FORMALISM
Formalism is not simply a style or a movement of photography. Formalism is an approach to analyzing the pictorial qualities of photographs. (T.Barrett 2005) Formalism ignores social context, historical context and the motivations of the photographer. (F. Ritchin, 1990)
The aim of a formal analysis then is “not to explore photographic content but to describe physical and formal attributes of a photographic print that form the tools a photographer uses to define and interpret that content.” (Stephen Shore
Phaidon, 2008) By understanding the theory behind formalism, it helps us understand how audience might interpret an image. I want to create a different perspective form for the audience to understand images differently; by in putting the idea of formalism into moving images, it will bring anticipation to the audience without exhausting them. This attempt is to energize the cityscape; the formal structures in formalism can bring different representations. I must however be aware with the unbalancing approach as it can create too much complexity for the audience to digest. The initial approach is to bring our world into the film but twisting it with unique cinematography as well as set designs. The cinematography will act, as a tension with static movements while set designs will be picking the best angles and locations to create this alienated dimension.
Formalism consist range of things, colors, view, symmetry, lines, shadows, lighting.
Formalism will quite important as it also help us with any lighting decisions. We will be more aware as formalism is largely concerned with the visual design of the image. Here are some interesting photographers that I come across that uses formalism as their base: Edward Weston, Lisette Model, Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz, Tina Modotti.
Reference
Stephen Shore
Phaidon, 2008, The Nature of Photographs pp.12. Viewed 10 March 2016
F . Ritchin, 1990, ‘Reading Photographs’In Our Own Image: The Coming Revolution in Photography, pp.81-109. Viewed 22 March 2016
T.Barrett 2005, ‘Interpreting Photographs’ Criticizing Photographs: An Introduction to Understanding Images, pp.26-41, 51-51. Viewed 17 March 2016
Photograph source:
Jesse Marlow: http://www.jessemarlow.com/
Andrew MacColl: http://www.andrewmaccoll.com/pages/landscape_photography/index.html
Greg Neville: Modernismus: http://modernismus.wordpress.com/