Camera Position 06 : Left, Right, Up, Down

Eugene Atget’s photograph of conical shrubs in Saint Cloud provides the visual resource for a discussion of how careful camera placement can affect a photograph.

Saint Cloud, 1921
Photograph by Eugene Atget

A great resource on Atget on Artsy

3 thoughts on “Camera Position 06 : Left, Right, Up, Down”

  1. Good Morning, Well its morning here, I’ve been meaning to write this for awhile and I was woken by a thunderstorm before the rest of the family so I thought I’d take my chance. I found your podcast after following a link from Nick Shere’s blog ” I can see it for you wholesale” I am working my way through from the beginning, snatching time in between family and work listening on my iPhone. I really like the “extended podcast” format. It’s a fantastic learning tool, especially suited to the talking about photos.

    I enjoyed looking at this photo, though I thought that the photo he didn’t take was also interesting, I’ve not been to St Cloud but I have visited many French Chateux and Stately homes in the Uk where I live and this collection of topiared (is that a word?) trees probably form a symmetrical vista from the chateau and he chose not to take that photo. Symmetry when we see it is often pleasing to the eye, we like balance but I don’t think it would make such a good photograph as the one Aget took, in fact in my limited time taking photos that try to be more than snap shots I’ve noticed that symmetrical photos aren’t that interesting. Perhaps we “absorb” symmetry faster and asymmetry means we look closer, draws us in.

    Thank you for taking the time to prepare these blogs, it’s lovely to listen to and wonderful to here talk of the image on the web rather than the technology, though the engineer in me is itching to tell you what I use to take photos, I won’t!

    Thanks again

    Gavin

  2. Thanks, Gavin…

    Your ending comment made me smile… you engineers *love* to talk about that gear!

    😉

    Your other comments are pretty interesting… I especially like the idea that we “absorb” symmetry faster and that something that asymmetrical draws us in by asking us to consider something that’s harder to “get.”

    Glad you’re finding the podcasts useful and interesting… keep listening!

    -Jeff

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