Project 45: Picture Count

The brief of this project was to review the Textbook (i.e. The Photograph by Graham Clarke) and another source for photographs in which each of the 4 lighting directions in the previous project were evident. I found The Photograph a difficult book for this project, possibly because so many were black & white and many of the images did not seem to make use of lighting as a key ingredient. This contrasted strongly with "Light on the Earth" which shows 2 decades of winning images from Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Many of those images used lighting to give their images sheer drama and impact, thereby distinguishing their images from purely illustrative ones that you may find in a wildlife encyclopaedia. What is particularly inspiring about a lot of those images is the dedication to catching the shot, including spending several winters in pursuit of an image, wading in freezing water etc. The most dramatic lighting was backlighting & rim lighting, and this is also the most difficult to expose. I have included 4 images from that book above, which demonstrate the drama of lighting effectively. The Bear Silhouette was taken by Rajesh Bedi from India in 1986, Bear Ecstasy was taken by Eero Kemila of Finland in 1997, the Badger was taken by Jason Venus of the UK in 1996 and the Leaping Langurs was taken by Anup Shah of the UK in 1997.

From "The Photograph" I identified "Baiting the Line" by David Hill & Robert Adamson, which showed the high contrast of side lighting very effectively. I also identified a fabulous picture by Paul Strand entitled "Wall Street, New York, 1915". The side lighting and long shadows from the low sun make this a genius image - a perfect moment. Aside from the light, I was also struck by the fact that all the men are dressed the same, which adds to the visual pattern of the image created by the long shadows. Finally, I included "Kansas City" by Harry Callahan, which used front lighting very effectively to create a rich red colour and strong vertical lines from the shadows.