Bat Boy is an adaptation of the book by Farley and Flemmng that narrate the story of half-boy and half-bat who was found in cave. The plot inspired the directors to create a stage adaptation. Although the musical differs a bit from the details presented in the plot, but the main idea is still preserved. The musical touches upon very urgent and serious themes such as acceptance, hypocrisy, forgiveness, revenge, racism, and scapegoating that are closely intertwined with such serious moments containing irony, camp-horror and slapstick.
The musical also comprises religious themes related to biblical allusions. In particular, it contains the quotes from Genesis 9:4 and Psalm 23. In addition to this, Act II starts with a revival of faith healer. Although the plot reminds of horror films imbued with the gothic scenes, the musical is still more close to more positive representation of the characters and the events.
The musical production was quite successful due to magnificent play of the actors. The main actor playing Bat Boy/Edgar faced difficult task: he had to show a clear transition from wild and solitary existence in the case to a normal human interaction and socialization. The main hero is forced to learn the keys of human ethics and communication to be able to survive.
Therefore, the actor who played one character at the beginning of the musical should play its antagonist. Such a situation impelled a quick shift in events and situation taking place on the stage. It should also be emphasized that all the characters look cartoon like. Their voice, speech, movements, and gestures were subjected to firmly established stereotypes about horror movies.
On the one hand, such acting perfectly rendered the main idea of the plot – a confrontation of the real and imaginary worlds. The acting team, hence, decides to remain alienated from the audience to emphasize the main idea of the musical and of the original script. In addition, the actors also want to preserves the main features of the musical and its genre so that they try to use music to enhance the impression and to provide the audience with clearer understanding the plot and the problem.
So, when the actors moved, spoke, or sang, they tried to render the seriousness with their poker faces despite the lyric tone of the musical. Such dissonance in gestures and lyrics make the scenes quite funny. In general, the actors succeeded in disclosing the main conception of the musical without resorting to ridiculous costumes and gag lines. Their strength lied in strict observance of the scenario and deep trust in what they were performing on the stage.
Due to the fact that Bat Boy is a musical full of humorous and comic situations and charismatic characters, the director decided to resort to certain appropriate techniques which brought much clarity and accuracy to the plot. The most striking images included a muddle of trees covered with blood red lights of the fog. Besides, the excessive loudness of the sound that was harsh to the ears supplemented the creepy sceneries and images.
The directory did not pay attention to the details, but was striving to present the overall idea of the plot through general settings, dialogues, and songs. In such a way, the directing team managed to render important massages of morality, ethic and human behavior. Therefore, the director did not focus on the comic details, which were moderately presented, which provided a good genera impression. In addition, the cast was perfectly selected and enclosed in the atmosphere.
Along with perfect acting and signing, a successful chemistry was also made up of using unusual decorations. Asymmetric design and unevenness in all details supplement the stage and performance with greater impression. The designer attempted to correlate the creepy decoration with sound to provoke the dissonance and to reach the necessary effect. Designers were striving to presents scenery decorations as a visual metaphor in the best traditional of cult acting and performance.
The confrontation of realistic and fictional setting assisted greatly in understanding the purpose of the musical. It was quite clear to the viewers that the place was based on the so-called real events, but the decoration distorted the real images through the introduction of some absurd and surrealistic elements. Only some elements of the interior helped the audience orient in time and space.
In general, all elements – the setting, the acting and performance, the directing, and design – successfully rendered the atmosphere of the musical and provided a deeper understanding of the original authors’ ideas.
The actors and director created a perfect environment for outlining the main problems of the book and for presented different and more philosophical ideas of the conceptions. In general, the performance has also managed to preserve the core features of the musical that gave priority to futuristic and surrealistic ideas for expressing individuality and uniqueness. Therefore, the stage adaptation and actors’ performance perfectly fit the plot.
Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 film Battleship Potemkin represents a classical example of formalist editing in cinematography. According to most well-known enthusiasts of this style of editing, such as Pudovkin and Eisenstein himself, the semantic significance of film’s mise en scene should not be dialectically explored but rather constructed.
Both individuals tended to perceive the process of movie’s editing as being similar to the process of composing music – just as composer constructs a melody out of individually sounding and often dissonant musical notes, film’s director endows a particular scene with semiotic significance by the mean of providing scene’s takes with contextual wholesomeness.
