The Art of photography

WhattheCameraSees:MakingaFinePhotograph

lesstreeandanofficebuildingacrossthestreet;thelongviewofthearcade;

thereflection

ofthecolumn;andtheglasswallitself.

Shallheincludealltheseingredientsorpareawaysome?Thearcadecon-

veysthelookofmodernurbanarchitecture,butseemswrongforhispurpose.

Itleadstheeyeawayfromthetrees,whicharecentralcharactersinthepicture

hewantstomake.Butifhedoesnotshowthearcade,howcanhe expressthe

flavorofurbanarchitecture?

Theanswercomesatonce:Thereflectionofthe

officebuildingacrossthestreetwillcommunicatethelookofthecityscape.He

doesnotneedthearcadeatall.Byeliminatingit,hegains,becausethespecif-

iclocationofthesetreesisnowobscured.Theycouldbeanywhere,inany

city—

a

valuableambiguitybecauseitbroadens

themeaningofhispicture.

Assessing

theotherreflections,hedecidesthattheleafless,outdoortree

shouldbeeliminatedtoo.Itstrikeshimasconfusingandinappropriate.Heis

concernedwithaconflictbetweenlivingplantsandinanimatebuildings.The

thrustofhisthemewouldbeblunted

by

aleafless treesuggesting

somestate

ofhalf-death.

Hedecidestoskipthattreeandthearcade.

The

reflectedcars,ontheotherhand,arepertinenttohisstatementabout

naturalversusman-madethings,andhedecidestoincludetheminthepic-

ture.Finallythereisthereflectionoftheblackcolumnitself.It

wouldbe

possibletorevealthe

columnforwhatitisbyaimingthecameraslightly

downward

toshowthebasereflectedintheglass.Butidentifyingthecolumn

wouldservenopurpose,andhedecidesnotto.However,whilehe

cancon-

cealthecolumn'sreality,hecannot

eliminateitsreflection,forthisdark

imageallowsthetrees

behindtheglasstobevisible.Thenhenoticesare-

semblance

betweentheverticaledgeofthecolumnreflectionandtheshape

ofthebuildingacrossthestreet.

Musingonthissimilarityofshape,

aboldideacomestohim.Iftheinterior

ofthelobby(exceptforthe

treesandwoman)ispitchblackinthepicture,

thestraight

edge

of

thecolumnreflectionmightproducetheillusionofa

hugeblackskyscraperloomingupbehindtheindoortrees.Topulloff

this

illusion,hewillhavetopositionhimselffairly

closetotheglass,excluding

boththereflectedbaseofthecolumn

andtheroofofthearcade;onlyifthese

visualcluesare

missingwilltheviewerbeunabletotellthatdark,straight-

edged

shapefromaskyscraper.

Now

herealizesthatifeverythinginthescene,except

thetreesandwom-

an,isrenderedinaverydarktone,theviewer

willhavenowayofknowing

thatreflectionsmakeup

crucialelementsofthepicture.Theglasswallofthe

lobbywilldisappear.

Andthissuitshispurposeperfectly,becausehewants

treesand
citytobeindirectopposition,withnothingbetweenthem.

Hestepstowardtheglassandpeersthroughhis

viewfindertoseehowthis

schemewillwork.Witha

horizontalformatitdoesnotworkatall;thestrong

EDWARDWESTON:Thephotographer'smost

importantandlikewisemostdifficulttaskisnot

learningtomanagehiscamera,ortodevelop,

or

toprint.Itislearningtoseephotographically

—

thatis,learningtoseehissubjectmatterin

termsofthecapacitiesofhistoolsandprocesses,

so

that

hecaninstantaneouslytranslate

theelementsandvaluesinascenebeforehim

intothephotographhewantstomake.