Teaching Points from Crit 2

Teaching Points from Crit 2

I find that I am having a hard time trying to figure out where this color work is going. And as a result I’m having trouble picking up my own personal POWs (‘best of crit’ photos). This is because there is so much good work going in several directions from which to pick. This is very interesting. 

There's a whole bunch of pictures in what might be called the semi-abstract group. They are full of color, some oversaturated, and the actual subject of the picture is quite often unclear (in a good way). If this was a regular photo class and the final product was to be fine art prints, this oversaturated color would not be good. It would be considered 'wrong' because paper is very different from screens. In the world of smartphone cameras a lot of the old ways of making photographs seem to be falling away and being replaced by a new aesthetic. This is really exciting.

Here are some from this first category, Color for Color's sake:

There's a second bunch of pictures that create a sense of place, a sense of time, and are imbued with mystery. This is what I was talking about in the last email message. Space presents an environment, a stage on which events can happen. Time stretches in both directions - into the past as memories, into the future as dreams and desires, and some photos are timeless, leaving the viewer hanging with suspense. There is also a strong visual asymmetry retaining some of the lessons from the first critique. Some of these look like film stills that make us really want to know what is going on and who is in there and so on, but they only give us clues to chew on. [again -  any photograph that is too easy to identify will not hold the viewer's attention for very long.] And these photographs still have a strong sense of color, that is still important.

Here are some examples of what could be in this second group: (you will note that even some of the strong color shots above start to create a sense of Space and Time...)

The third group are the photos that use light to create ambience. This is space and time with a lot of 'feel'. In these shots the color is either nonochrome or monochrome. This was the original challenge to you. These also have a distinct mood. But they are less active than the photos above. Except for the photo of the neck they almost talk about the absence of people, which in itself is a powerful concept.

Here are some examples of the photos with ambience:

We need to select the final Best of Crit pix (POW's) from these. I am not sure if we should go with one group or another, or mix them up. I think perhaps the middle group has more elements from that aesthetic checklist than the other two, and is therefore could be the most interesting.

For the next round of shooting I am asking you to expand your vision to create a sense of space that builds a place for the viewer to visit, and create sense of time that includes the potential for something to happen (or indicates that something has already happened), and inhabit the photographs with 'feel' by establishing relationships between space and time and the people contained within (or the absence of people) to create emotional content (shared memories, dreams, expectations...).

And we still have to consider all of the elements of Framing and Composition that were learned in the first critique, including closeness (proximity), angle of view (attitude), and a beauty of visual geometry (as Cartier-Bresson puts it). And, as always, since this is photography – you need great light (luminance).

So how does all this stack up:

closeness (proximity), 

angle of view (attitude), 

a sense of place (space), 

a potential for activity (time),

shared memories (emotion) 

and great light (luminance)

and all with a sense of MYSTERY. 

To this we will add the next big term =  PASSION!

That begins the discussion for the Content part of the next topic. We still have to talk about the Form part, the technique. Now it is time to start playing with all of those apps and see if you can use post-processing to make photographic statements and not just rely on the subject. You are already well on the way to doing this. Now just take it further!

more specifics coming - - -