What is formalism?

Formalism in photography is the design, composition and light of the photo. Formalism describes the most critical aspects of the images and the visual aspects, whether than the narrative aspects and the relationship with the visible world.

Example of formalism – the composition with blue, red and yellow (Primary Colours).

Formalism:

>Light

>Space

>Shape

>Repetition

>Texture

>Form

>Depth

Walker Evans

Walker Evans is an American photographer who took pictures in the later 1920’s during his trip around Europe. During the ‘Great Depression’ Walker Evans took pictures to portray the resettlement admiration. He is best known for documenting the affects of the ‘Great Depression’.

This is Walker Evans formalism photography. He uses different still life objects to create a simple photoshoot. He uses black and white images to portray a relaxed mood. For these images I can make an assumption that he uses artificial light for his images. I know this because the light is slightly dull which makes the mood of the photo quite low and makes us as the viewer wonder what the tool is being used for and whether the tool is being used for the correct things.

The shapes in the images are harsh, this shows that the tools in the images are used to fix hard objects because of the strong sharp edges of the tools. This makes the viewer think about the different uses of the tools.

There is also repetition in his photoshoot as in the all the photos include a tool of some sort, there is repetition in the shade and level of lighting used in the photos, the colour is a dull grey colour which makes the photos look morbid and eerie. I really like the repetition in this photoshoot and I like how all the tools are different however all come under the same category. It makes the viewer wonder where the tools have came from and makes us wonder what the different tools could be used for, or what they were used for.

Darren Harvey-Regan

Darren Harvey – Regan is an English artist who took the simplicity of an image of the object and made the still life have a meaning and made the objects have meaning rather than having a purpose.

He uses tools similar to Walker Evans, however they are slightly different because Darren Harvey-Regan uses a plain white background to display his work. I really like his work because I think it is very simple however very affective and portrays a story behind the photo.

Just like Walker Evans, the objects in his images have sharp edges and present a harsh aesthetic with the different tools that he uses. One thing I like about his work is the simplicity in making a tool have a meaning. His aim was to make simple objects have a meaning and I think he executes this objective extremely well because I become interested in the tools by looking at this photo, whereas usually I wouldn’t be satisfied by a picture of a tool.

I like the lighting he used to execute this strong piece of artwork is a soft cool tone light. I can infer that he used artificial lighting because the lighting is very even and there are no shadows which make the photo look like a painting. I like the tone of colour he used because it makes the background extremely bright which contrasts with the dark colour of the tool.