SONG THROUGH ROSE-COLORED GLASSES (2023)

Digital photography and post-production

Jensen Kugler

This project was based on the prompt “secret object.” My "secret object" is not so much one object but a collection of them, which is made up of objects related to listening to music. The objects I took photos of are almost entirely from my family's collection. The only objects that are not from my family are from locations that have significance to my family: our local record store and downtown Wooster. In this series, I wanted to honor different generations of my family with the over-arching idea that music can transcend generations. I set up my subjects with the goal of contrasting time periods within my images (cassettes and CDs, earbuds and records, etc.) and communicating my family history. In my view, each of my family's musical objects have a rich history. They have been loved, listened to, cherished, and passed down. That means a lot to me, because some of the people who listened to those 45s, tapes, and records are people I never got to meet. I feel like I know them a little bit knowing the music they loved. This series is a love letter to my family, but specifically to my dad, who introduced me to a wide variety of music. ​

In editing my images, I played with light and dark to show contrast and continuity between the objects in my photographs. I used a slight magenta tint in my images to visually connect with the idea of 'rose-tinted glasses.’ I wanted my images to have a nostalgic quality, so I blurred the backgrounds and embedded text within the first and last images in my series. The embedded text is my handwritten list of musical artists represented within my family's music collection, some of which are also highlighted elsewhere in my photos.​