For my next DS106 assignment, Design the Cover of Your Autobiography, I chose to work with my own photograph (taken in Yokohama), as an autobiography is something of a personal matter, fiction or not.

This picture may seem quite spartan, however, the subtle meaning it has beat out other images in my collection that had much more action going on inside them. While I feel my life has been quite exciting since I came to Japan, I hoped that by gazing on this photo you get the sense of freedom that I have felt in my life, in contrast to a photograph of something that I had actually done.

You may be asking: Why is that? Wouldn’t it be more interesting the other way around?

Words and pictures are very similar, so it is necessary that in order to transmit the concept and feeling that I have in my mind to you, the reader, it is important that my picture is something that everyone who sees it can relate too. How many times can you recall looking up into the sky seeing birds pass above you?

I’m sure many of you can think of at least a couple instances where that has happened. Do you remember any thoughts or feelings of wanting to fly away, to be free like those birds you saw passing overhead into the horizon?

Again, I can almost positively say that everyone at some point in their life wanted to defy gravity, to fly away from the earth, to be unrestricted by borders or boundaries.

This picture, I hope, can help transmit that feeling of freedom more than anything. The text, as you may notice, is merely supplemental in getting you, the viewer of the image, to think towards that end.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my picture of what my autobiography cover would look like.

Please feel free to comment below and tell me what you think! I’d love to know if you ever dreamed of flying away to somewhere new before, as well!

Thank you!