WHAT IS YOUR STORY?
In Part I of the series, I explained the importance of utilizing Light and Shadow when creating an image: How to use Light and Shadow as a tool to show relevant details and/or hide the irrelevant ones. Today I want to talk about the importance of Composition and Perspective as a tool to aid in telling your visual story.
Perspective is a relative term. We all see the world through our point of view, literally and figuratively. Internally, we all have our subjective set of mental and emotional opinions and thoughts which tend to influence the way we see and interpret our external world. We see this very obviously in situations whereby multiple people are out shooting the same location and every single person comes back with a different image. Each photographer chooses to show the subject/environment in a different way according to their own internal interpretation. As well, we have our objective external perspective, literally. When we are out shooting, we can only be at one spot at a given time, therefore, we are somewhat restricted by the perspective in which we choose to depict a scene.
I believe that some people wrongly use the term composition and perspective interchangeably. Here's the difference: When we frame our horizon line very low giving a dramatic sky more ‘real-estate’ presence in our frame, we are composing. When we take a shot from up high or down low, we are still composing. The result of the composition is what gives us the perspective of the artist's inner vision of the scene.
An example of a low horizon which gives the sky ‘center-stage’, thus influencing our perspective of the scene.
Howe Sound, BC.
The partial context makes this image abstract. We don’t have many details to place it in its surroundings. What we see is different to each viewer. Additionally, our perspectives are more open to interpretations as we are less ‘locked-in’ to one specific connotation.
Shooting straight up at a bridge tower – Alex Fraser Bridge, BC.
The early art world was used to one-point perspectives: paintings and photographs were painted and shot from the one specific angle in which the artist / photographer was standing. This all changed when Pablo Picasso came along and introduced us to Cubism – seeing one scene from multiple angles at once. Imagine capturing a scene, not only from the single angle in which you are standing, but from multiple angles at once. This is the essence of Cubism and it was revolutionary in its time.
Art has many purposes, however, the hallmark of a great artist, is when they can make the viewer see something that they have seen time and time again, in a different way, from a new perspective. I believe that when you use the tool of Composition properly, you can change not only the external perspective, but also the internal perspective of your viewers.
Using multiple exposures to convey the dizzy, surreal, maze-like structure. Like inside an M.C. Escher drawing in which everything circles back in an infinite pattern.
The Vessel at Hudson Yards, NY.
Architectural Photography is meant to be three dimensional. It has volume and occupies space. Depicting and conveying this in a two-dimensional medium is very hard. Taking multiple exposures from various angles helps in creating a sense of depth and volume.
Guggenheim Museum, NY.
We don’t experience life as a one snapshot moment. Life, as we know it, is more like a video. We are aware of a multitude of things happening around us all at once. Our angle of vision is much wider than a camera’s and our experience of life is a continuous timeline.
In this image, I used multiple exposures from various viewpoints to depict more accurately my experience of the scene at the time: The drama of the elements and the surrounding environment; an impression, not a split-second moment.
Lions’ Gate Bridge, Vancouver BC.
