The famous phrase ''no ideas but in things'' has been known to reflect a concern of modern art, poetry and photography in particular . Also, that the job of an artist is to show us the 'thingness of things', directly, honestly and without dressing them up with unnecessary symbolism. This project is designed to get you to think about the relationship between photography and the surface in two senses:
1. how the surface texture of the real world, especially objects, can be documented through photography 2. how photographs themselves have a surface - their own material reality - and how this surface can be interrogated
PICTORIALISM VS NEW VISION- WHAT IS IT?
Naturally, Pictorialism was the leading photographic style before the First World War; this foccused strictly on the distorion of an image. However, this changed after the first industrial war and brought about the movement of New vision. Similar to the concept of 'New Objectivity', this aimed to depict a much natural and un-tampered version of an image.
EDWARD WESTON
Weston's images are of a particular interest due to their facsinating composition, along with the varied tonal range- which amplifies the vision of the image. As we can see, their is a lot of focus on the nude body as well as natural items such as vegetables and shells. This is most probably down to the fact that 'The surface of things' does indeed aim to capture the subject in it's essence, which is primarily done with natural objects such as the body, vegetables, shells etc- this is all rather nature based. 1. This image is a great example of an attempt to describe the surface of things as it is really stark and bold, due to it being a close up: allowing the lines of the vegetable to really stand out and draw attention. The fact that it is in black and white, with certain areas lighter than dark, allows certain parts of the vegetable to become more visible thus having a more forwarded focus on that specific area. 2. This image is also great as it is a close up which, again, draws a direct focus to the subject. The composition is really well thought out as it includes a lot of fine lines, which help to shape the image by giving it a greater structure. There is almost a sense of vulnerability due to the positioning of the body. This creates a fairly desrupted mood for the viewer. 3. Like the first image, the matter of being black and white really helps to exemplify the fine lines of the image. Again, the fact it is a close up really helps us to view these fine details of the vegetable. 4. This image is very interesting due to the angle of the shot, and the fact that Weston has almost tried to tackle the issue of female nudity, and as an attempt to normalise this: has included a naked body of a female. This sense of realism really encorporates itself nicely into 'the surface of things' and presenting something in it's essence: it's natural form. The lines of the lady's body, the lines of the shadow, the lines of the pot and the line on her head are all really distinctive and help to mae the image all the more bolder. There is an element of simplicity, which is fairly unusual for Weston's work as a lot of his work is rather fine and detailed. Unlike most of his images, this image is a mid-shot rather than a close up which enables the whole frame to be captured as there was an intended focus the background as well as just the foreground. 5. Back to the detail, Weston captures a shell as it is and managed to get the really precise features of it. Like most of his images, this is also a close up which allows there to be a wider focus on just the shell. The lines in this image, again, help to frame the image as it is really particular and close which altogether constructs the image as a whole. The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh. -- Edward Weston
WILLY ZIELKE
These series of images are really enticing for the audience as there is a really stark contrast, highlighted by the extremely fine lines. This is caused in order to allow the main focus of the subject to be fairly direct and straight forward. There are a series of lines in this piece, followed by curves and edges.