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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Watch This Video

This video is, by a wide margin, the best discussion of photographic composition I have seen on the web. He doesn't mention the rule of thirds once, nor a Golden anything. Instead, he actually talks about composition:



It's extremely refreshing, and interesting. Also, much is revealed about Henri Cartier-Bresson when you start looking at the pictures from a design perspective, from the point of view of a painter or a sculptor.

3 comments:

  1. Inspiring, thanks for pointing it out!

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  2. I only recently discovered your blog and have since been enjoying reading it and your "Intermediate Photography."

    I agree entirely with your opinion of the Marelli video cited above.

    Marelli's video led me to read many of his blog entries of the last few years. There he does indeed disdain "the rule of thirds" but he also does very much advocate drawing mathematically inspired grids on photographs and paintings to explain the quality of their composition. See, for example, http://www.adammarelliphoto.com/2011/05/alfred-eisenstaedt/ .

    Marelli's tutor in these techniques is Myron Barnstone ( http://barnstonestudios.com/ ) who is not a photographer at all, but rather an independent art teacher who strongly asserts the "classical" origin of these thechniques.

    Reading many of your past posts, I came upon your "On Composition" post of June 1, 2013. There you propose that the geometrical analysis of "classical" composition with such grids is a (mostly) 20th Century misrepresentation by photography writers posing as authorities on "classical" composition.

    I'd enjoy any thoughts you have on how Marelli's compositional ideas now fit (or fail to fit) together with yours.

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    Replies
    1. How wonderful! I had no idea Mr. Marelli even had a blog, thank you so much for pointing me to it!

      I will certainly be reading it and thinking about it, and will probably generate some essays based on my reactions. For now I think you may safely guess that Mr. Marelli is right and I am wrong, wherever we differ. Quite seriously! He seems to be a genuinely educated and thoughtful fellow, and to be blunt he certainly knows more than I do.

      I hope to read, learn, and catch up a bit, though ;)

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