formal elements are: line, shape, pattern/repetition, texture, Value/Tone,  focus, these are the basic elements that makes up photography.

line: Line is a point that continues and implies motion, there are horizontal lines, vertical lines, curve line etc.

this picture shows a vertical line, which has an effect of continuous train track that separated the environment.

shape: shape is the two-dimensional appearance of objects as your camera captures them

this picture has a air-plane like shape in the middle of the cloud, the airplane seems to be in front of the cloud and the colour is darker, so the focus will be more on the airplane.

pattern/repetition: it is a regularity within the shape, you can find it in many shape photography

this photo has a repetition pattern technique inside. Not only the white and blue parts are being repeated, the blue rectangle-like shape is also repeated.

texture: this is the visual quality of a object’s surface, this will be reveal by the tone and the colour depth.

this picture shows the texture of a leaf, which has clear lines and makes the audience feels like they are actually observing the real leaf.

Value/Tone:  it is like the colour use for the photograph, sometimes it could be from dark to light or light to dark

this photo has black and white and grey as transition.

focus: It is a technique in photography that makes everything else blurry other than a specific subject.

this picture has a focus of the person whos taking a photo, and its background are all blurry.

can an image show just one element at a time?

I believe no, because even if the picture contains only black and white and its only a portrait,  it still have both focus and value inside. However, if the photo is completely blank, then it only has value.

1. What is the purpose of rules in photography?

allowing some limitation will makes photography better, because for instance if there is no such a rule that you cant include blurry fingers inside, photographer might just take random photos like this and call it abstract

1. In your mind, what are (some of) the most important rules in photography?

no hair or other obstacles in the photo

1. When might it be a good idea to deliberately break the rules?

When you are taking photos for a event or something that deliberately require you to break the rules.

1. Do you think it possible to break rules if you don’t know they exist? Give reasons for your answer.

yes, for instance when i was young, i really like to take photos with my mom’s phone. However i didnt know that you can’t have your fingers in the picture, therefore the majority of the photos include my blurry fingers

1. Can a ‘bad’ picture ever be ‘great’? – How important is context in photography? (context= why a picture was taken, when or where it was taken and what message you were trying to make)

Yes, maybe the photo was badly taken, but the purpose of the photo’s existence might be good.

1. How can photography change our relationship to things?

Without photography, we will never notice how the actual moon looks like. Photography allowed us to examinate the substance in a better way. In the ancient days where cameras are not being invented, people are only able to have a drawing of her/his self in order to post it to anywhere. Which further led to many puzzles about how the person actually looks like. With camera and photography, we are able to take pictures that looks exactly the same and being able to look more closely

2.What is pictorialism?

It is a type of photography skills that strongly emphasize the beauty of the subject matter, rather than the documentation of the reality.

3.What is abstract photography?

abstract photography is a visual expression that does not actually represent anything, but leaving a unlimited imagination to the audiences and let they interpret what is it truly sending

4.Write a (very) short biography of Albert Renger-Patzsch (just 1 or 2 sentences).

Albert Renger-Patzsch was a Germany photographer associated with the Objectivity

5.From looking at his images above, What types of subjects do you think Albert Renger-Patzsch preferred to photograph?

Repetition, most of his photos are focused on the repetition of nature substances

6.Why do you think he entitled his famous book, ‘The World is Beautiful’?

Most of his photograph are about the nature, however mostly black and white. This might indicates that he was trying to imply that the world is beautiful, but not through the lens, but through your own eyes.

7.Why do you think Edward Weston moved away from the soft-focus of pictorialism to the new Straight photography movement? – the idea that ordinary objects and scenes can be photographed to reveal their beauty

At first, Edward Weston was taking photos of humans, and the photograph were mostly fancy and emphasizing the beauty. However after getting tired of taking these, he than changed his style to small things. Pepper, coral, anything small can attract his attention. Therefore, he started to love how people can reveal the actual beauty from looking at a ordinary surface of a photograph.

8.Give examples of one of his pictorials images and one of his straight images.

9.How has Aaron Siskind (above been influenced by the Staight Photography Movement

during a trip to Ohio, he was fascinated by the brute beauty of the industrial complex and enormous smoke stack. Then he decided to take a photo of the view and this photograph and other series was the turning point from pictorialism to straight photography

10.Name some other photographers that have been influenced by straight photography

László Moholy-Nagy

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Frederick Henry Evans

Paul Strand

11. What makes the work of Andreas Gursky and Uta Barth abstract. Are they straight photographers? Why?

I believe the reason why their works are both abstract is because the work does not represent anything by its own. Also both of them used the repetition technique. Furthermore, I believe that Uta Barth is a straight photographer since some of his work has capture the movement of time passes.

abstract photography is a visual expression that does not actually represent anything, but leaving a unlimited imagination to the audiences and let they interpret what is it truly sending