While outlining the essence of formalist editing, Gianetti (2001) states: “The environment of the scene is the source of the images. Long shots are rare. Instead, a barrage of close-ups (often of objects) provides the audience with the necessary associations to link together the meaning” (p. 157).
Given the fact that Eisenstein never ceased being closely affiliated with promotion of Communist agenda, it comes as not a particular surprise that he had chosen in favor of formalist editing – by juxtaposing scenes’ seemingly unrelated shots, he was able to endow his films with clearly defined ideological sounding.
In the same book from which we have already quoted, Gianetti provides us with the insight onto the actual technique of Eisenstein’s style of editing: “The conflict of two shots (thesis and antithesis) produces a wholly new idea (synthesis). Thus, in film terms, the conflict between shot A and shot B is not AB but a qualitatively new factor—C” (p. 158). In the next part of this paper, we will explore how Eisenstein went about applying the methods of formalist editing in Battleship Potemkin at length.
Analytical part
Even the very beginning of Battleship Potemkin is being perfectly illustrative of how the utilization of formalist editing in film can achieve a strong dramatic effect. At first, there is a take of battleship’s physician wearing a monocle, meant to emphasize his association with the class of bourgeoisie (00.05.43).
After that, follows the shot of maggots crawling all over the piece of meat, which was supposed to serve ship’s sailors as food (00.05.45). After having exposed viewers to this take for a while, Eisenstein sharply replaces it with the shot of angry expression on sailors’ faces (00.05.60). It is needless to mention, of course, that from purely semantic perspective, the sequence of these shots does not make much of a sense.
Nevertheless, after having watched this particular scene, viewers quite unintentionally get to absorb the idea that Eisenstein wanted them to absorb – namely, the fact that, while serving in Russian Imperial Fleet, sailors used to be subjected to a number of different abuses, which had prompted them to revolt. Just as it is being often the case with today’s TV commercials, the main idea that combined earlier mentioned shots into something that conveyed cognitively recognizable ideological message, only existed in director’s imagination.
And, it is namely the fact that Eisenstein was a master of psychological manipulation, which had allowed him to impose his obscure and morally repugnant ideas upon viewers as representing some objective value.
Another clue as to the actual essence of Eisenstein’s formalist editing can be found in the scene where revolutionary speakers address angry mob (00.41.32 – 00.42.19). Given the fact that Battleship Potemkin is a silent movie, exposing viewers to the sight of crazed revolutionaries encouraging marginalized crowds to kill nobles, while intensely gesturing, making angry faces and spewing saliva, during the course of the process, does not appear rationally motivated – after all, there is no sound in the movie.
Nevertheless, by having this particular scene presented in his film, Eisenstein did not aim at subjecting viewers to Communist propaganda per se, but rather at making them cognitively comfortable with this propaganda as a concept, because on subconscious level, people tend to associate emotional intensity with intellectual honesty.
In other words, just as it is being the case with the shots of maggots crawling over the piece of meat, the shots of hook-nosed political activists instigating ‘proletarians’ to overthrow Czar had served the cause of psychological manipulation, on director’s part – a clearly formalist editing technique.
Nevertheless, it is specifically the scene of czarist police shooting at civilians in Odessa, which provides us with the full understanding of how the utilization of formalist editing had helped Battleship Potemkin to attain a cult status.
After police fires a salvo at demonstrators, we get to watch the following sequence of structurally unrelated takes: people running down the ‘Potemkin stairs’ (00.49.23), some kids laying on these stairs and crying, while being stepped upon (00.50.08), a bug-eyed woman experiencing an emotional distress (00.50.12), the older woman making jesters with her hands (00.51.18), one-legged man maneuvering through the running people on his crutches (00.51.48), police officers firing another salvo (00.51.51), woman with a baby in her hands catching the bullet (00.52.53), people running again in a chaotic manner (00.53.07), and finally the baby-carriage with a baby rolling down the stairs on its own (00.54.57), with this shot climaxing the whole scene.
Apparently, Einstein was well aware of the fact that, even though the scenes of police shooting at civilians do not occur very often in reality, his depiction of such a scene nevertheless would be perceived by viewers as perfectly plausible, due to its strongly defined emotional undertones. In their turn, these undertones had been brought about by director’s mastery in utilization of formalist editing.
