After touring the old high school with some of my fellow classmates - we really have not changed too much - I decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art before heading home. Along with their numerous halls with some outstanding art, they are having an exhibit of Richard Avedon's photographs. Another PDMLer had already mentioned it previously. My sister pointed it out to me once I got here.
Maybe it was because it was has been a constant rain for the past few days, but there were more people than I expected to see on a Friday afternoon. Looking at his work made me wonder a lot about composition. There were often times when he would crop the tops of their heads, or placed them off center - this with usually a plain white background. Interesting, many could complain about the technicalities of the photos - varying depths of field in what should have been a constant studio set up, composition - but what was most important were the people he was able to photograph. Knowing about the person added so much more to the photo, much like a photograph taken by yourself bringing back memories of the moment in time and the people involved. He was conveying his thoughts and views on the subject. The one thing that did come through was the familiarity of the subject. They seemed to be at ease with him. It was especially interesting to watch where the eyes were pointed. That speaks volumes of him as a portraitist. I noted that when assigned to shoot 'ordinary' people along the Midwest his compositions tended to be centered, uncropped heads, extensive depth of field so they were completely in focus - or much more than his 'famous' people shots. Allow the viewer come up with their own opinion of the subject. Along the lines that have been mentioned here in terms of blurry or out of focus shots familiar to most people in their everyday shooting, I heard quite a few comments about how sharp certain photos were. My father even brought this point home to me when he showed me a shot taken with his p&s. I commented on the people in it and such, and then noted that those closer to the camera were slightly out of focus, the photographer was too close. He waved it off and said that you could tell who they were and it was just a p&s, etc., etc., etc. The people just have to be identifiable. There were a couple of shots of Avedon's that were blurred and I would not think to display them, but they were of famous people and that made them worthy of exhibition... All in all a good time. It was great seeing such large photographs, noting the skill in the lighting, metering, printing to bring the images to such a state, and the composition used by such a 'master'. The PUG can definitely stand on its own :-P And it was fun to walk around with no other agenda in mind than to react to something that catches your eye and not having to look at every object in the hall. César Panama City, Florida in NYC
