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What makes an image special?
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Message
Posted
I often wonder why a particular image appeals and what makes it special - it's so hard to define and yet when we see it we know straight away. Well I have been quite captivated by the photo taken by Joel Goodman of news years eve in Manchester - it reminds me a bit of Hopper, such a great image. I can't stop returning to it. In case you've not seen it it's at:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-masterpiece-new-years-eve-10675983
The man on the floor, the lady in the red dress, the person being attended to, the lady in the white coat, the girls in the distance eating fish and chips (so the artist informs us) - so many sub-plots and stories - just captivating. Interestingly my wife, who is not an artist, expressed annoyance at the photo - the waste of police time and the cost to the taxpayer.
Edited
by Michael Edwards
Posted
It's purely an individual taste, and there is no science behind it. This happens to me often and I know within a nanosecond that this is it. Composition, colour, subject matter, all these must come into consideration in the mind's eye in a sublime way perhaps. So, no answer Michael, but I'm glad it works out that way, saves me time procrastinating.
Posted
I'm told the appeal of this photograph is the Fibronacci Curve (I think I have that right, even though it sounds like a spinal deformity)....... a development from the Golden Section. The eye finds certain configurations appealing, and the photograph contained them. I once had a book containing many paintings on which were superimposed these lines and swirls and whorls, all to convince us that the artist had consciously used them in planning paintings - whether they actually did is something else entirely. I suspect such configurations occur unconsciously to artists who are able to discern patterns in objects and represent them.
I think it's something that Leonardo explained - he explained just about everything, without making it any easier for any of us to paint like him......
Posted
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spiral
Here you are: all explained. Could it be any more clear? (Depart from heavy irony mode at this juncture.)
It's Fibonacci, not Fibronacci - I did get it wrong. Interesting that Alan says there's no science behind it .... There sort of is, I think; but when art becomes geometry, I get a bit restive.....
Posted
It's such a difficult question, and there are so many factors - and at the very top, there is the divide between subject and image, so neatly captured in the photograph you linked to. Some viewers cannot get past the abhorrent behaviour depicted; others home in on the shapes and patterns.
This image does look posed, in a way. The supine drunk in particular. There is so much going on! More, I think, than in most Hoppers. I am reminded of history paintings by the old masters.
As to science and Fibonacci, I rather suspect that the curve is, in many cases, a lucky accident (aided, perhaps, by instinct) and more of an explanation than an insight into an artist's methods.
Posted
As a mathermatician (many moons ago!) I would like to say that the Fibonacci series is most definitely scientific - the series is 0, 1, 1.2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc the next number being found by adding the previous two together. Fibonacci described this sequence as a result of his consideration of a theoretical problem relating to the numbers of breeding rabbit pairs. When applied to geometry the resulting Fibonacci spiral appears - and this spiral always describes certain spirals which occur in nature ie the flowering of an artichoke, the arrangement of a pine cone, and the spirals in the seeds of a sunflower head,(some people doubt this last one) - these will always be described by the geometric equation of the Fibonacci spiral (also known as the Golden Spiral) - so it's a law of nature as well as of mathematics. The Golden Mean - which is is the ratio of one Fibonacci number to the next, is represented by a special number in mathematics like pi or similar. When this ratio is used to place subjects or objects within a picture, it seems to result in a composition that is particularly pleasing to the human eye. Many of the great masters appear to have used this ratio to create their compositions, but it is generally not known if they did it knowingly and deliberately, or just by instinct. Or at least, this is how I understood it all!!!
Edited
by 9464351
Posted
<div>Another link for you:
http://www.theguardian.com/<wbr>artanddesign/2014/aug/06/<wbr>accidental-renaissance-<wbr>photojournalism-italian-<wbr>painting-ukraine-frank-lampard
</div>Fisticuffs in the Ukrainian parliament, hugs on the pitch, and the Sistine chapel. <div class="yj6qo ajU"><div data-tooltip="Show trimmed content" id=":1rk" class="ajR" role="button" tabindex="0">
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