Composition and all that Arty stuff - discussion thread.

Yes # 2 for me also....

ziemowit wrote in post #17133692
If you believe that is at your core, maybe this is your challenge. Would a more photojournalist/social type of work be the way?

Photojournalism is better left to people who can travel more easily. But I'm not sure exactly what a personal core includes. Some of my pictures are just visual, where the point is the shapes and/or colors. In the others, and sometimes this reveals itself only in hindsight when I originally thought the point was shapes and colors, there's a theme involving time.

chauncey wrote in post #17133884
Haven't stopped by for a while, here's two versions of the same orchid but...one's a mirror image as John Paul Caponigro is fond of doing. What say you all?

I prefer #1. It's almost symmetrical, and it has more interest in the bulbous structure at the top. In #2 that structure is almost all red; there's less detail and less three-dimensionality.

OhLook wrote in post #17134499
Photojournalism is better left to people who can travel more easily. But I'm not sure exactly what a personal core includes. Some of my pictures are just visual, where the point is the shapes and/or colors. In the others, and sometimes this reveals itself only in hindsight when I originally thought the point was shapes and colors, there's a theme involving time.

I'm not sure myself to be honest, still working that one out.

But even shapes and colours can have a meaning by the way they interact/fight/agree/c​ontinue/flowe etc. Even an abstraction invokes a state of mind, doesn't it.

Oh Look usually the best work comes from things you really know. Sally Mann had a family obligations so she photographed her family with a view camera and in a very personal way.

When photographer Abelardo Morell had kids he did the same thing and the images he took of his kids and the things in his home where some of his strongest work in my opinion.

You really don't need to go to far to find interesting images. Ya just have to have able to see. You clearly have that ability.

Weston was said to be able to go into a parking lot and in 10 minutes with a view camera be able to make several significant images.

And yes Z it does....

Thanks guys...I'm thinking that the mirror image may have worked better without the red blob.

I like it as is....

...

OL - you can always get in touch with your local charity if that kind of work is what you're considering (or did I misunderstand?)

A - I couldn't agree more. My life doesn't leave much travel time, in fact almost all my shots from the last year are from the same area of central London. Its actually a bit crazy how you see new things on the same street every day.

sibil - i really like the second one, very cool, well balanced, kind of static but not really, very interesting, and great colour pallette. the first I think is a bit too central and a bit messy composition wise, but the second one would be a keeper in my book.

two very different 'back of the head' shots, I'm slowly buliding a whole collection of these...

ziemowit wrote in post #17135852
OL - you can always get in touch with your local charity if that kind of work is what you're considering (or did I misunderstand?)

I didn't mean I wanted to take photos that had redeeming social value. More like this: My understanding of what constitutes the rock-bottom me, the "core," includes things I believe, but they aren't visual. How is a person's vision as expressed within rectangles formed of pixels, literally a way of seeing, related to the essence of the person? Esthetic taste and personality/values seem quite far apart.

And now for something completely different:

OhLook wrote in post #17136227
I didn't mean I wanted to take photos that had redeeming social value. More like this: My understanding of what constitutes the rock-bottom me, the "core," includes things I believe, but they aren't visual. How is a person's vision as expressed within rectangles formed of pixels, literally a way of seeing, related to the essence of the person? Esthetic taste and personality/values seem quite far apart.

The question is can you make those things that you believe visual?

Interesting Z.... I love the visual connection between the two (horz lines at the center)

airfrogusmc wrote in post #17136237
The question is can you make those things that you believe visual?

That's a big question. Getting too message-y is to be avoided, by me at least. There have been great documenters, such as Dorothea Lange, but didactic art generally doesn't work. But I think a person's world view, or part of it, can come through.

These are small versions (trying not to overtax the server) of images already posted in Urban Fragments. Taken together, do they "say" anything?