Thomas Demand Sink/Spule (1980) When taking a photograph, there are many elements and variables
Thomas Demand Sink/Spule (1980) When taking a photograph, there are many elements and variables that the artist must consider before they simply snap the image. A photograph is a physical object, at it’s most basic form. It is a print of an image. At it’s “first” level, it’s all physical, it’s simply an illusion or window into a new reality. There are four important elements that create a picture at this level; flatness which establishes plane, edges which demand boundedness, stillness which determines the experience of time, and color which adds descriptive information to the image. In the picture above, the artist, Thomas Demand, has payed close attention to the detail of the listed elements. Although this is a flat image, and is technically on one plane, the artist has created depth in space. Not only has he included the edges of the sink, but the angle that he used to capture this shows the depth of the sink as well. The objects in the sink, in relationship to each other, also create depth within the image. Some objects are empty, creating a different type of depth then the object that are half full, which also creates a different kind of depth from the objects that are tipped over on their side or stacked on top of one another. Instead of the eye stopping at the flat plane of the image, the deepness of the sink and the objects inside invites the viewers eye into the picture. It is extremely interesting the way the artist used edges to play a huge part in this image. First, you have the edges of the photograph itself, where it stops and where the image is contained. However, Demand decided to create yet another edge using the edges of the sink. This contains the actual objects of the photograph even more, which really draws the viewers eye to the depths of the sink so again, they can break past and look past that flat plane. A picture is obviously a still image, but it still has movement within in the way that the subjects interact with each other. the glasses that have fallen over suggest movement within the piece, but I think the part that really “dances” is the distorted reflections of the subjects alongs the sides of the sink. The stretched and dulled images really create a sense of time within the piece, instead of portraying just an eerie stillness. Lastly, in the physical level of a photograph, color must be payed close attention to. The color within the photograph helps us understand what the image we are looking at is. Within this photograph, we can focus on the cream of the edges of the sink in relation to the cream of the sup to the left, the dish under it, and the inside of the cup to the right. The liquid inside the cup that is stacked in the cup also has a cream ton to it. Juxtaposed to these light colors are the dark colors of what seems to be a pot on the bottom right, and the liquids within the cups at the bottom and the top of the image. And then the reflective color of the side of the sink plays all these colors right back at the original objects, allowing them to coincide melodically. The viewer understands what he is looking at as well as what kind of lighting is here and where it is coming from. The next level, or second level to consider when making a photograph is the depictive level, which is the analytic way to look at a photograph. As opposed to a painter, who starts with a blank canvas and adds to it, a photographer must take a plethora of actions and subjects and choose how to make that an interesting image. They give structure to the unstructured. Again, there are four elements to focus on analytically when creating a photograph; vantage point, frame, moment of exposure, and plane of focus. Demand, in this picture, chose a vantage point that is almost completely a birds eye view, but not quite. The reason vantage point is so important because one move or angle differently of the camera can change the picture completely. It can cut out things, distort things, emphasize different things. If the artist had chosen to take this picture from a complete birds eye view, we would lose the depth from the angle that we look down the sink. The way he took this picture allows the sink to look very deep and open, rather than flat as it were if it were taken from above. Furthermore, frame is important within a photograph because it creates a relationships to the lines and angles created by the subjects and the negative space between the subjects within the image. A photograph inevitably has edges, which is unlike the world around us. In this photograph, the top and bottom edges of the sink are parallel to the frame of the picture itself, which begins to become interesting when it is juxtaposed by the left and right edges, which are both at an acute angle to the frame and actually go off of the image. Furthermore, the round edges of the sink crate an interesting relationship to the roundness of the objects within, which may not have happened had the artist decided to cut out more or all of the edges of the sink. The moment of exposure of a photograph holds so much importance because it is a depiction of time stopped in a flowing and always moving world. An image can be blurred with a slower shutter speed actually portraying the movement of a subject, or a picture can be absolutely static and allude to movement within. This photograph is static, no blurs indicating movement, but as I discussed before, the distorted images within the reflections on the sink suggest movement, and make the piece a little less still and static. A photograph takes what is three dimensional and turns it two dimensional. It must create the illusion of space. Again, as discussed before, the depth of the sink as well as the cups and the liquid within, the stacking and the cup fallen over creates the illusion of depth within this piece. The frame of the sink also creates depth, it acts almost as a window for the viewer to look within the sink. Obviously, this is a successful photograph. The artist understood and perfected the levels of a photographic image and has created a balanced, beautiful, and interesting work of art. -- source link