Conclusion
Even though that in ‘artsy’ circles, the application of formalist editing in cinematography is being often considered as the only appropriate, due to such editing’s ‘sophistication’, the majority of movie goers do not subscribe to this point of view.
And, this has nothing to do with their lessened intellectual abilities, as is being implied by enthusiasts of ‘auteur’ genre in cinematography, but simply with the fact that this style of editing does not correspond to the linearly defined workings of Westerners’ psyche. In formalistically edited movie, there is very little of an actual movie, but mostly theory.
The watching of Einstein’s Battleship Potemkin is like observing Malevich’s Black Square painting – without having been introduced to both individuals’ highly irrational and superficially sophisticate life-philosophies, it would prove quite impossible to define the actual significance of their cinematographic/artistic creations’ themes and motifs, if we assume that they do exist. As Gianetti had put it: “Eisenstein’s theories of collision montage have been explored primarily in the avant-garde cinema, music videos, and TV commercials.
Most fiction filmmakers have found them too intrusive and heavy-handed” (p. 168). Thus, even though in Battleship Potemkin Einstein did succeed with providing an emotional appeal to the Communist cause, he nevertheless had failed in making this particular movie watchable – after all, viewers do not particularly enjoy the feeling of being intellectually manipulated by the mean of being forced to accept director’s own ideological agenda as representing an undeniable truth-value.
Painting is an effective tool for reflecting artists’ feeling and emotions, sufferings, frustrations. It also discloses what is impossible to see in reality. Pictures can display people’s vices and virtues. All facets of human life are revealed on the paintings of two great artists – Alice Neel and Hung Liu.
Using different techniques for disarming various ideas, both artists put the reality to the forth. However, Neel’s paintings convey social value of art where the artist attempts to portray the essence of human lives. Moreover, she tries to capture the people’s hidden truths and psychological state through strokes, lines, and colors.
In contrast, Liu is also attached to disclosing people’s fates and their role in culture and history but through the use of drip techniques. Though both artists are committed to different styles, their portraits render the power of relations through invigorating various gestures movements, postures, and objects associated with loss, anxiety, and psychological states.
It should be stressed that both artists attain the importance to lines in their painting, using its quality and forms to exaggerate or highlight either psychological nature or cultural issues. However, the tools for representation do not dominate in the pictures; rather, they emphasize the importance of themes they explore.
Hence, Neel made of use of lines to create a portrait in name, but in fact the portraits she painted were abstract presentations of psychological relations. In her painting depicting Nancy and the Twins, Neel depicts such important and painful themes for her as children and motherhood. Looking at the canvas, one can notice Neel’s concerns with the description of a specific person.
In documentary film Alice Neel released in 2007, the artists itself stated, “Whether I am painting or not, I have this overwhelming interest in humanity. Even if I am not working, I’m still analyzing people” (Alice Neel, n. p.) Interpreting this, all her paintings encapsulate a deep psychological analysis that comes to the forth, but not a physical appearance.
Hung Liu is also more concerned with portraying people from different epochs whose fates are attached to Cultural Revolution in China. Having a very sharp sense of history, the artist makes use of drip techniques that serve as figurative metaphors depicting the loss of cultural memory.
In her masterpieces, Hung incorporates those drips to make people understand that each person is a part of history and culture. Those drips are both dissolving and unifying; these created lines highlight the importance of figurative representations. Like Neel, Hung is also attached to the power of relations between artistic techniques and people’s fates and psychological states (Sayre 48).
In conclusion, it should be stressed that both artists are more attached to abstract representations of key themes of humanity. Though they depict the power of relations through the use of different techniques, both of them attain little important to the description of appearance.
All objects, lines, and strokes serve to convey in-depth ideas and concerns that are closely connected with the artists’ life. In addition, although Hung’s masterpieces seems to be more abstract and less transparent, Neel’s representations of human sole just as the way she sees it also amazes with it artlessness and directness. Experimenting on styles and approaches, Neel and Hung seem to be highly loyal to their philosophical goals and artistic themes.
Works Cited
Alice Neel Dir. Andrew Neel. Perf. Alice Neel, Michel, Auder, Philip Bonosky. See Think Films, 2007, Film.
