Abandoned was probably the hardest for me to shoot so far when it came to executing my idea. Originally, the concept was supposed to be burning wood lying around outside and somebody holding a stuffed animal burned, with their arms covered in soot. I wanted to show how fire can destroy houses and leave them abandoned but the memories will still stand, with the burned wood implying it was once part of a house, and the stuffed animal representing the memories. I had to change this because I didn’t have wood to burn at the time I was going to shoot, and it was raining.

       The concept remains the same but is more general now with how physical things can be abandoned but the memories won’t be. The stuffed animal, birthday card, and photograph of the child are supposed to represent the physical things from the child’s birthday party that have been abandoned because of fire damage. But, they also show that the memories of the birthday party will still stand even without the physical items.

       If I were to re-shoot I would definitely go back to my original idea or I would try to catch the items on fire and shoot them actually burning. The only reason I did not was because the items I chose to burn were very fire resistant and the flame burned out almost instantly.

       I darkened the image to go for a more creepy and smoky feel and I made sure to put the items down in a way so that it doesn’t look as planned or staged.