The Dark Art of Composition

So I can make a case for the our world visual vernacular springing from this group’s output from the 30’s and 40’s then being fixed in the 60's, when TV and video took over, and anyway by then the military were excluding PJs from the battlefield, and governments were demanding this bizarre and unattainable "impartiality" to keep them in line. The founding fathers went off to bask in their glory, or die in some foreign field if they couldn't kick the adrenalin habit. By the 60's it was the likes of Bailey, Lichfield and that Irish chap got to play with the new toy box and very quickly homogenised the worlds view of fashion, celebrity and the rest, it's within the confines of that toy box we have to make and judge our pictures today.

In the 30's every nation and region had it's own style and tastes ...

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by the 60's things were fundamentally different the whole world had adopted the same aesthetics, and like it or not we both understand the world by it and make our art within it.

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As I said it's just an opinion and conjecture not even a theory I’m a working designer not some academic sitting smugly on his grant, I only thought about it a lot because Bailey got the job I really wanted.

-Fin-​
 
The level of the prose also seems to have risen to new heights in this discussion. It's actually been a good read! I suppose it's difficult to write in a captivating style when it's just about silver or black.
 
Al Kaplan said:
The level of the prose also seems to have risen to new heights in this discussion. It's actually been a good read! I suppose it's difficult to write in a captivating style when it's just about silver or black.
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Thank you Al, I appreciate that, prose really isn’t my native habitat
 
I think that you've got to take chances, find new or different ways of seeing the world, realize when you're stuck in a rut, and be willing to move on when you do get stuck in one. Sometimes you have to just stop shooting for awhile. Sometimes heading out on the streets with Rolleiflex instead of a Leica is enough. Try a fish-eye lens, try a 400mm lens. All of these things might turn out to be utter failures. They just don't match up with the images in your brain. Others might "click". You might just go back to what you were doing already, but now you'll know that it's really YOU!.
 
PS I forgot to mention Ansel Adams part in all this, Adams was at the end of long line of photographers who strived to prefect the art in a technical way, he came closer to the perfect print than anyone previously had and was an irrelevance who came along towards the end a long tradition that was fairly unimportant.

Sorry that's unfair he was not only irrelevant he was also parochial, his adversaries are much more interesting and well worth a look.
 
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Stewart, this is a welcome refresher since I read Richard Zakia's book "Perception and Imaging" which covers a lot of the same concepts as you clearly presented here.

These concepts are very useful to reiterate once in a while because every time we are subjected to it, we'll have a different perspective with which to digest it. In the end, it can only grow our potential to create things "creatively."

So there, to those who think that creativity can stand alone without these "rules," you're in for a surprise all the time, unless *that* is what you're aiming for.

Now back to the class...
 
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shadowfox said:
Stewart, this is a welcome refresher since I read Richard Zakia's book "Perception and Imaging" which covers a lot of the same concepts as you clearly presented here.

These concepts are very useful to reiterate once in a while because every time we are subjected to it, we'll have a different perspective with which to digest it. In the end, it can only grow our potential to create things "creatively."

So there, to those who think that creativity can stand alone without these "rules," you're in for a surprise all the time, unless *that* is what you're aiming for.

Now back to the class...
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In many ways the word "rule" is a misnomer, I just used it because that's the convention.

with one type of perception we have no choice, a lot of the Gestalt stuff happens weather we like it or not, if I say a girls face what do you see?

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if I say man playing saxophone, what happens?

The other is a cultural aesthetic and it's part of living in a society, since the second war that has been global and we quite correctly all started pointing and laughing at Morris-dancers around 1959 when we learned what cool was
 
For three years or so I hardly took any photos other than with a 15mm lens, the camera held out at arm's length, and including me in the composition, often with my toy monkey Monkette sitting on my shoulder. I found it amazing just how good the composition is in most of those pictures. A lot of them are on my blog http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com
 
Sparrow said:
In many ways the word "rule" is a misnomer, I just used it because that's the convention.

with one type of perception we have no choice, a lot of the Gestalt stuff happens weather we like it or not, if I say a girls face what do you see?

4134417220_3d88c66285_o.jpg


if I say man playing saxophone, what happens?

The other is a cultural aesthetic and it's part of living in a society, since the second war that has been global and we quite correctly all started pointing and laughing at Morris-dancers around 1959 when we learned what cool was
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....mmmm! - I wondered who the yob was - pointing and laughing at the morris dancers in Haworth main street - last summer! -shame on you!:D
 
The quotation by Nikonwebmasrer that I included here has been deleted by someone in authority

He was probably correct ... but then that has sod all to do with what we are discussing here, has it? this really isn't about you.
 
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Yes, any job at all might pollute my work. On the other hand there's a paucity of rich girlfriends, and should I luck out and find one there's still the consideration that after a bit of time keeping her happy might start to seem like work.
 
Al Kaplan said:
Yes, any job at all might pollute my work. On the other hand there's a paucity of rich girlfriends, and should I luck out and find one there's still the consideration that after a bit of time keeping her happy might start to seem like work.
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it's does Al....but there are tablets available! ;)
Dave.
 
When coming to a fork the road take it -Yogi

When coming to a fork the road take it -Yogi

The famous optical illusion presented displaying outward and inward arrows is a cultural phenomenon.

Waaaaay back when I was presenting my Master's thesis in Art, my subject was the psychology of art. One of the curiosities I researched was the Famous Illusion.

It seems tribal folks in Africa were never fooled by the illusion. Why? because they lived in grass huts or at least structures that were round and did not have 90 degree corners to look into.

While it is convenient to assume optical illusions are nature and not nurture, quite the opposite is fact. Most optical illusions are learned indirectly from our environment, or better, interpreting and navigating our environment from a very young age.
 
Sparrow said:
He was probably correct ... but then that has sod all to do with what we are discussing here, has it? this really isn't about you.
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It's unfortunate, and seems inevitable - on internet forums, that something that is interesting and informative - over three or four paragraphs, becomes significantly less-so, when developed into a 'trumpet- blowing' epic.
Dave.
 
Stewart, thanks for presenting all this. Looking forward to more thoughts.


Side note/not so deep question of the day: Does a narcissist recognize their own narcissism?
 
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