The Square Format

[Richard A Johnson]

Lately I have been very impress with images composed using the square format.I have always favored the rectangle 4x5,5x7,6x7cm, and 6x9cm. But I came across some black & white portfolios on you-tube presented with this format.I am intrigued as to how powerful the images are. I have started to play around with 21/4x21/4 medium format. But I am a large format user for the most part and was wondering if anyone is using there large format cropped to a square format and what your thoughts are on this subject. There is something about the beauty of looking at square images that I just can't seem shake.

I'm interested in your thoughts.

Richard

[Sanjay Sen]

I am a big fan of the square format, but I usually shoot 6x6 when I want that format, though I can think of one occasion when I cropped a 4x5 neg to print a square image. I agree with you, there is a certain beauty / charm with the format, and I find it hard to describe what it is.

There are some beautiful images in this format in the APUG galleries, but you have to be a member to view the galleries on that site.

[jp]

I use a 120 TLR for square photos and I like the format. It's big enough for good image quality (with good film), and the shape is right.

Non-square rectangles are boring. We look at TVs and computers and cell phone screens all day, and it's rectangle display overkill. A square photo stands out on the wall too. A TLR helps you see photos that work well with a square composition, and someone that can pick out square-friendly compositions has an uncommon skill. Most people don't even try vertical...

I like the shape for paintings too. Check out Fairfield Porter's "Island Farmhouse".

I sometimes crop 4x5 and DSLR stuff to square when it benefits the composition. It's not as easy as using a square camera though. The saying when you're a hammer, everything's a nail sorta applies in a good way, when you've got a square camera, everything's a square composition.

As mentioned APUG has lots of 6x6 pics, flickr actually does too. I think you have to be a PAID member of apug; worthwhile for all that it offers, but probably not just to browse pics.

From my yashica-C:

[Sanjay Sen]

<snip> I think you have to be a PAID member of apug; worthwhile for all that it offers, but probably not just to browse pics.

'PAID member' is correct, sorry for my omission. I meant to say "subscriber".

<snip> I think part of why I like square format is you never have to rotate for horizontal / vertical

That would be a good reason to like the square format!

[Struan Gray]

I crop my 4x5 square. I don't have a mask on the ground glass, so occasionally I find I have composed for the whole 4x5 rectangle and I can't make a good square image from the negative. More usually though I am aiming for photographs which suggest their own extension beyond the frame (a pattern which could repeat to infinity, for example) and then it's quite easy to crop to different aspect ratios.

I like the square for it's lack of movement (gesture). Rectangles force a directed reading on the viewer, which over-specifies the message. Contrarily, the reading can be different for viewers from different cultures, which confuses the message. The symmetry and balance of the square have a quiet authority, and encourage me at least to see the photograph as an object of contemplation, not just something to be read, understood, and passed on.

The lack of direction or flow in the frame can be a guide, or something to create tension against. How much you choose to follow the centered, static aspect of the square, and how much you use it to suggest movement in the thing depicted is up to you. The same can be said of rectangles, but with a square there is no privileged direction: you can as easily set up a vertical tension as a horizontal one.

Low springs, Achnahaird beach.

All the colour work on my website is cropped 4x5, as are the more recent colour shots I've scattered through various threads here. My B+W tends to be 6x6 MF. Inspiration has mostly come from paintings, particularly paintings of the arts-and-crafts, gesamtkunstverk era, when squares and a light abstraction were briefly common. Landscapes by Gustav Klimt and Charles Rennie Mackintosh's late watercolours have been a particular source of joy.

The same combination of subtle colourism and a square frame is rare among photographers, so most of my photographic square inspiration comes from B+W, and usually smaller formats than LF: Friedlander, Meatyard, Metzker, Gowin. There is a current wave of contemporary, square colour photography in Europe, which takes a wry look at the tawdryness and contradictions of man-made geography, and which specialises in muted colour schemes and a lack of shadows. It's tempting to join them, but the element of teenage wingeing is a little too strong for my taste.

[Randy]

I have had numerous medium format TLR's over the years and have two now. I actually prefer the square format. Kind of makes me wish my 8X10 camera was 10X10.
I think part of why I like square format is you never have to rotate for horizontal / vertical

[eddie]

I think part of why I like square format is you never have to rotate for horizontal / vertical

i have never really shot square formats. but a few years back i was playing with a 6x6 folder and shooting pinhole images.....i often found myself turning the camera on on end. i would get the negs back and half would be rotated.....DOH!

[csalem]

The square format lends itself to one type of composition: center-the-subject. Nothing wrong with that strategy, but it does make static pictures. While I've seen plenty of 6x6 shooters push and stretch that frame, it always wants to come back to the center.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._diagonals.svg
Maybe that's the allure of the square: battle between the gremlins of centering and the fight to make dynamic pictures.

[William Whitaker]

The square format lends itself to one type of composition: center-the-subject. Nothing wrong with that strategy, but it does make static pictures. While I've seen plenty of 6x6 shooters push and stretch that frame, it always wants to come back to the center.

I don't think that's necessarily true.

http://wfwhitaker.com/gallery/misttrail.htm

[GabrielSeri]

I love the 6x6 format, unfortunately I can't afford Hassy. My medium format cameras are Holga (square) and the Pentax 67. I took these images after I rented a Hasselblad and went to Death Valley a few years ago.