After researching an introduction to structure, I then funneled my inspirations into a mood board. Using this research allowed me to search the correct terminology of scale, shape and pattern related to architecture, conveying the scale and beauty found in buildings.
I decided to research structure in buildings because they a visually pleasing, with good composition, linear formation, symmetry and leading lines. It allowed me to go out and capture interesting architecture, revealing different styles, shapes and sizes. It also revealed the history behind each building I photographed as different textures exposed a certain emotion towards the scenery. For example, an old, desolated building triggered an emotion towards memory; leaving a sense of sadness towards the photograph, giving myself and the viewer an impression of past life that once lived within the melancholy building. Whereas, most my shoots were focused on a stylish, modern approach to building structure. This then formed a vision of sanitation, purity and life, three elements that were supported by the age of the building and how it was able to absorb the crisp light, colour and a strong composure in comparison to the subsided building.
Studying these images also spiraled certain terminology that I proposed on a mind map before going out to capture my shoots.
Two-frame filming intends to capture the formalised aspect of photography. the anthology process and juxtaposition of photogenic images and how both may diffuse/affect the ways in which someone engages with the work presented.
This montage of images involves the photographer to also engage as one must incorporate their emotion and meaning in order to reason with the juxtaposing images. Two-frame films can be processed through a standard 35mm frame, boxing the meaningful tale of two photogenic sets; often close in moderate proximity (within the space of a few seconds), while at other times, two-frame films can involve distant intervals, I believe this alternative can enable the viewer to engage more to identify and assume visible connections in a satisfying way.
“The strength of montage lies in the fact that it involves the spectator’s emotions and reason. The spectator is forced to follow the same creative path that the authors followed when creating the image.” S. Eisenstein, The Film Sense
“Art is always conflict…It is art’s task to make manifest the contradictions of Being. To form equitable views by stirring up contradictions within the spectator’s mind, and to forge accurate intellectual concepts from the dynamic clash of opposing passions.” S. Eisenstein, A Dialectic Approach to Film Form
Above are two quotes written by Sergei Eisenstein, a Soviet film director and film theorist, a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. These quotes helped to reap an efficient understand of how two-film photography works, with support from these quotes I formed a perspective of structure between the paired images.
Luke Fowler’s work on Two-Frame Film
The theory of Montage
First articulated by Russian film makers in the 1920s, specifically Sergei Eisenstein, who proposed that montage was:
“An idea that DERIVES from the collision between two shots that are independent of one another.”
From research, my understanding and thoughts on The Theory of Montage, I can gather that Eisenstein intends to use segments of film that compresses a certain topic or message exposed in a passage of time. This brief symbolic message can join a set of images together; giving the definition of structure, “to construct, or to arrange”.
“the broad understanding of applying a sense of pattern towards the underlying colours, shapes and contrasts in dark and light.”
The Zone System is a technique used a lot when capturing structure so that photographers are able to expose the existing contrasts between dark and light. It allows a brief direction for photographers to indicate their perspectives on a given structure. The Zone System exposes an existing contrast to the extent in which a balanced tone is produced.
Types of structure:
In structural photography, two types of structure are considered in order to stimulate ideas and projects, these are;
Geographic: photographers in the structure department of photography can decide to capture geographical objects in order to emphasize shape in either natural or man-made (architectural) forms.
Social: photographers like Bill Owens and John Bulmer are famous for documenting the hierarchy of society and how this can form a sense of structure of how demographic groups can be divided into different forms of life.
Structure involves a set of four elements that must be considered to take an efficient photograph in structure, these are;
Shape, form, pattern and texture
Shape can allow an indication of composure for a structural photograph, shape is an element with only two-dimensions and therefore angles are the main motive in capturing a suitable composure.
Form is when you see the subject three dimensional. Form gives us the depth of a subject. For example; if I was to take a picture of a football, I would capture a sphere rather than a disk. The main motive to execute form correctly is making sure you have the right shade to contrast, so that depth can be present in the given subject.
