For this assignment I chose the plants and flowers option as I had some previous experience with this type of photography and I wanted to see how applying the compositional rules would affect my approach. I have tried to vary the type of images I produced by taking still life and environmental photographs.
Most of the way we now look at photographing natural forms we owe to Edward Weston (1886-1958), he shunned the former pictorialist fashion, of a more painterly approach to photography, and allowed natural light to show natural forms, such as vegetables and shells, in a true and uncompromising way. He was a consummate technician and used his considerable skill to create " a vision of sheer aesthetic form" Weston cited Pitts,T (2008), most of us now follow his way of working, even if we have never heard of him. We would not normally photograph a natural form in an unnatural way, unless it was for a special purpose, Westons' beautifully lit Nautilus Shell (1927) and Pepper No.30 (1930) photographs are still the pinnacle of natural photography for many. So although I do not feel that any of my submissions for this assignment are particularly Westoneque, I do feel that his way of working underpins much of my own work process, " I want the stark beauty that a lens can so exactly render"( Weston cited Pitts, T 2008).
My first couple of images are influenced by another photographer with natural forms, in the shape of male nudes and also flowers, and that is Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989).
 |
| Single point |
The poppy above was captured in my garden just as the sun was rising, the light striking the flower from behind and leaving the flowerbed behind in darkness. Mapplethorpe used a similar treatment in his flower images, using backlighting on a thin papery poppy in his Poppy (1988) and generally keeping his flower subjects quite small in the frame, although all the flower studies of his, that I have seen, have been studio based.(Levas,D.1990)
Another favourite flower of Mapplethorpes was the Orchid and that was my next choice.
 |
| Curves |
Mapplethorpe was known for his almost sexual images of flower especially, his Jack in the Pulpit (1988) and the many Orchid photographs he made throughout the 1980's. I think you can see why he chose the Orchid, it is just full of curves and open for all to see.
 |
| Vertical and Horizontal Lines |
 |
| Diagonal Lines |
The two photographs above show the influence of a third photographer, Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932), who was a lecturer at the Museum of Applied Arts in Berlin,he took his greatly magnified photographs of plants so that his students could copy their natural forms in sculpture.( Badger,G.2007) Like Weston, Blossfeldt aspired to clear, sharp images of natural forms, but unlike Weston he was not adverse to tweaking the plants first. He would quite happily cut off a leaf he did not like. Also whereas Weston was trying to produce a work of art, nothing was further from Blossfeldts mind and he was amazed when his book Art Forms in Nature (1928) was widely acclaimed by the art establishment.
The picture of the fern above is typical Blossfeldt, although mine is lit from behind on a lightbox, a plant structure on a plain background.
The image of the grassheads is inspired by Blossfeldts graphically compelling pictures of Two-rowed barley(1928), although I have obviously tried to make it even more strikingly graphic. ( Adam,H,C. 2008)
Strangely enough after taking the picture of the grassheads for the diagonal lines part of the assignment I felt distinctly uncomfortable, in picking the grass and laying it out in a pattern, a la Blossfeldt, I had gone against the Weston in me, so I took another more natural diagonal picture, below.
 |
| Diagonal Lines again |
I feel more comfortable with this image, no messing about, no contrivance, maybe it worked for Blossfeldt because he was not trying to produce arty.
 |
| Two Points |
 |
| Several points |
The two images above are more naturalistic, I wanted to find the 'points' pictures occurring naturally, finding one point, fairly straightforward, two points, not too bad, finding multiple points and still ending up with a balanced picture, not so easy. But being difficult it made me really look at plants in a different way, instead of looking at a single bloom I started to look at combinations and how they react within the frame, teaching me to " really see" ( Strand,P cited by Badger,G 2007). I Particularly like the poppy picture because the mass of vegetation of the right is balanced by the single delicate bloom on the left.
 |
| Shape |
 |
| Shape |
The two shape photographs are fairly straightforward indoor shots, taken indoors to make sure there was no movement to blur the details. The Anenome centre immediately above is a fairly stable image, being round the eye does not leave the frame, whereas the Cornflower above it has a nice interesting star shape with the diagonal needle like leaves leading the eye off to the edge of the frame and back.
 |
| Implied Triangle |
Above is the first of my implied triangle images and it brings me back to the work of Edward Weston, especially the pictures he made around Point Lobos in the 1930's. At that time he was greatly interested in the patterns made by tree roots, rocks and all kinds of naturally occurring subjects. If I had not been looking for a triangle I would not have taken this picture but I feel it has a certain creepy quality that I cannot quite put my finger on.
 |
| Implied Triangle |
This picture is made up of several triangles made by the tree branches, one of the branches also leads your eye across the frame to the hole through the plants on the right side, giving you a window through the picture. The light is coming from behind the tree giving a translucence to the leaves and flowers.
 |
| Implied Triangle |
The picture of Alliums above is the kind of picture I might have taken before but the addition of the triangular formation is not something I would have thought of applying and I feel it makes the image. Without the Allium on the left at the back the picture would be unbalanced and the three Alliums in a row would lead your eye off of the image.
 |
| Pattern |
The pattern made by the Chrysanthemums above has just the right amount of irregularity to keep it interesting, if the pattern was perfect it be less appealing .( Freeman, M. 2007) I have added as much contrast as possible to emphasize the pattern.
 |
| Rhythm |
Finding rhythm among plants was more difficult than I thought, plants tend to grow around rather than along. The Hyacinths above have several rhythms, one runs up and down the leaves and the main one running across the picture loops along the bottom of the blooms.
I have found the application these different compositional rules very illuminating and the rigor of having to apply them to my images has definitely changed the way I look at possible subjects. Before if I was taking a plant portrait I would have zoomed in close, blurred the background and that would have been it, job done. Hopefully I will be able to keep these compositional pointers in mind in the heat of the moment in the future.
Ref : Pitts,T,2008,
Edward Weston,Taschen, Cologne.
Levas,D,1990,
Flowers Mapplethorpe,Bullfinch,Boston,New York,London.
Badger,G,2007,
The Genius of Photography,Quadrille,London.
Adam,H,C,2008,
Karl Blossfeldt The Complete Published Works,Taschen,Cologne.
Freeman,M 2007,
The Photographers Eye,ILEX,Lewes
No comments:
Post a Comment