Contrasts

Assignment 1 - Contrasts


This assignment, not a technical assignment but an exercise in finding and photographing contrasting qualities, as this is one of the most fundamental principles in design. 

This assignment is based on one set by Johannes Itten (1888-1967) who ran the basis course at the Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture in 1920's Germany. Itten's theory of composition was rooted in one simple concept, contrasts.

The assignment involves looking through photographs I had already taken or taking at least 8 pairs of photographs that best express extremes of different qualities and which bring out the essential differences. In addition I had to look for 1 photograph that demonstrates contrast in one picture.Choosing from the following list:

Large/small  Long/short    Thick/thin   Black/white    Many/few  
            
Pointed/blunt Smooth/rough Still/moving    Transparent/opaque

Liquid/solid  Strong/weak High/low Broad/narrow

Light/dark Much/little Straight/curved

Diagonal/rounded Hard/soft Light/heavy Sweet/sour



These are a selection of images I have used for this assignment.

Still/Moving

This image was taken at an underground station in Budapest, Hungary with the train going right to left. My intention with the photograph was to capture the movement of the train with the static posters behind the train viewable through the moving windows of the train. Thus creating the contrast of still and moving in the one picture. I boosted the ISO to 1600 so that I could obtain the optimum shutter speed to give the sense of movement, whilst still keeping the posters behind the train sharp as this was a hand held shot. 

Narrow

The claustrophobic nature of the escalator in the Budapest underground is a good example of narrow, the low ceiling the narrow confines of the sides of the escalator and the portrait orientation of the photograph all combine to give the viewer a sense of being in a reasonably tight enclosed space.

Broad

Having looked through my photograph collection, I found this one to stood out as a good example of broad. It was taken looking along Bangor pier in North Wales. The expanse of wooden flooring in the foreground and going back as far as the eye can see, coupled with the blue sky give a feeling of openness. This in turn gives the viewer the sense of the wide open expanse of the pier. Hence broad. 

Weak

This is the head of a clematis flower from my girlfriends garden, the soft petals and the flowers centre are a good representation of weak, it looks so fragile especially the white central shoots, as if one breath of wind could blown them away. I took the shot using the largest aperture available on the lens in order to maximise the centre of the flower and blur out the background, in order to draw the attention of the viewer to the centre of the petal.

Strong

These chains were on a memorial display outside the museum of terror in Budapest, Hungary,  http://www.terrorhaza.hu/en/index_2.html The building was the headquarters of the Gestapo during world war 2, and subsequently taken over the red army in 1945 and used by the KGB. Many hundreds of people were tortured and killed within its walls and the last Soviet occupiers left in 1987 just prior the Berlin wall coming down. The chains are to symbolise iron curtain between the East and West. I like the strength portrayed by the chain wall, I made the classic mistake on taking the photograph without reducing the ISO back to 200, I had boosted it to 1000 for an indoor shot I had just previously taken.