misrepresentation, imperfection, and distortion

I’m posting this a bit late in the game (I was out of reach of a good internet connection most of this week), so I’m going to bypass some of the more obvious discussion of aesthetic techniques and composition to focus on the role of misrepresentation, imperfection, and distortion in photography. 

If photography is a fundamentally representational technology (a tool for capturing reality), what makes one photograph more pleasing or interesting than another must be either in how that reality is chosen, framed, arranged, etc (i.e. composition) or how that reality is distorted or changed in its capture. These distortions can be byproducts of the photographic process (e.g. the extremely shallow depth of field in macro photography), characteristics of specific photographic tools (e.g. the special feel of old Polaroids) or effects added in the developing/processing process. 

This photograph from my marcos assignment is a good example of how the photographic process can distort reality (and hopefully do so in an aesthetically pleasing way).

The misrepresentative aspects of photography are especially interesting to me. The use of photography not to simply record images but also to abstract and recontextualize reality seem like an important part of photography as art and not just snapshots/documentation.

In doing some research for this post, I happened across a fascinating blog post from German cultural theorist Bernd Stiegler on the role of imperfection in modern photography. Stiegler notes the prevelance of conscious imperfection in current photography, from deliberate technical errors to use of outdated and imperfect outdated cameras (e.g. the Lomography craze). He argues that “photography has become enamored of and committed to inaccuracy, because it enables a form of representation that aims to conceptualize reality in a unique aesthetic manner.”

I’m sure that this trend is in large part a reaction to the precision and relative simplicity of digital photography. When it becomes easy to produce “perfect” images, then next step is to explore the “imperfect” ones. What is interesting to me within the realm of digital photography, however is how the “perfect” and the “imperfect” can be brought together – how we can use both representation and misrepresentation as tools in our art.

Composition: Framing

This first is a picture of my son in a tent. I like how the tent door as well as my overlarge sunhat both frame him in this photo.

This is a photo of a sculpture at Thea Alvin's house in Morrisville, I like how this sculpture essentially frames itself. (Thea Alvin was the instructor of an "Art of Stone class I took this week. Surprisingly, her work has shown up in two other people's posts this week. I guess when people think about framing, stone arches come to mind)

Another Thea Alvin arch - this one frames the round doorway in the wall behind it well, though I would have preferred it if the pickup wasn't parked there at the time.

(A photo of this exact same arch was posted by another student.)

This is stretching the concept of "framing" a bit, but I liked how the roof line of this yurt (up at Knoll Farm in Waitsfield) contrasted with the rolling hills in the background.

One final stone arch shot, since that's been the theme of my week. Here are Thea's two dogs through a stone circle.

Composition: Rule of Thirds

These sculptures were at a gallery I stopped by up in Morrisville this week. I like both the close-up for detail as well as the rule-of-thirds pullback revealing a bit more context - the texture of the plaster wall as well as the splash of orange on the exposed framing. (If I was going to do more with this photo, I might want to pull it into Photoshop and try to edit out that shadow, though.)

These next photos are from an "Art of Stone" class I took this last week at Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren. This was a practice arch we built as a class before starting work on our main project. In this one, I think shifting the arch to the side really improves he composition of the photo. I like how leaving out the wall on the left side really accentuates the contrast between the curved arch and the straight wall. (It also effectively crops out the cinder block.)

monochrome & complementary

Monochrome:

 

 

Complementary:

three separate photographs of one thing in three different lighting situations

I spent the last couple of days at the Lake Moray Resort for a work meeting. It's a weird, slightly rundown (but charming in an odd Vermont way) sort of place, and in a little room off the hallway in one of the wings there was a little room with a few 80's video game and this pinball machine:

 

There was a large window in the other end of the pinball machine and this photo is lit by bright mid-day sunlight  (hence the bright reflection of the top of the machine. You can also see the yellow flourescent light seeping out of the hallway in the background.

I came back to check on the machine a few hours later:

 

This photo was taken just after the sun went down, but while it was still quite light outside. The light coming in the window was much softer, and the lights from the pinball machine itself are starting to assert themselves more. I like how this particular photo captures a silhouette self-portrait in the reflection.

Finally - I went back after dark:

By this point the only sources of light were the pinball machine itself and the other video games in the room.  I like how this emphasized the lights in the bottom part of the machine.

Collage

Here's a collage made from a bunch of macro photographs of moss.

Macro Photographs

I've always liked taking macro photographs of natural objects.

Here are some photographs of tree bark:

And here's a bunch of photographs of the moss out behind my house: