I have been reading Henry Peach Robinson's 'Pictorial Effect in Photography' again. It was written in the late 1800's to try and teach the non-artist, the Art in photography. I sure as hell do not recommend it as an entertaining read. At times I found myself getting quite mad at how many words were used to press home some obvious points. One chapter seemed to be devoted to the advice; given two viewpoints of a scene, one bad and the other good, you should endeavour to pick the good view. What I gather is at the time there was a movement that claimed as the camera captures Gods landscapes perfectly, then all views are equal. I am starting to think the artistic war between the Naturalist movement and the Pictorialists; each was making straw man’s arguments about the stupidity of the other’s concepts. The movements were quite similar once the silly exaggerations are left.
‘Pictorial Effect in Photography’ is introduced by its commitment to give clear and tangible advice to the photographer, avoiding the flowery prose and poetry that obscured much of the art world beyond the comprehension of the non-artist. At many times it fails on that aim! This may be my 3rd read over the last 6 years. This time it’s making more of an impact on me. I’m reassessing my compositions again based on its advice.
What we regard as composition today, is more a good balance of lines and tones to capture the image in an acceptable way. Robinson’s idea of a composition is more complete, think of it as more a perfectly composed image inside of the frame with everything that exists inside that frame being balanced with each side. Whilst there are no "Rules" there are many considerations that come from classic art. Images typically have a foreground, middle and background. The foreground leads you into the middle and anchors the composition down. It could use the lightest or darkest tones. The middle ground is where the subject should be, and this should have the highest values in the image and must be set off against its opposite tonal value to really make its contrast sing. The background gives breadth and air to the image. Ideally the foreground, subject and background should have rhyming elements of varying value strength and sizes. I could go on but perhaps I need another blog post.
The overriding principle that needs to be considered with everything is 'repose' nothing strained or over manipulated. No strained poses, no strained viewpoints, dodging or burning. This adds that Victorian sophistication, but too much repose is to sleep, so that is the constant battle; Victorian Sophistication with just enough variety and action to keep it alive.
My images here don’t really fill the criteria, but I was thinking about older ways to compose.
