Week 6 ~ Perspective

1. My immediate response of this picture is that it was not taken in Hays, Ks! I took this picture when I went to Chicago in May. The fact that it is taken in a large city but there is little activity shown in the photograph stands out to me. I am surprised that there are not more people walking in on the sidewalks or more than one traveling car in the street. I think one of the most effective ways to show perspective in a picture is through large buildings. Although this one was taken in one-point perspective, I also had photos that were taken from the corner (two-point perspective), and looking up at one of the skyscrapers (three-point perspective).

2. This photograph is in black and white and positions vertically. There are tall buildings on the right and left side of the picture plane with the bright white sky in the center. This city scene has cars parked along the side of the street and one car driving towards the foreground. Because of the proximity of the buildings and the many windows in each building, value plays a large roll in the photo. The lightest part of the composition is in the center and the darkest values are shown towards the foreground of the photo in the shadows of the windows. As appose to the common perception that darker values usually recede, this composition shows darker values in the foreground and lighter values and the perspective draws back into the vanishing point. The photograph is taken in one-point perspective which means that the horizon line is even with the viewer’s eye and that all “lines” recede to one point in the background of the plane. There are also banners handing from light posts along the sidewalk.

3. The composition is not the strongest in this photo and I don’t feel that it is the most interesting. I would have liked there to be more action on the street or sidewalk. There is strong line quality, as there should be with all one-point perspective views. All of the lines of the buildings lead to the vanishing point in the lower ¼ of the plane on the horizon line. The color is black and white. I debated on keeping the photo in color but I felt that the values were stronger with the removal of color. The placements of the objects in the space are appealing although I think they would be more pleasing if they were off center a little more. I think that one-point perspective is often more interesting when thrown off balance (like when we sat on the side of the hall instead of directly in the center). One of the great things about one-point perspective is the defined focal point in the vanishing point. I like the way that the lines in the buildings that are leading to the focal point lead your eye throughout the composition and focus the viewer on the focal point.

4. This photograph tells a story of my experience in the “big city” and how very far away from home I was for a week. I really enjoyed traveling to Chicago and visiting the various museums and attractions but I don’t think I could ever live there! The biggest aspect of the photo to me is simply the awe factor that I experienced because of the size of the buildings and the size of the city. To describe this photograph in one word, I would say profound. Visiting Chicago has had a profound influence on my art work and in the way I think about the world. As far as this picture goes, I think that the vanishing/focal point is a profound part of the composition because it creates a strong sense of the length and size of the large city.

5. Most of the drawings of Edward Ruscha’s that I saw involved using text with geometric forms to make an interesting and creative composition. I really like the way he can take a simple word and turn it into a complete drawing that gets his point of view across. I really couldn’t find any representational drawings from Ruscha and my photograph doesn’t incorporate text as a focal point. I do think that the crisp line quality is reflected in my photograph and in many of his drawings that I found. Overall, I don’t feel that there are too many common qualities in my picture and his work except for the fact that perspective is used as a main focus of the composition.