Mark Sutherland Photographic Analysis

Mark Sutherland Contextual Study

Pattern and Texture in Photography For this project I shall analyse the works of Photographers Peter Keetman, and Aleksandr Rodchenk. They have both in their time created photographs displaying factory machinery and raw metal as the medium of subject as it can be used to vividly display both pattern and texture. I shall analyse the use of formal elements in each piece of work while still maintaining a running theme about the use of construction objects, comparing each to each other. These are the images I have chosen to analyse:

Peter Keetman

Aleksandr Rodchenko

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Biography Peter Keetman Peter Keetman received his first photographic inspirations from his father, who was a serious amateur photographer. At the age of 19 he attended the Bavarian State Educational Institute for Photography in Munich, where he obtained his apprentices diploma in 1937. After two years at the studio in Gertrud Hesse in Duisburg he worked as an industrial photographer for the C.H. Schmeck Company in Aachen. In 1944 he returned from military service seriously wounded and unable to work. Nevertheless he continued his studies at the aforementioned Institute in the masters program and then studied under Adolf Lazi in Stuttgart. Following his legendary exhibition in Neustadt/Hard in 1949, Keetman was one of the founding members of the fotoform group. Together with the other members of this group (Toni Schneiders, Wolfgang Reisewitz, Ludwig Windsto!er, Siegfried Lauterwasser and Heinz Hajek-Halke) he showed his first pictures at Photokina in 1950. Keetman became known internationally through his experimental work, in particular Reflecting Drops. Aleksandr Rodchenko Aleksandr Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer born in 1891 and was one of the founders of constructivism in Russian design. He worked as a painter and graphic designer before turning to photomontage and photography. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He studied at the Kazan School of Art under Nikolai Feshin and Georgii Medvedev, and at the Stroganov Institute in Moscow. He made his first abstract drawings in 1915. The following year, he participated in "The Store" exhibition organized by Vladimir Tatlin, who was another formative influence in his development as an artist. Rodchenko was appointed Director of the Museum Bureau and Purchasing Fund by the Bolshevik Government in 1920. He was responsible for the reorganization of art schools and museums. He taught from 1920 to 1930 at the Higher Technical-Artistic Studios. In 1921 he became a member of the Productivist group, which advocated the incorporation of art into everyday life. He gave up painting in order to concentrate on graphic design for posters, books, and films. Impressed by the photomontage of the German Dadaists, Rodchenko began his own experiments in the medium, first employing found images in 1923, and from 1924 on shooting his own photographs as well. Throughout the 1920s Rodchenko's work was very abstract. In the 1930s, with the changing Party guidelines governing artistic practice, he concentrated on sports photography and images of parades and other choreographed movements. Rodchenko joined the October circle of artists in 1928 but was expelled three years later being charged with "formalism". He returned to painting in the late 1930s, stopped photographing in 1942, and produced abstract expressionist works in the 1940s. He continued to organize photography exhibitions for the government during these years. He died in Moscow in 1956.

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Analysis Peter Keetman

In this photograph by Peter Keetman an unexpected visual dynamic has been used. By using different length steel tubes he has created a textured sense where none is present. The photograph looks as though it were a microscopic view of some surface, where the raised and low parts can be identified, and were you to run a hand across it, it would feel textured. However this is clearly not the case. The pattern used in this photograph is clearly evident. Keetman has positioned, or found by good fortune, a large number of steel tubes in such a way so as to fill the frame, thus emphasising their repetition and transforming this seemingly ordinary sight into that of a visual vista. This scene would not have worked were Keetman to change the frame to include a rule of thirds or golden section; only by filling the entire frame with the same object has he achieved this visual spectacle. Nor would the scene be the same if only one side of tubes were raised to give visual weight on one side. The scene must be balanced by a random selection, or seemingly random selection, of raised tubes over the entire image. Through the use of line the viewers eye is drawn deeper into the scene. With every tube facing toward the camera and tilted so as to see its side the eye is drawn down each tube and into the bulk at the base. This is enhanced by the use of circle shapes at the foreground of the image, it transforms each ordinary tube into a telescope or portal that the viewer is encouraged to look into, as though they might see into a new world when looking through a tube. The vantage point is difficult to exact. It is obviously a birds eye view looking down upon the set of tubes; however the viewer can clearly see the sides of the lower, upper and both sides of tubes. It appears as though the tubes were set upon a ball, or spherical object, so as to create this effect. Were each and every tube set level on level ground, and the camera set squarely juxtaposed to them, the scene should display only open tops of each tube and no
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sides. Due to this the viewer is given the chance to construct the entire form of a single tube as it is shown from near on almost every angle. The photograph displays two completely different types of texture. Each individual tube is clearly smooth and slick, however, as previously mentioned the scene as a whole gives a varied, mountain range type texture with peaks and troughs. Due to the use of artificial and therefore controlled lighting, Keetman has been able to display an entire tonal scale. The tubes in the upper portion of the frame show the dark shadows for the scale, while the lower half displays highlights, with the middle section as the fading grey that sets the two a twain.

Keetman has used some of the same techniques in this photograph as the last. Again the frame has been devised well and the use of repeated pattern to create texture that is not there has been successful. There are major differences and subtle similarities but both photographs display texture through the use of pattern in completely unique ways. The frame has been well thought out by Keetman. There is no use of the golden section however there is a slight view into the rule of thirds about the photograph. The point from which the main wire coil set flows from may fall upon a desired square point. The frame has been filled so as not to involve other objects that might detract focus from the wire strands. The photograph also appears to be visually balanced. Though the main bulk of wire strands is an obvious focal point, the gap from which they disperse from also appears to be a focal point, thus balancing the photograph. The vantage point used is, just as the previous photograph, difficult to pin point. The camera can clearly be seen as looking down; however, it must also be juxtaposed to the wire strands, as it appears to hold the view from one side. This may have been Keetmans only option in order to fill the frame, as this is crucial for the photographs composition.

