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Thread: pictures that break composition rules

  1. #71
    Abuser of God's Sunlight
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    Re: pictures that break composition rules

    Here's one that I absolutely love, from Mike Smith's "You're Note From Around Here."

    Full of crazy tensions and surprises and deliberate sabotages of traditional spacial rendering. He might even be out-Friedlandering Friedlander here.

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  2. #72
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: pictures that break composition rules

    That's a fun shot, Paul. But a number of people were "out-Friedlandering" Friedlander a long time ago.

  3. #73
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    Re: pictures that break composition rules

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    That's a fun shot, Paul. But a number of people were "out-Friedlandering" Friedlander a long time ago.
    Show me an example.

  4. #74
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: pictures that break composition rules

    The 70's,Paul, the 70's. Piles of pictures back then. Even me. I never have figured out what the big deal with Friedlander was. Connections I guess.

  5. #75
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    Re: pictures that break composition rules

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    I never have figured out what the big deal with Friedlander was.
    Well, I have.

    If you don't get Friedlander, I don't know how you can have an opinion on people who did what he did. I can't name anyone working working in the 70s (or ever) who did what he did, did it well, and did it with any consistency.

  6. #76
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: pictures that break composition rules

    Quote Originally Posted by paulr View Post
    If you don't get Friedlander, I don't know how you can have an opinion on people who did what he did. I can't name anyone working working in the 70s (or ever) who did what he did, did it well, and did it with any consistency.
    Indeed. L. Friedlander floored me when I (think) I got it. His pictures were about the world, not about pictures.

    More not-composition. Title: "All I really saw that day"

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  7. #77
    Abuser of God's Sunlight
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    Re: pictures that break composition rules

    Quote Originally Posted by Jac@stafford.net View Post
    Indeed. L. Friedlander floored me when I (think) I got it. His pictures were about the world, not about pictures.
    He did so many different kinds of things. I think a lot of his work, on some level, was about pictures. Szarkowski described his approach as being a kind of game, to see if each picture could be put together using a set of visual rules never used before. So the rules of the game, by their nature, changed with every click of the shutter (I'd quote him directly, but my copy of Looking at Photographs is in storage).

    I don't think this describes all Friedlander's work by a long shot. But it fits the bodies of work i return to most often. Some samples from the web ...

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    He's probably the most prolific photographer to answer a thread like this, since his work didn't reject formal principles as much as play with them and poke at them endlessly.

  8. #78
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: pictures that break composition rules

    You are right. He did a lot with composition. The triangle sign with a crown of clouds and evergreen lieutenants ...
    Thanks for bringing it back.

  9. #79
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    Re: pictures that break composition rules

    It's fun revisiting his work. Almost overwhelming. Of course you post a million of his portraits, or motel room pictures, or jazz musician magazine pics, etc. that don't play with form in any of these ways.

    I wish people would pay more attention to his yosemite pics. After a 100 years of pictures of the place seeming like they came out of the same rule book, Friedlander's are refreshing.

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  10. #80
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: pictures that break composition rules

    Just looks like tons of other tricks from the early 70's that I've seen elsewhere. Maybe the way he poked fun a little less blatantly than others - how you kinda
    trip over it unexpectedly in certain images - is what made him attractive. I dunno. Not saying these things aren't interesting, but... And titling this thread about
    "breaking" composition rules is nonsense to begin with. Not all of us share the same rules as a paint by numbers hobby store kit.

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