Assignment 1 : Introduction
- Posted on:
- November 12 2009
- Posted by:
- moggsterb
- Posted in:
- Assignments
The theory and practice of contrasts
I’ve been looking forward to starting this, my first assignment, for a while.
The brief is to produce 8 pairs of photographs which demonstrate contrasting qualities and an additional shot that includes a contrast “in one picture”.
The course notes say it is a photographic version of a well known project devised by Johannes Itten, who ran the Basic Course at the Bauhaus in Germany.
The shots don’t have to be taken for the assignment, they can be old shots from your archive. However I hope to be able to take a fresh set of images for this assignment.
Here are the given pairs
- Large: Small
- Long : Short
- Thick : Thin
- Black : White
- Many : Few
- Pointed : Blunt
- Smooth : Rough
- Still : Moving
- Transparent : Opaque
- Liquid : Solid
- Strong : Weak
- High : Low
- Broad : Narrow
- Light : Dark
- Much : Little
- Straight : Curved
- Diagonal : Rounded
- Hard : Soft
- Light : Heavy
- Continuous : Intermittent
- Sweet : Sour
The pairs should demonstrate visual contrasts, i.e. A lead weight may be heavy but does it look heavy and if so, why? Colour, tone, lighting and comparative relationships to the background will all affect the message. We know weights are heavy but what if they were sprayed yellow and put on a dark, unyeilding surface?
The way I am going to attempt this assignments is
- Find examples of corresponding pairs in my archive
- On paper, come up with some ideas for the most appealing pairs
- Take 17 new shots, demonstrating the techniques I’ve developed so far on the course.