Light, Shadow, and Texture.

Hand by Alleah

There are  few simple truths to photography- photography  literarily means "writing with light," so without it or with poor light, the images will be poor as well.  That light produces shadow, which in many cases becomes the secondary point of interest in a photograph.  That same light also accentuates texture, another element of art that is so crucial in photography.

In this image by high school photographer Alleah, all three of those photographic elements are demonstrated to a successful degree.  The subject matter, whether one decides is the hand, the light, the shadow....is up to the viewer.  The interpretation of the image is also up to each individual-loneliness? Darkness? A touch, a loss?  We all approach a photograph from our own past, our own experiences, which is why photography can be so powerful.

When I first saw this image, I looked at it from a technical perspective-perfect light, shadow, texture and composition.  It was only later when re-visiting it that I started to look deeper into it-what does it mean to me?  What did it mean to the photographer?  The test for me is can I go back to a picture over and over and still like it...a lot.  I do.

Hundreds and hundreds of photographs are made in this class......it's refreshing to come across a few that really stand out-and touch our visual being.

Shadows

I had given my students a word to use as a theme over the past weekend for their shooting assignment-"Shadows."  When I make an assignment like this, I always keep it open to their interpretation, hoping they'll come up with something less obvious or literal.  When someone does, it's more fun for me as a their teacher to see their creativity.  As usual, some didn't start the assignment until after downloads were due, but others did have some good examples and experimented with light and shadow-great to see.  Since this was all on my mind, this morning I decided to pull out a photo from last winter that really had little to do with nature and everything to do with shadow and composition.  This was one of my favorites from that morning.