What is formalism?
Formalism is how aspects of the composition of a photograph which make it appealing. these aspects are line, shape, form, texture, colour, size and depth.
Line
Definition: A straight or curved geometric element that is generated by a moving point and that has extension only along the path of the point.
There are many different types of lines. straight lines tend to be manmade, whereas curved lines are more often seen in nature. lines can also be seen at different angles; the picture below is an example of this.
This photo contains straight lines.
Shape
Definition: The visible makeup characteristic of a particular item or kind of item.
Shapes are two-dimensional. They can be measured by overall height and width. Shapes can be the outline of an object. different shapes can combine to create new shapes. shapes can be organic or manmade and can be complicated or simple. the purist shape is a silhouette.
form
the shape and structure of something as distinguished from its material
Form is three-dimensional. Form has overall height, width, and depth. there are two basic types of form—geometric (or regular) and organic.
texture
The visual or tactile surface characteristics and appearance of something
Texture in the photograph is similar to form in that it is revealed by variations in tonality and presented in two dimensions.
colour
A phenomenon of light (such as red, brown, pink, or gray) or visual perception that enables one to differentiate otherwise identical objects.
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.
size
Physical magnitude, extent, or bulk: relative or proportionate dimensions
In photography, the space is already rendered before the camera, so we look at how both size and depth are reproduced, created, and recognized in the photograph.
Size in a photograph is relative and can be an illusion.
When a familiar object appears in the frame of a photograph (car, basketball, streetlamp, etc.) 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.
depth
The direct linear measurement from front to back
A photograph is a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional scene. Even is a simple snapshot we are given a sense of depth due to various visual cues, to which we rarely give much thought or analysis.
