On Oct 26, 2013, at 7:51 AM, Andrew Davidhazy wrote:
Rather than rip the images to shreds, I want to concentrate on middleism, or the error of putting the subject in the exact middle of the frame. Great Blue heron, Woodland Brook, and Railway Park all fall into this category. It is a common problem. It is the type of commonality which leads folks to pose subjects in the center of the frame while the Grand Canyon, seacoast, or Jefferson Memorial swoops along behind them with ease as the photographer lets him or herself be distracted. Putting subjects in the middle is not good art. If you need to make sure the audience gets the ‘subject’, drive it in with a sledgehammer. In design there is something called "negative space” and most images displayed in the PF gallery would benefit greatly from its use. I’m sure y’all think I am excluding my image from this middleism stuff to perhaps pat myself on the back for cleverly avoiding it. If there is any common thread to all of my work, it is perhaps that nothing terribly important is going on in the center of my frames. I learned that long ago from a portrait photographer I studied with in 1972 at ICP. He drove it in with a sledgehammer too, and his name was Arnold Newman. He made his point, and I have never forgotten it. His words or wisdom came along on top of a book my printmaking professor had us read and it brought along the concept of dynamic symmetry. The book is still in print (now available in Kindle) and was first published in 1907. It is “Elements of Dynamic Symmetry”, and although it is a tough read, it’s good to grasp the concept. Once read, if your photos don’t change, then you’re either blind or dumb. The subject of my image this week is the passage of time, and neither the man nor the green hose. It could be argued that the passage of time is the subject of almost all of my images, and since I began working with Noblex images, that is more true than ever before. The Noblex has a lens on a drum and shooting (for example) at 1/15th means that the slit will be exposing the film at 1/15th but the drum itself will take longer to go around. A 2 sec exposure means the drum takes 4 min to go around, and working with a mechanical camera with that kind of delay is tricky. Jan Art Faul The Artist Formerly Known as Prints ------ Art for Cars: art4carz.com Stills That Move: http://www.artfaul.com Greens: http://www.inkjetprince.com Camera Works - The Washington Post . |