Sayre, Henry M. A Word of Art. US: Pearson Education, 2009. Print.
The book under consideration is called Living with Art and it is dedicated to the analysis of tools and approaches for students better understand the essence of visual arts. Providing a great number of examples, the first part of the books evaluates the nature, elements, and vocabulary of art, presenting a solid ground for student to learn to analyze and assess art successfully (Getlein 12).
The rest of the reading is devoted to the historical study of art, bringing students to better comprehending of art in the context of time and place. In order to conceive the main principles and importance of art, the book provides a range of images illustrating different historic and cultural periods. Analyzing all these elements in general can help learners to better understand visual arts embodying human experience and realize that living in the world of art means living with yourself.
Main Ideas Presented in the Book
The book discusses the art as the main instrument for assessing history, culture, and other significant terrains of human life. Beginning with mere definition of the essence of art and ending with historical and cultural analysis of visual artistic items, the authors makes an effective introduction to different artistic elements, purposes, and styles (Getlein 38). The author provides the analysis of art from several perspectives: purposes and themes of art, the meaning of art, and individual approach and techniques used in part.
What is more important, the author presents art from the historic viewpoint disclosing its value in term of representing historic facts and events. While introducing various themes of art, the author dedicates one-page discussion of a particular art item, and short essays on such topics as public art and restoration. Finally, using different small photos as visual references to particular works and topics, the author strives to initiate the reader into the historic evaluation and discussion of the past.
Discussing the Main Strengths of the Book
The presented reading is quite informative and compelling, as it exhaustively discloses the main tools and elements of visual arts and their role in maintaining cultural and historical heritage of humanity. Throughout the chapters, the author attempts to draw the link between textual information and attached illustrations contributing to better understanding of those visual elements.
It should also be noted that author pays specific attention to the analysis of different types of art with regard to its role in political, social, and cultural life of people. Beginning with general introduction of art goals and missions, proceeding to the main artistic tendencies and styles, and ending with large-scale references to religion, history, and culture, the author skillfully emphasize the global aesthetic impart of art on all spheres of life.
A special consideration deserves the presentation of images, illustrations, and photos in the reading. Particularly, the author makes a skillful combination of images and references providing better comprehension of particular ideas, topics, and artistic terms.
Discussing the Main Weaknesses of the Book
Although the book provide a lot of useful information about art and main artistic principles applied in art, the structure of the books seems to be incomplete. For instance, it is difficult to feel the integrity of the entire text, as the two parts of the books provide completely different perspectives.
In addition, extraordinary consideration of details somehow diverts attention from the main idea of the books. One way of another, the artistic presentation of the books and author’s aspiration to disclose the aesthetic influence on human experience is still worth regarding.
Analyzing the Implications for Studying the Main Principles of Art
This comprehensive art tutorial can be easily introduced to the process of study because the book does not only represent the art in different context, but the book itself embodies the main artistic elements. Careful planning and allocation of illustrations makes the books convenient for readers to apply to the readings. Using several approaches and perspectives of visual art representation can considerably contribute to readers’ understanding of the major tendencies in art media and chronological history schemes.
Taking everything into consideration, the book is of great use for readers who want to conceive the main instruments of visual art and the way it contributes to disclosing the most significant fields of human life. Aside from theoretical frameworks presented, all concepts and principles are integrated into successful examples of visual art.
Conclusion
In general the book presents a multidimensional approach to considering the role of visual art in human life. In particular, presenting a great number of examples, the author skillfully integrates theoretical and factual information, disclosing the essence of illustrations and their historical and cultural origin.
Structuring the book into several parts, the author strives to present various perspectives of art and how they are connected with social, cultural, and political life. Using various techniques and approaches, the books provides an impression of elegance, quality, just as the book on art ought to provide. In general, the book serves as a great contribution to better understanding of the main principles and elements of art.
Works Cited
Getlein, Mark. Living with Art. McGraw-Hill Humanities, 2005. Print.
Based on the life of serial kill Aileen Wuornos, the movie “Monster” incorporates a self narrative by the main character to drive the story and create greater character depth. The method of filming is reminiscent to the style used by Ken Loach in which the films have an incredible amount of authenticity and feeling of realness to them.
