Chapter 3 - “The Depictive Level”
The idea of “creating order from chaos” and “solving a picture” (as Shore puts it a few pages apart in Chapter 3 of his text) produces a sense of organization. For me, ‘creating order’ would be the process by which one may choose their vantage point, the frame in which their world through the lens will lie, the moment in time in which they hit the shutter button and the confines of the very object they choose to make their subject. Similarly, the idea of ‘solving a picture’ suggests organizing the chaotic nature of the subject, scene or world in front of one’s self into the ‘depictive’ nature of the photograph through creative use of vantage point, frame, time and the subject. Through these four creative tools, one can paint a picture of their subjective view of the world through a camera lens. This provides the photographer a metaphorical “voice” in which they can ‘depict’ their opinion on how a particular picture should be ‘solved.’ (pg. 53)
While both Shore and Szarkowski touch on their definition of the grammar of a photo with similarity in frame, vantage point and time, they differ in the aspect of the subject itself. Shore includes the plane of focus in the grammar surrounding his photos while Szarkowski uses the object and its detail. Shore narrows in on the idea that, with purpose, the use of these elements can be extremely powerful by a photographer. Szarkowski, on the other hand, describes how the overarching elements in themselves create the context in which the photograph is made/viewed.
Chapter 3 truly made me focus outside of the “type” of subject I was shooting, and more into how playing with vantage point and frame, most specifically, could alter the way the photograph created a relationship with a viewer. For example, kneeling down next to a stump and photographing from the ground upward gave the illusion that the tree was once large. However, if I photographed the stump from above, I gave the viewer the impression the tree had an awfully narrow and small base. The level at which I could crouch or angle my camera alone changed the depictive level of my photography.