Pattern can allow an indication of composure inside a photograph by repeating a set of shapes and textures in order to balance a photo symmetrically. This element of structure can be the focal point for a certain photograph, or it can act as a backdrop to something else. It can also become quite a complex element as the eye may not recognise a valuable pattern due to size and appearance.
Texture conveys how the subject feels, meaning that this element can allow the photographer to capture either a hard, soft, smooth or rugged object. This element aids the use of photo composition by moving closer to the subject so you can isolate a specific part in the frame. This means shape and form is no longer a consideration when taking a textured photograph, as the approach becomes macro.
Nikola Olic
“Abstract structural photography offers playful re-imagination of what urban structures might represent, both in a real physical sense and a personal experimental one, drawing us closer to the cities we explore by assigning these structures a purpose and meaning that reflects us, our stories, and our histories.”
Nikola Olic, specialises in abstract structural photography, fixing patterns and shapes amongst city tower blocks. Looking closer at a city’s architecture.
Nikola Olic is an architectural photographer based in Dallas, Texas, with a focus on capturing and deconstructing buildings and sculptural objects in “dimensionless and disorienting ways.” His work reveals building structures that may appear to be a shape we cannot identify at first glance; the way his photo composition lies on the angle of structures can capture a delusional effect. This effect can make you transform the beauty of city skylines into something unique, with the right angle of the camera.
Mesh BuildingBuilding with StepsBronze BuildingSmokey BuildingLighting in the SkyOn the HorizonHypnotic Building
To briefly analyse the ‘Hypnotic Building’, Olic has angled the camera at a rare building in the densely populated downtown city, Houston. This building was a late-modernist structure during the 30’s and now resembles the rush of office workers and lawyers that use this daily. The context of this building is then portrayed in the final photo with the hypnotic lines that roughly match some of the elevator shafts from inside the building, transporting the daily chaos from office workers and lawyers from A to B. In contribution to this mesmeric feeling towards architecture, the use of black and white lines also contrast against each other in order to make the image more mesmerizing.
Koen Van Damme specialises in architectural photography in a moderate way to Olic; his work captures a unique angle and perspective of shading andtonal value inside shapes that we become oblivious to in everyday life.
Van Damme reveals hidden beauty inside fragments of whole objects, when doing this he also uses the skill of combining other fragments in order to create leading lines, patterns and composition within his final photograph. Although his images are intense and concentrated; Van Damme captures a soft and aesthetically pleasing sense of structure.
Project ‘house D’Project ‘house D’Project ‘MODEL HOME .AR+’Project ‘MULTIPURPOSE HALL’Project ‘MULTIPURPOSE HALL’Project ‘BENT’Project ‘law firm RV’Project ‘MODEL HOME .AR+’
To analyse the photo above – taken from Van Damme’s project ‘MODEL HOUSE .AR+’, we can identify the way photo composition supports each structural segment inside the image. Each segment presents a different shading of colour, yet they all seem to join together through the leading lines of architecture. Van Damme has captured this structure in portrait form so that he could isolate the given tones that contrast against the dark and disconnected background presented in the angle of which he was stood.
“The purpose of art is to make the visible, invisible”
Fontana is an Italian photographer who explored his love for vibrancy during the late 1960’s. His work entails the initial purpose to expose the tropical colours of shape and texture inside an abstract photograph.
His photographs have Appeared worldwide in over 400 exhibitions, solo and collective. His images are in collections in over fifty public and private, Italian and international galleries, marking his unique approach to capturing a warm, vibrant flavor towards what may seem visually unfulfilling.
Based in Berlin, Julian Schulze is an abstract photographer who is majorly influenced by composition and colour, focusing on the ‘Abstract & Surreal’ genre of photography. Schulze is also known as the master of minimalism; this term considers the idea of sculpture and painting that was first introduced during the earl 1950’s, usually presenting mass formations. This term best describes Schulze’s work since he typically captures the simplicity of everyday scenes of objectivity, made up of just one or two elements. By doing this, Schulze has the ability and unique skill of composing a 3D scene into a 2D perspective through using light, shadow, and color to create a compressed version of the clutter and confusion of society into mind-bending notions that will leave you to unravel the image.
