Exercise: Juxtaposition

I have been procrastinating about this one for a while and then realised I had one which I took recently which would be perfect.

A still life or larger scale shot.  I have gone for the latter, in which I was asked to photograph someone with a possession of the result of their hobby or work.

Now, for someone who moaned an awful lot about how they didn't like the fact they were photographing themselves and who felt horribly narcissistic for doing so,  I am doing very well as including photographs of myself in here.  However, it continues the theme, the narrative of all my course work and it's a photograph I like. Plus it has lots of juxtaposition in it.

Technically I think that I have probably got too much black in this - It's something I have noticed recently, that I do, well I noticed it before but then just carried on regardless.  I might re-edit this and compare to see. I quite like blacks and dark shadows it's true, but I think I've gone overboard sometimes and this might benefit from having a little less; not sure though until I do it.  In fact, every time I look at it, I think - oooh, it's a bit garish!  Maybe that's just my mood today.

However, on the content side, I like this because it literally and metaphorically has lots of levels to it.
I am in it as I have been in so many of my photographs for this course.  But I'm not fully in.  I am doing what I love doing - my work and hobby, photography, and finding ways to express myself.  I am in a mirror - which is an obvious metaphor for self reflection, which is what all this work has been about, but I am obscured and I'm not sure if it is immediately obvious I am taking a photograph to anyone who is isn't a photography nut.  I'm in a car park with a bunch of discarded stuff and in a way all those boards could be suggestive of all the layers in me, or the layers through which I must get through before I get seen.  If I were to think of a title for this it might be "in the picture'.  Which ties in with what we were discussing at the TV meeting the other day, where it was suggested I try to inveigle my way into the family photographs I might take for A5 all the time - always trying to be seen.  Finally, the sign at the top could be about me or about the car park, could be about life - who knows?  Is that a bit pedestrian?  Not sure.  Anyway, I liked this photograph and thought it was heading in the direction of something distinctively 'me'.