Discussion of the Exam Paper

Discussion of the Exam Paper

Framing Devices 

"Many photographers and filmmakers have sued doorways, windows, arches and trees as framing devices when composing or constructing their images. Saul Leiter, John Szarkowski and Eugene Atget have made use of various framing devices to explore abstract qualities, to create mood or to suggest stories. Produced your own response, making reference to appropriate work by other."

Framing - refers to using elements of a scene to create a frame within your frame

Abstract Photography - a means of depicting a visual image that does not have an immediate association with the object world and that has been created through the use of photographic equipment, processes or materials.

Saul Leiter

"Saul Leiter was an American photographer and painter whose early work in the 1940s and 1950s was an important contribution to what came to be recognized as the New York school of photography."

Saul Leiter took the photo through wet glass which blurs everything in frame. There is a small section of the glass that is less blurred so we get a better look at subject. The blurred frames doesn't allow for the viewer to get much detail on the people behind it. The framing device in this photo is how the lesser blurred area of the glass is the part of the photo the viewer is drawn too thanks to the lack of blur and yellow.

This photo uses light to frame the image. Using a high amount of negative space draws the viewers eye straight to the subject. The actual frame just contains an old man and a neon sign for a garage. 

John Szarkowski 

"Thaddeus John Szarkowski was a photographer, curator, historian, and critic. From 1962 to 1991 Szarkowski was the Director of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art."

This photo uses a window to frame the boy sitting in the house. The window frame draws the viewers attention into the house and then focusing on the boy sitting in the house. There is also a use of reflections to add more into the frame and we also get to see what the boy is looking at. 

In this photo the viewers eye is drawn towards the sign on the car and the man sitting in the car. Having the car in focus in the foreground of the photo and the landscape in the background not in focus makes the viewer focus on the car and the people in it. As we only see half the car the viewers attention go towards the man in the backseat. 

Eugene Atget

"Eugène Atget was a French flâneur and a pioneer of documentary photography, noted for his determination to document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to modernization."

Eugene Atget uses an archway to frame her photo and draw attention towards the symmetry and design of the staircase. The windows that give light inside the archway makes the actual frame itself dark and not visible to the viewer meaning that the attention is kept to in the photographers desired area. 

The framing in this photo is simplistic as it uses the gate around the subject to create a perfect rectangular frame. The gate itself is rather complex but the attention is still kept on the subject as he is out of place and different to the rest of the photo and in the exact centre of the photo. 

Framing Devices interests me and I like the idea of using them with my photography. The fact that framing devices is quite a broad technique and it allows for me to use anything as my subject. The idea of using reflections also allows for use of light reflections being framed by the water. I am also in the photography of Saul Leiter and his work.