Task: Analysing Composition

The first official day of Lens Based Media commenced with an introductory talk; what the plan is, what to expect, and then how to start thinking.

Firstly we looked through the various photos we had taken over the weekend. Mine had mostly been of birds, as I went to a birds of prey showcase on the Sunday.

Examining each picture, we made notes concerning the subject matter, composition, colours and detail in an objective manner. I found that often I cropped photos in a way as to isolate the subjects, that they are surrounded by sky or grass only. Surprisingly, I also favoured photos in which faces or figures were partially obscured.

In the afternoon we spent an hour and a half creating an A1 copy of our chosen favourite image. I completed this in charcoal.

I am very pleased with the final outcome of this drawing, not only the detail that I achieved, but the simplicity of the composition and the use of white space. 

Our task then was to consider how changing the composition or obscuring certain parts of the image might express a different meaning. I photographed my drawing several more times, showing different parts, in order to experiment.

For example, in this shape we might think that the bird is attacking or otherwise harming the girl, whereas we know from the full picture that she was holding upher hand to receive the bird.

This version, cropped to a square and rotated, becomes a much more abstract impression of people and feathers; the strong darkness at the top of the image in contrast to the rest of the untouched page suggests a sense of weight and importance, like an ornate frame.

The final task of the day was to take photos expressing certain words - crush, happy, sad, jump, fall and echo. I managed to take all six photos without travelling lower than the fourth floor of the building.

Here you see 'echo' and 'sad'. 'Echo' is simply a reflection of my shoes in a window, and 'sad' is the dividers between class areas shown at a severe angle, then put into black and white from blue.

Whilst attention to images had already given me a good idea of the actions and desired effects in photography, it was much better to really engage with and put this knowledge to action today. I feel much more confident on manipulating composition to establish an atmosphere.