What is it?

•Formalism describes the study of art by analysing and comparing form and style. It’s topic also includes the way objects are made and their purely visual or material aspects.

Seven Basic Elements to photographic art:

1. Line-“a straight or curved geometric element that is generated by a moving point and that has extension only along the path of the point/ Straight lines often show up in manmade objects. Curved lines can be manmade but are often organic in nature. Solid lines are common in scenes.”
2. Shape-“the visible makeup characteristic of a particular item or kind of item/ spatial form or contour/ a standard or universally recognized spatial form.
3. Form-“form is three-dimensional. Form has overall height, width, and depth.”
4. Texture-“the visual or tactile surface characteristics and appearance of something/ texture in “real life” can be, basically, smooth or rough. We can use other descriptors as well: slimy, wet, hard, soft, bumpy, shiny, etc.”
5. Colour-“the aspect of the appearance of objects and light sources that may be described in terms of hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light.“
6. Size-“physical magnitude, extent, or bulk : relative or proportionate dimensions”
7. Depth-“the direct linear measurement from front to back“

Final Evaluation

My final thoughts on this project, I enjoyed trying different things and it taught me a lot on how to compose a shot as well as how to use a different camera than I’m used to. I enjoyed using ‘props’ however I also liked using my own items likes the tie and stock as this felt more personal and linked it to the idea of nostalgia. When editing I played around with different tonal options and black and white or in some shots I chose to keep a softer background than a bright white. I also used photoshop to remove small details like scuffs and marks that made the shot look busier or unfinished. Over all I liked the project and found it very useful to get used to new things while producing high quality work.

This is my virtual gallery for my still life project. It is a selection of my best, after editing photos from this project. I mainly used the ones from my second shoot as I ended up much preferring them over the first shoot. I used a variety of different shots, some landscape, some portrait and some one black and white. I think viewing the photos in a virtual gallery allows me to see how well the final photos actually came out. I chose not to add frames to the final photos as I think it would take away from the simplicity within still life shots.

Formalism is the study of art based on analysis of its form, the way it is made and what it looks like. Formalism photography is where the design, composition and lighting are dominant over the subject matter, and concentrates on the desired subject while eliminating everything else, to make the subject the main focus. Paying attention to the formal elements will help you emphasise the most critical aspects of the shot.

The seven formal elements are commonly known as:
– Line
– Shape & Form
– Pattern
– Tone
– Colour
– Texture
– Space

Walker Evans:

Walker Evans is a self-taught, American photographer who is best known for his black and white images. Black and white photography removes any distraction of colour and helps the viewer focus on other aspects of the photo, such as the subject, the textures, shapes and patterns. Therefore, as Walker Evans aimed to capture daily life events and objects, this makes the photographs have more feeling to them due to the lack of colour. This is an example of Walker Evan’s photography where he took photos of tools from everyday life.

I used colours to label and categorise the photos I used green for the images I really liked and definitely wanted to use and then yellow was for the ones I thought were ok and possibly would use and red for the ones that I definitely wouldn’t use.

this is the original photo before editing

When looking at the image I really like how I have the old fashioned camera in focus and then everything else like the photo and the vintage lighter not in focus. It makes the camera really stand out which I wanted to do originally but you can still see the other objects which corelate to the camera.

I think the contrast between the black and white works really well compared to the gold objects but also it matches quite well with the vintage camera. I think I maybe could have arranged my objects better I think they look kind of awkward in the way they are positioned at the moment.

before the photos were edited:

After the photo were edited:

here I went to the studio and too some photos inspired by walker Evans, I have already taken some similar photoshoots that involved more items, and different objects however I made this photoshoot more personally aimed towards still life photography and Walker Evans. I really like hoe some of my photos turned out however most of them had become very blurry and vivid, making it hard to work with and edit them, while others looked not centred enough or had a piece of the background in the photo. This made it difficult to chose a photo to edit. However I found a few and made sure that they were cropped to the right size.

Photo Analysis:

There are 7 basic elements to photographic art, they are:

1.Line

Lines in photography can be either curved, straight or both. Solid, dashed of part of a line. Vertical or horizontal. In photographs, when the viewer notices straight lines, it is not uncommon for the object to be manmade. however, curved lines would more likely be organic in nature. the direction of lines convey meaning inside the photograph. vertical or horizontal lines are seen to create a sense of stability. Vertical lines usually represent height, whereas horizontal would focus more in distance. Lines are very common in almost every photograph. Lines could be used to make the viewer focus on something the photographer wants them to see, the pathway of the line will lead the viewers eyes.

