tortion is increased if the camera is aimed down or
away from the center of the image. It is also
increased as the camera moves closer to the sub-
ject, and decreased as the camera moves back from
its subject to a greater distance. The human form,
especially the face, becomes especially distorted by
this effect in wide-angle lenses, particularly when
the camera is close to its subject. For this reason,
photographers often choose a longer focal length
lens for portraiture, figure studies, and fashion
photography, unless this distortion is part of the
photographer’s intent. The portraits and nudes of
British photographer Bill Brandt during the 1950s
created groundbreaking images of the human fig-
ureusingthedistortionofwide-anglelensesto
make his subjects appear emotionally intense,
mannered, and painterly.
Perspective, as it applies to the way horizontal lines
in an image recede and move closer together as they
move into the background, will be exaggerated with a
wide angle lens, and increased as the camera moves in
closer. This same effect that occurs with vertical lines
of building is often seen as undesirable, because it is a
frequent problem in the photography of architecture,
where good perspective is important. Swings and tilts
of a large format view camera back and lens are
frequently used to correct this kind of perspective
distortion. Digital tools may also be used to make
corrections, but will change the shape of the rectan-
gular image and require cropping the image to a
smaller size.
The width and breadth of the space in a photo-
graph may be extended with a panorama perspec-
tive to include more space, from left to right, than
is actually possible in a single photograph. In extre-
mely wide panoramas, there may even be more
than one set of converging lines, creating multiple
perspectives in a single image. This can be achieved
with a special panorama camera designed for this
purpose. Panorama images can also be made with
digital image stitching tools in leading photo-
graphic software packages.
When the camera is located beyond the com-
mon positions of the human body, oblique, radical
perspectives are possible. The ‘‘bird’s eye view’’
may be accomplished from a high vantage point
looking down. This perspective may sweep out
high across a landscape with a smooth, gradual
transition between foreground, middle ground,
and background; or, it may be more extreme,
with the camera pointed directly down on its sub-
ject in a smaller space.
The ‘‘worm’s eye view’’ occurs when the camera
is located near the ground and pointed upward at
an extreme angle. Widely attributed to Russian
Constructivist Alexander Rodchenko, this perspec-
tive was inspired by the Russian Revolution to
invent new ways of looking at the world. Rod-
chenko felt this new change in political and social
conscience deserved equally new visual perspectives
to alter the viewer’s perception of what is possible,
visually and conceptually, in an image. Designers
experimenting with cameras at the Bauhaus, such
as the Hungarian architect La ́szlo ́ Moholy-Nagy,
also worked with new forms of perspective, invent-
ing camera angles and framing strategies that var-
ied from conventional expectations of what a
photograph could be.
This experimental spirit in perspective came early
in the twentieth century with the exciting new cultural
changes brought about by early twentieth century
modernism, but it was also a response to the freedom
offered by newly designed hand cameras. Until 1888,
all photographs were made from extremely large
glass plate cameras limited to the perspectives offered
from the static location of a tripod, and limited in use
to the expertise of skilled photographers. The hand
camera made it possible for laymen and practitioners
of other disciplines to experiment with photographic
perspectiveasameansofexploringideasoftheir
own, and it freed them from the physical limitations
of large view cameras. The results of these early
experiments in perspective are now integrated into
both commercial and artistic photographic practice.
Contemporary photographers continue to experi-
ment with perspective. Photographer John Pfahl has
done an extensive series of ‘‘altered landscapes’’ in
which he has used string and other strips of material
in the photograph to ‘‘draw’’ in the photograph. In
the final print these interventions in the landscape
appear both as three-dimensional and two-dimen-
sional figures, because they play on the illusions
offered by tricks of scale and dimension in a three
dimensional space compressed into a two dimen-
sional medium.
While the photograph is a medium that has always
been known for its accuracy in representing reality,
the relationships of objects or forms in a photograph
from a given point of view, or a given lens, can vary
within a very broad range of possibilities. The singu-
lar point of view, however, remains constant. Today,
some theorists would argue that this central, singular
viewpoint suggests the individualism of entrepreneur-
ial capitalism, and thus constitutes a set of pictorial
conventions that affirm a political ideology. Some
artists might argue to the contrary, that this condition
is what makes photography capable of expressing a
succinct humanitarian and emotional point of view.
Either way, perspective is important to how the
camera makes ‘‘reality’’ an interpretive process.IMAGE CONSTRUCTION: PERSPECTIVE