Structure in photography
This is one of the techniques where two individual photographs come together to create a whole. This technique is often used with classic photography. The joining of two or even more negatives or slides brings about the so-called `sandwich`.
A related technique is the multiple exposure, but for this edition we will deal with rather the combination of photography and abstract structure, which fills more of an complimentary role. It adds to the original photograph a certain atmosphere and adjustment of contrast.
Why?
You may ask the question as to what such an adjustment is good for. If the original photograph is good there should be no reason to improve it, or perhaps ruin it, by adding some structures or raster. If the photograph is already good there is not much of a reason to either save it or complicate things. The reason perhaps rests in the organization and arrangement of the pictorial memories which we possess. We remember not just in images, but also in feelings which accompany them. In memories we cannot hold onto only the so-called photographic image of what was seen. It is always somewhat adjusted by our impressions and moods of the time anyway. Positive memories become idealized over time while the negative ones seem to take on a more dramatic tone than they ever truly had in real life. There is also the possibility that the image recalled has been recorded in our memories under the influence of some strong emotional state of either joy, melancholy, or sadness.
If visiting a cottage or a lake for example, we are first strongly affected by the ripples in the water just before sunset. After a certain period of time though, the memory of that event has the ripples in the water as some kind of additional structure if you will.
Structure
Selecting the suitable structure or raster is not the easiest task. It is good to gradually create a digital database of suitable abstract photographs which we can turn to later. Collect these shots of structure in various locations, you will come across them just about anywhere. It is up to you what kind of environment you move about in and whether or not it inspires you to any kind of abstract artistic creation - in nature the crown of a tree or its bark, the grass, blossoming flowers, in town it might be the plaster flaking off the side of a building, something woven at home, crumpled paper, some animal fur or a wicker basket, old planks. Sources are more or less unlimited and are up to your particular imagination. If possible, there are several materials which may even be brought back to your studio, where you have a little more control over the conditions and lighting and such.
The structure which interests you is to be shot with an ideal exposure, and you should be able to `work` with the photograph undisturbed. Try taking things at various distances. Even in such photography, composition should not be neglected. Photography of these kinds of objects also requires a certain dose of imagination and fantasy - the central motif will never jump out at you. Often you will have to search for it several times, and even return to it several times.
Authors
For inspiration I present a few references of artists who deal with similar techniques. They often do not even make public their photographic approaches, although it might have taken them years of work and unsuccessful attempts until they finally arrived at that unique approach.
Ezio Bocci from Italy works with the classic method of assembling a slide `sandwich`
http://photo.box.sk/autor.php3?id=1143
Noteworthy is the digital creations of Riccardo-Duarte from Venezuela
http://photo.box.sk/autor.php3?id=1190
Derek Banasik works more with the brush in the darkroom than near the computer. That makes the resulting work all the more remarkable.
http://photo.box.sk/disp.php3?a=199&skup=PEOPLE&pods=NUDE&f=2131
Primary photography and the structures applied to it must achieve a certain symbiosis, rounding out and complimenting each other mutually. There is no need for photographs to be filled out by some kind of scratching just for it to have the `signature` of the photographer. An emotive perception of the primary photograph will have already seized the attention of the onlooker, regardless of what additional adjustments have been made to the image. Special consideration should be given to the feelings which one intends to draw from the viewer.
Essey and photo © 2005 Karol Hatala
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