This is not to be confused with styles of the Blair Witch, Cloverfield or reality based programming instead this type of style is defined by brightness of the entire scene wherein the director is not attempting artificially to tell the audience watching that a particular individual is the lead actor.
Rather the audience is given this feeling by the actor showing a sense of vulnerability in the scenes which brings the apparent “realness” to the forefront of the audience’s mind. It must be noted that the director of the film, Patty Jenkins, was also responsible for creating the popular HBO series Entourage, where the realism and vulnerability of the characters seen in the movie Monster is also incorporated into the characters of the Entourage series.
Examining the Movie Settings
Before I go into detail about the setting used in the movie I would like to mention one strange aspect that I noticed, namely the director utilizing a strange bright light theme throughout the movie. For other people it may be an inconsequential detail but for me it was a curious oddity.
Throughout the various scenes in the film whether it was inside a bar, out at night or within a dark house the darkness never seemed to manifest itself. The inside of the bar was not dark, the night time scenes did not appear dark at all and various locations that should have been dark appeared to have some form of lighting involved.
A closer examination of the film editing process reveals that some scenes were artificially enhanced to show more light than others. This means that either a special lens was used on the camera to capture a greater lighting effect or a certain type of editing technique was used.
The reason this is noticeable is because movies with the same genre such as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, Jason and various other movies based on serial killers used darkness as a way to emphasize the dark themes of the movie. In fact I can state with little doubt that it was darkness itself that was used as a means to add suspense to those movies.
Here the darkness is not emphasized at all and even seems artificially subdued. It is unlikely that this is a mere coincidence as such it can be assumed that this was an intentional feature done by the director to differentiate the film from other serial killer movies. In a way what the director attempted to do was have the audience focus on the development of the characters in the story rather than attempt to frighten the audience.
The settings and locations of the movie are quite sparse, similar to scenes that you can see in various small towns dotted across the U.S. An examination of the budget for the film shows that a total of $8 million was used in filming Monster as such the sparseness may either be due to the limited budget or the intentions of the director to focus on the interaction of the characters amongst themselves.
Overall from start to finish the apparent sparseness of the setting did not matter in the least, in fact it contributed to helping the audience focus on the actions of the characters.
Camera Angles
One popular camera angle used to display psychological uneasiness is the Dutch shot or tilted angle shot. It is actually widely used in various present day movies due its ability to show an apparent psychological unease on the part of a character due to the change in camera angle.
In the movie Monster this shot is rarely used, instead the film primarily focuses on either medium or close range shots. Shots such as high angle or low angle shots are also rare with most the film being shot in a linear fashion (though they are used in scenes depicting violence or murder).
Again similar to the issue with the lighting this is also an intentional part of the filming process. The reason behind this lies with the fact that short to medium range shots are the best at showing the facial expression and emotions of the characters and they are also effective in showing the body language of the actor as well.
It must be noted that the purpose of the director in the movie is to have the main character lead the scene rather than the scene leading the main actor. For those of you not familiar with this phrase, movies such as The Matrix series, Star Wars and the classic movie Jumanji are all examples of movies where the scenes move the character.
In such movies actions revolve around an external factor being introduced into the scene whereupon the main character has to act on it. In movies such as Monster, Erin Brokovich and Castaway the scenes are led by the actions of the characters within it rather than an external force such as a sentinel attack in the Matrix, a sudden invasion by the Empire as seen in Star Wars or a sudden stampede coming through a wall in Jumanji.
Another interesting aspect to take note of is that the camera itself blurs extras in the backgrounds even during long range shots while intently focusing on the main characters in the film. While this is a widely used technique it must be noted that such a technique is usually used when the intent of the director is to focus on character development.
Color grading of the Film
Directors these days tend to color grade their film to suit certain styles, for example the Matrix has a distinctly greenish color grading which conforms to theme of the green lighted text that represents digital code in the movie. Ocean’s 12 used a distinctly orange color grading scheme while the movie 300 used a faded reddish orange color grading scheme.
While certain color schemes do add a certain unique quality to films they tend to distract audiences away from the actions of the main characters and focus more on the background visuals. This is evident in the Matrix and 300 where the stunning backgrounds used in the films are enhanced by the color scheme used to have audiences focus on the backgrounds.
