Tag: Photography

Breaking Rules

Most of my pictures are taken not horizontally nor vertically to the horizon and the pictures are mostly not balanced. For some pictures  (the darker and the brighter ones), I messed with the lighting values on my phone to make it look unfairly flashing or dark. The darker photos also brought a spooky mood to a common hallway which I intended. In this case, I don’t think rules are needed.

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

I think art is all about creativity, so the rules could be broken to make abstract and confusing photographs. For example, the last 3 pictures are very confusing at first glance, but as I look more, I see them as good photos. I think breaking the rules that people set up can result in very different styles and artistic outcomes.

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

I think it is not possible to break rules if you don’t know they exist. If a rule was not known, one would not have any intention to break it, as one can not avoid what one does not know. For example, people who do not realize that the photo should be horizontal to the horizon would not intentionally take pictures that are not horizontal only because they want to break the rule.

3. Can a ‘bad’ picture ever be ‘great’? – How important is the context in photography?

In my opinion, any picture taken with an intention could be “great” if it expresses their artistic intent. For example, the picture “Wrong” by John Baldassari is a great picture as it successfully triggered many people into thinking that it feels “wrong”. In my scenario, the pictures where the hallways are sideways successfully expressed my intent of confusing the audience.

Before seeing the word “Wrong”, I see the photo as bland, lacking features. The person in the photo is not centered or emphasized, leaving the photo with no clear subject. The road, car, and roof seemed unplanned and flawed. Overall, the photo was bland and I did not like it much.

The addition of the word “Wrong” transformed this rather bland photograph into a piece of intentionally planned art. The word had expressed the artist’s artistic intent well and gave a reader a word to relate to when viewing this photo. Personally, I think the word changed my opinion of the photo and I now view it as a successful art work.

Overall, the context is important in photography as it provides the viewer what they will look for and what is the artist’s artistic intent. The artistic intent can completely shift the viewer’s view on a photo, for example, the photo “Wrong” by John Baldassari is a bad picture without looking at the word “Wrong” as it is out of focus, have too much background and cutting off cars and buildings. However, with the word “Wrong”, the artist’s intent shifted from appealing the audience by taking good pictures to appealing the audience by annoying the audience with bad pictures, which shifted from unsuccessful to successful.