Activity 2

Activity 2

Read the following passage taken from the book The Photographer’s Eye by John Szarkowski and answer the questions below. 

‘To quote out of context is the essence of the photographer’s craft. His central problem is a simple one: what shall he include, what shall he reject? The line of decision between in and out is the picture’s edge. While the draughtsman starts with the middle of the sheet, the photographer starts with the frame. The photograph’s edge defines content. It isolates unexpected juxtapositions. By surrounding two facts, it creates a relationship. The edge of the photograph dissects familiar forms, and shows their unfamiliar fragment. It creates the shapes that surround objects. The photographer edits the meanings and the patterns of the world through an imaginary frame. This frame is the beginning of his picture’s geometry. It is to the photograph as the cushion is to the billiard table.’

Q. What does John Szarkowski mean when he says that photographers are quoting ‘out of context’ when they make photographic pictures?
Q. The frame often ‘dissects familiar forms’. At the end of the last century photography was having a major impact on Art. Impressionist artists such as Degas were influenced by what they saw. Look at these examples of Degas work, which clearly shows the influence of Photography, and explain why the public might have been shocked to see such paintings

              When John Szarkowski says that the photographers are quoting"out of context", he means that 

the photographers can take the picture and create a new one by framing or choosing to take a out pieces of the             artists original work much like a person would do taking a quote from a book out of context for an essay.

    The audience might have been shocked that the paintings of Degas had a sense of realism that wasn't there before. and also the paintings would capture a sense of motion that wasn't there before because they could paint from photographs rather than a still model. This is something that would have been very difficult and almost impossible to achieve before photography came along. 

Painting by: Gustave Caillebotte 

 I chose this picture as an example of a painting with photographic influence because there is a certain understanding of light and value that could only be captured in a photograph, as well as capturing the couple walking down the road by capturing their motion.Which wouldn't have been seen as much when photographs didn't exist.