Looking & Listening to Photo
Do pictures speak?
TALKING PICTURES The word photography is derived from the Greek words “photo,” which means light, and “graph,” which means writing. Photography is writing with light. As a type of writing, photography has a visual language, an alphabet of tone and hue, a grammar of line and form. Its visual patterns are its sentences. The photograph is silently articulate, communicating its message through an arrangement of color and shape.
Select a photograph & consider: • Where is the lighting coming from? • Are there any shadows? Is there any sense of dimension? • Is the light hard or soft? Are the shadows thin or thick? • Are there any patterns in the light or shadow? • What kind of mood is created by the light and shadow? • What shapes stand out because of the lighting?
Left: Bill Brandt, British (1904-1983), Snicket in Halifax, 1948, gelatin silver print. Right: Bill Brandt, British (1904-1983), Cuckmere River, 1963, gelatin silver print. Cover: Bill Brandt, British (1904-1983), Nude, East Sussex, 1957, gelatin silver print.
TALKING PICTURES The word photography is derived from the Greek words “photo,” which means light, and “graph,” which means writing. Photography is writing with light. As a type of writing, photography has a visual language, an alphabet of tone and hue, a grammar of line and form. Its visual patterns are its sentences. The photograph is silently articulate, communicating its message through an arrangement of color and shape.
Select a photograph & consider: • Where is the lighting coming from? • Are there any shadows? Is there any sense of dimension? • Is the light hard or soft? Are the shadows thin or thick? • Are there any patterns in the light or shadow? • What kind of mood is created by the light and shadow? • What shapes stand out because of the lighting?
Left: Bill Brandt, British (1904-1983), Snicket in Halifax, 1948, gelatin silver print. Right: Bill Brandt, British (1904-1983), Cuckmere River, 1963, gelatin silver print. Cover: Bill Brandt, British (1904-1983), Nude, East Sussex, 1957, gelatin silver print.
