![]() Of course, the image, or subject, dictates much of the technique, or approach. In short, whatever tools and techniques are used to create that bond, to bridge the gap between image and association, are fair game and the subject of any inquiry. But this sense of play can also be used to create a spark of association in the viewer that leads to a sense of bonding with the "other", or abstraction brought home. ![]() ![]() Melodrama, the heaviest form of technique, may also be used to trick the viewer with tongue-in-cheek tonal plays that mesmerize the novice and amuse the initiates. Techniques may be used to enhance all the above "tricks" may also be used to seduce the eye of the viewer. Without that bonding of emotion and need, the print can only serve as an approximation of intent, and can serve that intent in only very broad or cliched terms.īy effective is also meant an image that is startling, revelatory and fantastic or blunt, perverse in its rawness of statement or even reserved and subtle and appealing to only the most trained eye. This premise also assumes that the photographer and printmaker are one, or that the printmaker has a very vivid understanding of what the photographer wishes to communicate within the image. In the end, the aim is an effective black-and-white image, one that communicates quite specifically the ends of the photographer/printmaker. Without that thought process the print may lack that special spark that raises it above a documentation of light that happened to be in front of the camera the moment the shutter was snapped. They should be used, either pragmatically or in lyrical fashion, in the making of the image. The photographer/printmaker, in order to communicate most effectively, should have some grasp of these terms and associations. ![]() This recognizes that while abstraction lies at the heart of any image (as does the formation of an "image" from what is essentially, in the case of film, silver clumps and from a digital file from electronic turned binary code), there should be commonly agreed-upon terms of association and reaction that form a real-world community of shared feelings that define the success, or effectiveness of the combination of technique and emotions. However, issues of the end-use of the image, and the subtext and motivations of the photographer/printmaker must also be taken into account. To me, any attempt to define an aesthetic must be made within the context of printmaking practices and the choices made by the photographer while exposing the image and making the print. When a photographer deals with the emotions generated by black-and-white prints, and the methodology of creating and defining those emotions and how they are generated, he or she begins to deal with developing a sense of the aesthetics of the monochrome image. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |