Art of Photography: Project 20

This project was about the lines in a photograph. Horizontal and vertical lines and how they are seen by the eye, standing out more with more contrast.

The target was to go out and photograph 4 horizontal and 4 vertical lines, whilst trying the make the content subordinate to the line, i.e. the line is the first thing noticed or stands out the most.

As suggested in the project I found that the most common lines were man made structures, both horizontal and vertical. However I was interested to read in the project about other ideas for lines which I hadn't thought or seen, such as shadows, rows of objects making a line, a string of points making a line, and a mass of objects seen from a low angle. These gave me more idea's for lines and geometry which I would like to try out.

I was also interested to read some of the other idea's about lines, such as horizontal lines being seen as static, stable and having weight as they are naturally seen as a base for something to stand on! Whilst vertical lines have more sense of movement, and that parallel verticals in a horizontal frame can have a greater sense of speed and movement.

The project told us to just take pictures of lines first, without reading on, and then told us about other ideas for lines. Whilst I understand the philosophy for that type of learning I would have preferred to have been given the ideas first and then able to go out and see what I could make of them. I feel this would have not only produced much more interesting pictures but also would have felt to me that I'd really learnt something new and interesting, and furthered my photography. Of course I will make an effort to try and remember these and try them out but to have already tried them as part of the project would have been better.

I really find it fascinating to see how the brain works, how the eye sees, and to find aspects of that knowledge which can help create more interesting and intriguing photographs. For instance, the way some drawings with certain geometry and shapes can trick your mind into seeing different things! That is just one aspect but if you could learn and understand how and why the brain and eye sees those things then you can implement them into photography!

Anyway, here are the lines I found whilst out. Like I said, I would have liked to learn the new ideas before going and been able to find more interesting subjects!