Form In Photography

Photography:

I love to take pictures with my camera. I used to do a lot of 35mm work, but that was very expensive and, with my wanderlust lifestyle, I had a propensity to keep my film developer very busy. My wife bought me a digital camera and away I went. I can take as many photographs as I wish, keep the decent ones and delete the rest. I have taken some “artistic” shots, where I intentionally set up and wait for conditions to be perfect. I also have the traditional “vacation” shots, where you just point and shoot to capture the view for memory stimulation.

According to http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/photography-pattern-form-texture/,  “Shape is very two dimensional while form adds a third dimension because of the volume of an object. The eye is immediately drawn to form in an image and the art of creating this form is achieved by showing the contours of a subject. The human body as in a sumo wrestler, or the bold contours of round rocks on the seashore.” To me, this is the manipulative and artistic side of photography. Most people can take a standard picture, especially with today’s technologically based cameras. It takes an artist to tweak (or wait for nature to provide) the lighting necessary for a quality picture. A subject within the frame is just an object until it is placed and lit to create an emphasis on it. Take the following pictures for example:

I took this photograph of the Holland, MI “Big Red” lighthouse a few years back. I intentionally walked around the beach and up and down the left pier waiting for time to pass. I snapped off a bunch of pictures as I tarried. This picture gives you the feeling of the day. It was semi-clear and people were all gathered on the west shore watching the sunset. It was a very pretty day to be outside.

This is the shot I was waiting for. As the sun set along the horizon, I took picture after picture, repositioning myself to get different perspectives. As the sun went down I finally saw this sight. The sun wrapped itself around the edge of the lighthouse and the sky started to glow in an umber tone. The shadows cast by the forms in the foreground created the silhouette imagery and I really liked how it appeared.

To me, this is where Eisner is heading with their discussion of form in artworks. The blending of the known (the lighthouse in my case) and the unknown (the nature setting varied by the minute) to create a visually pleasing aesthetic view of something I experienced. I disagree with Eisner in regard to the constant attempt to link art to abstract. To me, as an artist, I believe art is purely expressionism: it is what the artist says it is. Abstraction is a vague appearance of form within an artistic piece.