What does "formal" mean to you?

[Drew Wiley]

I think what John K. has in mind in terms of a formal photo is first polishing the brass on the cowbell before taking a portrait of the cow.

[Alan Gales]

I think what John K. has in mind in terms of a formal photo is first polishing the brass on the cowbell before taking a portrait of the cow.

[Maris Rusis]

Since no one has mentioned it so far I will.
There is a vast art discipline called Formal Analysis in which a picture is evaluated as a set of forms, tones, masses, lines, proportions, balances and imbalances. Identification of subject matter is irrelevant. I've known some people in academia who draw salary to expound the principles of formal analysis. I've known students who've paid fees to be taught how to do it and what conclusions to draw. I've known curators who've used formal analysis to find good things to say about pictures they dislike. Perhaps a picture can appeal to the eye just on the basis of how it is laid out rather than what it's of.

[dodphotography]

I think of the term "shadow detail" where people can't get past an aspect or portion of the image that falls to pure black. I like to shoot very high contrast images, I also print this way. I see this as being as part of the brain that is just unable to let go of a logical and analytical way of making and looking at pictures.

[Drew Wiley]

Brett Weston shattered that barrier long ago, with shattered windows themselves being among his many subjects. He used black as a graphic form his entire life.

[Drew Wiley]

... postcript to that (now that I've finished clearing my brain of last minute additions to my fence materials list for today). If you take the images of EW and examine his use of black in representative CONTACT prints (versus his son Brett), lots of those shadows would bellyflop in an enlargement. Small areas of "pure" black which accent the print and give it life when small can become terribly disappointing when that same things becomes visibly larger devoid of texture, unless there is a distinct strategic reason for black as black. I've certainly made a few prints ala BW. And I know how to do it consistently. But I don't routinely do that because I think that style appropriately belongs to the particular circle which mastered it early, like Merg R. who chimes in frequently. I once di a color version
of a BW subject as a deliberate homage to him - and of all coincidences he stumbled into that very gallery and left a kind note and bought a couple images. Two of those color prints are apparently still hanging down there in the Pebble Beach complex somewhere, so it's nice that somebody still appreciates them. I don't feel guilty of the color tweak because it used bold black pushing and pulling against specific hues which themselves advance and recede according to a different set of physiological and psychological rules. All of these visual strategies are mere tools to be intelligently used in appropriate cases, or according to personal
style. No sense making a religion out of any of them.

[dodphotography]

... postcript to that (now that I've finished clearing my brain of last minute additions to my fence materials list for today). If you take the images of EW and examine his use of black in representative CONTACT prints (versus his son Brett), lots of those shadows would bellyflop in an enlargement. Small areas of "pure" black which accent the print and give it life when small can become terribly disappointing when that same things becomes visibly larger devoid of texture, unless there is a distinct strategic reason for black as black. I've certainly made a few prints ala BW. And I know how to do it consistently. But I don't routinely do that because I think that style appropriately belongs to the particular circle which mastered it early, like Merg R. who chimes in frequently. I once di a color version
of a BW subject as a deliberate homage to him - and of all coincidences he stumbled into that very gallery and left a kind note and bought a couple images. Two of those color prints are apparently still hanging down there in the Pebble Beach complex somewhere, so it's nice that somebody still appreciates them. I don't feel guilty of the color tweak because it used bold black pushing and pulling against specific hues which themselves advance and recede according to a different set of physiological and psychological rules. All of these visual strategies are mere tools to be intelligently used in appropriate cases, or according to personal
style. No sense making a religion out of any of them.

I should have noted I don't subscribe to that "shadow detail" stance.

It's often expressed to and around me when looking at emerging artist work, not conical artists.


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[h2oman]

I'm glad you guys are finally back to being at least close to on topic!

[Drew Wiley]

All that matters is how the final print looks. There's a big difference between handling black structurally and intelligently, versus struggling with something you think you're supposed to do because you heard or read it someplace. That applies to every aspect of this thread. Follow the rules, break the rules, ignore the rules.
All the same. The proof is always in the pudding.

[John Kasaian]

I think what John K. has in mind in terms of a formal photo is first polishing the brass on the cowbell before taking a portrait of the cow.

Moooooooooooooooooooooooove on. There's nothing to see here.