I bailed on these concepts and went with something I felt would be easier. Controlling smoke. And really I felt it was far easier to portray the idea of the virtue. I chose virtues to portray with the smoke instead of sins because smoking is usually considered a sin or at least affiliated with a sinful nature. Smoking is certainly never seen as virtuous at least. Not any more that is. Native American tribes smoked tobacco because they thought it was a spiritual act. Cannabis was smoked for religious purposes in several ancient cultures including African, Chinese, and Indian. It is also smoked religiously by some modern Indian cultures and Rastafarians.

So smokin virtues was the chosen direction. Because who says smoking can't be virtuous? In moderation (see temperance).

Some guidance received from this site:
http://www.calpoly.edu/~ttapscot/smoke.html

A few sketches to get my mind working and thinking about composition. The resulting photos ended up being far closer and set up a more intimate feel which I'm totally game for. The intimacy would distract from the typical sinful connotations of smoke and the natural elegance of smoke can definitely carry a sensation of virtuosity in this context.