need help with idea

Not sure if this is the correct forum to post. For mods, please move the thread if it is unappropriate.

My area's photo club having like a mini-photo gallery. There are only about 25 pictures that can be displayed on the gallery.
The theme is (in Japanese) Fukkatsu, or if translated to English it is Rebirth or Reborn. It has nothing to do with Easter though.

I am pretty sure many will think like a blooming flower, a rising sun,... If I am back in US I will go to the hurricane and flood depleted area and take pictures of the rebuilding. It does not need to be complicated, but I just can't settle with the common ideas.

I want to present a concept, but I want it to look like street/candid photography. Though studio photography also acceptable. I prefer something that I can shoot in the current time.. I have looked in all my old photos,.. but I only started this hobby just last year.


One condition is the that only minimal photo editting can be done. Film photographers still dominates the member, and also they said this is a photography gallery, not photoshop gallery.

I already have some ideas in mind, but can only realized one of them.
- Using double exposure, one is someone sleeping, and the other is just about getting up. This might need too many editing if I do a self portrait.
- Balding person holding a baby with no/little hair. This depicts you are born bald, and there you are, becoming what you used to be when you are born. However I will have a hard time finding the subject.
- Something picts mid-life crisis.. but I think most Japanese will not understand the concept of mid-life crisis. I have to research more into this one.

I'm having a hard time finding ideas. If you all have some ideas, I would really appreciate it if you can share it. Thanks! arigatou.

personally, i would be looking to get a photo of some new, young nice looking plants / flowers / vegetation growing out of a disused wreck of a building thats fallen down.

I'd desaturate the image somewhat so its grey-ish, but just enough to hint at the colour and give it a lot of contrast to give it a gritty, moody look.

i wouldn't do it such that its selective colour though.

Ok, I'll have a go at helping.

Some ideas more along the social documentary lines - may work with your idea of street / candid.
Retirement - End of working life beginning of retirement.
Religious concept of rebirth.
Drug rehabilitation, Alcoholics recovering, etc etc.

PS Make sure those film users don't do any dodging and burning!

I think both of them are great!!
how can you guys are blessed with those creative ideas? I never thought about the contrast of plants growing out of a wreck, retirement..

I think drug rehab will be very good.. need some exploration to look for the subject though.

Thanks a lot guys!

This is one of the concept I made,...but it needs PSed to combine two pictures. Can this picture be achieved without using photo editing?

Try a long (10 second) exposure: 6 sec while he's still, 2 sec while he's moving, & 2 more while he's stopped at the top. Or you could eliminate the "moving" step & hold a black card over the lens when he moves.

or do it in a darkend room and have two flash burst one when hes laying down and one one hes risen

PhotoGuy's idea sounds brill . . . its worth a try just to see how it it would look.

personally, i think capturing the movement phase would be better than eliminating it.

Just a thought that popped into my head...

Find a four-generation family with strong family-dominant facial characteristics, and take a four-generation shot that looks as though they are all the same person.

The dominant characteristic can be anything that makes them look substantially alike--bushy eyebrows, "different" shaped nose, unusual eyes, whatever. Then shoot them all alike--all smiling the same smile, etc.

Another thought...

Shoot then from overhead while they are lying in a star pattern or cross with their heads just touching. Kind of a "circle of life" thing. Try different backdrops.