Format elements & Composition

“The first rule of photography, there are no rules”

this quote started our lesson off today we then were shown of each individual “rules” of photograph.

• line
• shape
• framing
• form
• symmetry
• rule of thirds
• texture
• pattern & repetition
• colour
• light

Me and Grace were given the subject ‘texture’ to focus on. as a group we looked at the works of Brassai and Richard Avedon so i looked further into these photographers as i believed they may have similar photographs too their others.

Myself and Grace were partners up for this exercise and decide he had two main kinds of texture this is facial and street texture.

Brassai.

Richard Avedon.

In the image above by Brassai facial texture is shown in the wrinkles and depth of this man’s face. this is only one key type of texture similar to the work by Richard Avedon which shows the textures of his face, shirt and his clothing. in Richard Avedon’s image the man has quite a symmetrical face this specific compositional elements draws you to the middle of the image and creates a striking photograph, here it almost creates empathy as your eyes go to the middle due to the symmetry then bounce around to see the wrinkle in his face, he almost has a story to tell. Brassai’s image uses a man’s hands to frame the image and his fingers to create lines which guide you to the mans eye specifying a focal point to the image

Brassai, Paris at night.

Richard Avedon.

the ‘Paris at night’ image by Brassai shows cobble stone, the metals in the lamps and the foggy night. textures are shown throughout the image in various different kinds of material. this form of repetition is to show an almost infinite theme, that the photograph will be infinite and that night could be infinite with infinite possibilities.

the image of the woman with elephants by Richard Avedon creates juxtaposition, this is achieved as her satin shiny dress and the wrinkly skin of the elephants shows two very different styles of texture shown together to create extreme contrast,, this is emphasised by the bright white of her dress next to the dark grey of the elephants. the repetition on them posing the same is the ‘breaking a pattern’ technique and is used to capture an interruption in a pattern flow and making the said ‘interruption’ the main focal point in the image. even though the elephants are much larger and there are much more of the elephants in the image the woman in her satin dress stands out due to the fact that she breaks the pattern in this image even though her posture prove she is trying to blend in. making the metaphor of this advertisement image ‘wear this clothing and you’ll stand out in the crowd’

---