Framing

For class last week we went to Philadelphia and took pictures in pairs. Associating our shots with one of John Szarkowski's 5 elements of photography (presented in his article The Photographers Eye).  Katy and I, decided to pick frame as our topic and thus set out to find interesting depth and contrast between objects and associations in everything we saw.  So continuing off of that interest in frame I will be commenting on a couple pictures with frame in mind.

  This picture quite literally has a frame created by the wooden statue in the foreground.  However, the point of analyzing frame isn't to look at the borders edges, but what has been chosen to fit within the borders of the picture.  From looking at the other statue we presume that the wooden legs we are viewing through is part of the other half of a western pistol duel.  It is very interesting that we can understand this without having to see what the actual statue looks like. The subject and detail of this picture thus creates and interesting frame where we become a candid viewer in this 'stoic' encounter.  Before moving on, I'd like to emphasize the care which the photographer took to capture the empty space between the legs of the opposing statue and the area around him.  This photograph could also be looked at for its vantage point as it catches this unique event from an otherwise unseen angle.

Where surfers are usually associated with the open sea, this framing allows us to associate the surfer with the extension of mankind into the ocean (via the boardwalk above).  The shadows that come off from the surfer and the wooden planks create a sense of depth and reality; the sunlight is peering under mans creation.  Another site of depth is seen in the extension of the boardwalk, tunneling us through. 

Cheers,
SPD