2. Shape

1 a : the visible makeup characteristic of a particular item or kind of item

1 b (1) : spatial form or contour

1 b (2) : a standard or universally recognized spatial form

Shapes are created by the joining of lines. these lines can usual shapes such as a simple circle or shapes but can also make unrecognisable ones based on the photographers viewpoint. in photographs with shapes it may be important to the photographer to take it from different angles as different angles could be completely different shapes. shapes can be created with things such as the structures of buildings but as well as this, the black space surrounding the structures also has its own space. This shows that shapes are everywhere in photography.

3. Form

unlike shape, form is 3-dimensional and it can be geometric (or regular) and organic. geometric forms are the the familiar shapes we know. organic are objects that surround us in our 3-dimensional world. forms can be complex like shapes. in photography, positive and negative forms of space are created. positive space is what is occupied by forms and negative space is what remains. Forms are everywhere in photography as the photograph captures all the forms in the field of view of the lens.

4. Texture

Texture can be felt with physical touch of the photo print or even just with the viewers eye. basically, texture can be smooth or rough as well as other descriptions. we can make our the feeling if photographs by our own experiences. for example, if someone has never touched gravel/stones then they are not going to be able to easily feel what that photo of a rough gravel path as well as someone who has.

5. Colour

Red, brown, pink or grey can be viewed as a phenomenon of light or visual perception that a person will have top differentiate otherwise identical objects. light has no per4cieved colour but it moments when light is send through water, it will create a rainbow effect of colours (like the sun at a water fountain for example).

The three properties of colour are Hue (description of the colour), Value (relative brightness or darkness of colour) and Saturation (intensity of colour). many colours have meanings, for example, Red can mean anger whereas blue can represent calm. colour can also bring across feelings of happiness. you would get a more brighter and happier feeling if you saw a field with bright yellow flowers rather than a black ands white photo of the flowers.

6. Size

if a familiar object is the main focus of a photo (meaning its the largest aspect of it and most likely what your eye catches first) then you are more likely going to be more interested in that photo rather than one that is difficult to find something you are familiar with. a camera lens can created the illusion of an object being larger than it actually is.

If the object takes up most of the frame then the viewer will assume its the largest aspect of the image. however, the photographer could have simply made that object closer to the lens or only zoomed up on that object.

7. Depth

in a usual photograph, we are given a sense of depth due to the visual cues. an image will always have depth (unless its a black smooth wall). but the amount of depth in your photo depends on the objects in your photograph. in most photos you will find there’s a foreground, middle ground, and background. the stronger the delineation between those three, the stronger the sense of depth is in your image. in a two dimensional photograph, depth is created by the use of linear perspective where we follow the distance of, for example a road, and perceive that its actually getting deeper in the photo.

What is formalism?

Formalism describes the critical position that the most important aspect of a work of art is its form – the way it is made and its purely visual aspects – rather than its narrative content or its relationship to the visible world.

Lines

Depth

Depth in photography in simpler terms means how much of your image is in focus. In more complicated terms it is the distance in a photo where the subject appears.

The depth in these photos gives the photos dimension. It also causes your eyes to be drawn to the object that is in focus for example the leaf and the daisies.

Shape

Shape photography is the two-dimensional appearance of objects as your camera captures them. For instance, if you look at an image of a ball, you’ll find its shape as a circle. Likewise, if you look at a picture of a cube-shaped suitcase, you’ll find its shape like a square.

Form

There are two types of form:

Texture

Texture in “real life” can be, basically, smooth or rough. We can use other descriptors as well such as slimy, wet, hard, soft, bumpy, shiny, etc. Texture in photography is similar to form in that it is revealed by variations in tonality and presented in two dimensions.

Colour

Color in photography composition is one of the main tools a photographer can use to create mood in their images. How you combine various colours or exclude them from your photographs influences how people might feel when they look at them. This is why understanding colour in photography is so important.

Warm colours:

In photography, the dominant colours are the warm colours, such as red, yellow, and orange. These colours are considered dominant because they reach our eyes before the cooler colours.

Cool colours:

The cooler colours are the receding colours, e.g. blue, green and purple.

Size

Size in photography describes the physical magnitude, extent, or bulk of the contents in the photo. Size in a photograph is relative and can be an illusion. When a familiar object appears in the frame of a photograph for example a car, basketball, streetlamp. We immediately get a feel for the scope of the entire scene. Without a familiar object in the image, we struggle to determine the scale shown in the photograph.

My shutter speed for this photo is fast so it makes it look like the propeller is not moving, if I wanted the viewer to know that this way a moving plane then I would decrease t6he speed of the shutter speed. I have a shallow depth of field so the plane/ a few of the marbles are clear to see whereas everything else in blurry. 

In this attempt, my photo is very underexposed which means it does not have enough light. I know that to fix this I should increase my IOS 

(A few other attempts)