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The entire photograph has been constructed by the heavy use of curved lines. These draw the viewers eye into the scene and aid in navigating about the image. These also give connotations of fluidity and pace, as though the wires were in continuous motion as Keetman took the shot. This is emphasised by the round cylindrical shape and form of each wire, something to which the viewer is privy to due to the vantage point. Were the angle set differently, all sides of the wire, and thus its entire form, might not be visible. Keetman has used repetition to much the same effect as the first photograph here, however with a subtle difference. Instead of the one subject repeating continuously over the entire scene, Keetman has used the careful placement of gaps to cast contrast over the photograph, but not so much that it detracts focus from the main subject. This use of repetition also helps create a textured effect. When taken individually the wire is smooth and slick, however taken as a collective the wires form a visual texture the same as hair fibres. Just as the first photograph by Keetman the photograph as a whole creates texture where none is present. Using many wires, which by themselves suggest strength stillness and stability, Keetman has created something that suggests they are all loose and fragile, as though one could run a hand through them. The major difference between the two Keetman photographs is the use of light to create tone. In this image light has been used to emphasise detail and create two opposing ends of the tonal scale. With no fade between the two, this photograph displays only the dark shadow and bright highlights. Aleksandr Rodchenko Rodchenko has used many similar techniques in this photograph as Keetmans. By filling the frame and repeating the subject, he has created a photograph which displays both pattern and texture while still maintaining a visual dynamic.

Rodchenko has chosen to fill the entire frame with the subject matter instead of using a rule of thirds or golden section. This could be so as not to detract emphasise and focus from the clutches. Due to this the photograph is also completely balanced. There is no visual weight on any one side which helps to focus purely upon the pattern of the clutches.
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Despite the rods entering the top half of the image and protruding into the cogs, there appears to be no use of line about the image. Were the background clear, these rods would become a navigation point for the viewer, drawing the eye into the cogs at the base. However as they continue throughout the image this point cannot be made, the eye simply travels about the photograph unaided. Rodchenko has used only shapes and forms to build this scene, something which adds depth to the photograph. The viewer can gauge a sense that the clutches flow on outside the frame for an endless stretch. The use of circular shape and form also adds movement to the image. This shape and form of the clutches coupled with the viewers mind set, that these types of clutches, cogs and rods are usually seen in motion, transforms an otherwise two dimensional image into three dimensions of movement and motion. Connotations of speed and fluidity are given from this photograph. A mental scene can be formed in the viewers mind of an entire factory churning away for always, never ending the motion of the clutches. Due to the lighting the photograph has a very high tonal quality. This may have been to capture as much detail about the clutches as possible. Rodchenko has also illuminated the scene from above so as to capture the shadows cast in the gaps between each tooth of the clutches. The vantage point is simple in context of where the camera is situated. It must be set in front of the clutches at a height so as to capture two layers of cogs but still maintaining a view of the rods above. Where the vantage point has been altered comes in when positioning the angle of the camera. It has been tilted to the right hand side. This creates a visual dynamic about the image, taking it out of the realm of documenting the machinery and into creating a visual spectacle. This photograph differs from Keetmans in that the pattern created has not been from exactly the same object sitting side by side over and over. Rodchenko uses three different objects, the rod, the plate and the cog, all sitting in sequence with gaps working together. Due to the use of three different objects and the gaps the photograph holds a varied combination of textures. The slick smooth surface of the rods and plates completely counter balance the rough sharp texture of the cogs and shadowed gaps. Rodchenko has used a different style for this photograph. It seems modern and sharp, as though taken using a digital camera. In this photograph we start to see different ways of displaying pattern and texture using construction materials. Just as the other photographs Rodchenko has not used a golden section. However he has used the rule of thirds method to divide the frame using one focal point in the upper left corner. This creates an imbalance which adds to the visual effect of the photograph. This imbalance is not merely contained to one area. It appears as though the scene has three different visual weight imbalances. The top half of the frame pulls focus from the bottom, the left pulls focus from the right and the foreground pulls focus from the background. This helps create motion in a stationary scene, as the viewers eye feels the imbalance and continuously navigates about the photograph to stabilize itself.

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Rodchenko has used curved lines in this scene to draw the viewers gaze into the photograph. Due to the vantage point, downward and slightly unlevel to the right hand side, the frame has been filled to within a degree. Unlike the previous photographs much of the surface on which the objects sit is visible. Despite this the frame has clearly been filled by the first tower of objects. Rodchenko has closed in on the first tower in order to achieve this. As a result this means the viewer is unable to observe the second tower of objects fully, and so is obscured from its whole form.

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Bibliography

! How to Read a Photograph; Understanding, Interpreting and Enjoying the Great Photographers Ian Jeffrey: Copyright 2008 Ludion.

! 20th Century Photography Museum Ludwig Cologne: Copyright 2010 Taschen Gmbh Hohenzollernring 53, D-50672 Kln.

! Photography from 1839 to Today George Eastman House, Rochester, NY: Copyright 1999 Benedikt Taschen Gmbh Hohenzollernring 53, D-50672 Kln.

! The Art of Black and White Photography John Garrett: Copyright 1990, 1995 Reed International Books Ltd.

! A World History of Art Hugh Honour & John Fleming: Copyright 1982, 1991, 1995, 1999 Fleming-Honour Ltd.

! All Pictures are Copyright by Artist or their beneficiaries.

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