Formalism and The New Objectivity
Formalist Photography is based on The Design, Composition and Lighting that is dominant over Subject Matters. The photographer becomes a visual designer whenever a frame is captured. In camera cropping concentrates on the desired subject while eliminating everything else.
Photo Literacy?
What is photo literacy?
Photo literacy is the language of photographic images. Photographs communicate their meanings in particular ways. Such as a photograph with little children could represent nostalgia and the memories of the past while a photo of a field full of flowers could represent some sort of comfort and reassurance, its a passion you may have for nature, people tend to admire different things and therefore nature either could be admiring or dull.
to my understanding photo literacy is photographs of the past with different meanings, its proof of everything we are taught. It helps people understand what is going on in the world and evidence is shown through the photographs although we don’t exactly know the situation of each photo we have a slight idea of the concept, through facial emotions, expressions.
PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE ANALYSIS
Analysing an artistic photograph will consist of studying the various elements which compose it to detect the emotional sense, the message transmitted or to identify aesthetic qualities. Photo analysis (or photo analysis) refers to the study of pictures to compile various types of data, for example, to measure the size distribution of virtually anything that can be captured by photo.
There are seven basic elements to photographic art that we must explore over the coming weeks:
Lines
Lines in photography are an immensely powerful element. Proper arrangement of lines, guides the eye around the image, often placing emphasis on the subject matter or conveying a sense of movement. Improper arrangement can draw the eye out of the photo or take away from the strength of the subject matter.
shape
Most photographers recognize the four basic shapes: circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles. Each of these shapes can be used to create a variety of different effects in your photographs. Circles are often used to create a feeling of harmony and balance, while triangles can add a sense of movement and drama.
Shape in photography is exactly what it sounds like: The two-dimensional appearance of objects as they’re captured by your camera. For instance, if you look at a photo of a ball, you’ll see its shape: a circle. If you look at a photo of a cube-shaped suitcase, you’ll see its shape: a square.
Form
Form refers to when shape takes on three dimensions. Form is created by shadows and highlights on an object in the photograph. You can see in these two photos how shape becomes form when light hits the subject.
Without the 3D effect, photos look flat and dull. This might work for some photography genres or styles. It’s usually not desirable. A form photographer’s aim is to make their photos look like they’re as real as the actual objects they’re photographing.
Texture
When talking about photography texture refers to the visual quality of the surface of an object, revealed through variances in shape, tone and colour depth. Texture brings life and vibrance to images that would otherwise appear flat and uninspiring.
colour
Colour in photography composition is one of the main tools a photographer can use to create mood in their images. How you combine various colors or exclude them from your photographs influences how people might feel when they look at them. This is why understanding color in photography is so important.
size
The Basics: Image Size is the term given to describe the height and width of an image in pixels. Maximum Image Size is determined by the megapixels of a given camera – for example, a 10-megapixel camera will give a maximum image size of 2592 by 3872 pixels.
Compositionally, the biggest effect of a big print is to reveal details. These details can include textures, small subjects, and – of course – flaws that would not be visible at smaller sizes. All of this can impact the balance of a photo, leaning it more in one direction or another as the viewer’s attention shifts.
Depth
What Is Depth of Field in Photography? In simplest terms, depth of field is how much of your image is in focus. In more technical terms, depth of field is the distance in an image where objects appear “acceptably in focus” or have a level of “acceptable sharpness.”
formalism is often portrayed as abstracted reality by eliminating social or spatial context; by using viewpoints that flattened pictorial space, acknowledging the flatness of the picture plane; and by emphasising shape and tonal rendition in highlights and shadows as much as in the actual subject matter.”
formalism is also always seems as back and white which can cause a confusion to why. Black and white photography can evoke a mood – from nostalgia to sadness to yearning, black and white pictures somehow convey emotion in a way that colour images simply can’t. Not everything is Black & White but sometimes it can be just what is needed. This makes formalism make a lot more sense to me and to why most of the pictures are needed in black and white, I personally feel that when you see an imagine in colour you feel happiness depending on the tones and shades. However when I see and grey/ black and white photo I feel some sort of sadness and empathy for others it does make me feel some sort of happiness as I think back about my childhood.
Stephen Shore
He concentrated on photographing landscape, streets and buildings. From 1977 to 1982 Shore was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, to photograph Monet’s gardens at Giverny, France. American photographer. Landscape and Photography,
he has recognizable style which is often touted as one of the most important things for an artist to develop, but Shore has never abided by that idea. Shore switches between antilog and digital, black-and-white and colour, photographic and production techniques, and film formats.
. John Szarkowski.
The book explores all the traditional approaches to composition and design, but crucially, it also addresses the new digital technique of shooting in the knowledge that a picture will later be edited, manipulated, or montaged to result in a final image that may be very different from the one seen in the viewfinder.
In photography Formalism was advocated by John Szarkowski (Curator of Photography at Museum on Modern Art, New York) who is his book; The Photographer’s Eye (1966) identified five elements involved in the formalist approach to the analysis of photography, they are: the thing itself, the detail, the frame, time and the vantage point.
Photo analysis
overall, through this photo I really like how is is put in black and white which makes the photo look really modern, however it does also make me feel as though this photo was taken a long time ago. I know that this photo wasn’t taken purposely as the people in the streets aren’t posing and aren’t necessarily intended to be in it. The weather also doesn’t look the best as I can see any sunlight and mostly see clouds and a foggy exterior.
The way the photo is set out does almost look staged because of the cars, however the cars are in opposite of illusory motion in this photo which creates that still life effect although there are living humans beings involved with moving cars.
To make this photo look even better i believe that the shop should have some lights involved or even just some street lights as the photo looks quite dull and plain, even if there is a lot of things happening my eyes would directly be drawn to the lights near the shops or street, this would make feel more focused on one area of the photo instead of the whole thing.