Unfortunately such a technique has been used so many times that it has lost much of each appeal. In the movie Monster instead of colors being enhanced they are actually subdued. For example every time the main character looks at the mirror the subdued colors of her hair strands and skin are immediately apparent. While most people might think that this could just be the work of effective hair dyes an examination of the rest of the film shows that all the scenes have a subdued color scheme.
In other words instead of an enhanced color scheme the director went in another direction and chose to subdue the colors instead. The reason behind this is once again connected to the theme of character development. The subdued colors and apparently sparse backdrops further showcase the actions of the main character with the audience focusing on the actions of Charlize Theron rather than what is going on in the background.
Lack of Animation and Visual Effects
Despite being made in 2003 the movie lacks any animation or visual effect, on the other hand it could can be stated the movie itself just does not require them. Movies that focus on character development rarely have a visual effect and as such this movie is a clear cut example of a film that just does not require them despite the popularity of visual effects at the time.
Painting is considered by many as a realm that does speak first to the eye and thereafter captivates every part of the soul. Usually, formal interest is followed in the viewer’s mind as the meaning of the piece of artwork unfolds. Other interests also come in tandem with whatever one attaches to the piece. It must be mentioned that any artistic work is derived from other arts or perhaps from other mundane fields.
Nevertheless, any such work may be fraught with symbolism, story-telling or may contain discursive achievements stemming from philosophy that contribute to the image one can abstract from it. “The Crucifixion” that was painted by Nicolas Poussin, the French artist, is an image that reflects the thinking pattern of the period and a radical rebellion to rationalism and classicism that pervaded the psyche of the 18th century Europeans.
The painting also reflects the degree of enigma that the artist attached to the historical episode that he endeavored to reproduce in the form of art. The paper discusses Poussin’s painting “The Crucifixion” as portrayed in Montreal Museum of Fine Arts vis-à-vis other paintings influenced by romantic art movement.
Nicolas Poussin “The Crucifixion”
Nicolas Poussin is considered one of France’s gifted sons in the field of painting. He was an instrumental figure during the establishment of classical style in French painting as a style whose distinguishing features were the rational order and stability.
Therefore, Poussin’s artwork depicts elevated and learned themes with higher degree of formalism and painstaking evocation of the antique. Moreover, his paintings demonstrated order, accuracy clarity, discipline ambition, amplitude, certitude and severity. Poussin learnt this style of art in Rome where he travelled at the age of thirty and ended up living there for the rest of his life.
His painting of “The Crucifixion” can be categorized under the works of fine art done in the nineteenth century. The masterpiece is conspicuous among its contemporaries in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts given the unique skills and materials that the artist used to produce it.
In this piece of work, Poussin in his characteristic style of artistry endeavors to transmedialize the scriptural narrative into a visual picturesque produced by the composition of color and lines. In the painting, Poussin shows the crucifixion of Christ in a Tuscan landscape with characters in the traditional Italian attire. He makes the scene appear as real as possible by placing it in a contemporary setting.[1]
The main focus of Poussin was the presentation of historically accurate images of sacred scenes. Looking at the picture from the left margin one notices an emotional stranger, who is somehow sequestered from the remaining images observing the scene.
Perhaps he may have been one of the Jews mentioned in one of the gospels (John 19:20) as hailing from nearby town having come to read the trilingual inscription on Jesus’ cross.[2] This anonymous bystander could have been used by the artist as a representation of the viewer, given the emotional turmoil that the painting stirs. The figure below shows Poussin’s “The Crucifixion” adopted from Artsunlight.[3]
The Movement that Influenced Poussin’s Paintings
Poussin was greatly influenced by the various philosophical movements of the time that shaped the outcome of his numerous artworks. At the time of “The Crucifixion” painting, romanticism was the philosophy that shaped people’s psyches including Poussin’s. However, movements of art such as rococo, naturalism, and realism existed side by side with romanticism for they explicated a common technique. For this reason, they were presented as a common denominator that was underlying the artistic work of the time.
It suffices to say, therefore, that all these movements played a role, however insignificant, in Poussin’s artistic work. Similarly, realism and naturalism, aside from being constructs of political and social structures at the time, influenced the paintings of this period, which were categorized under “subjects”.
Artists who adhered to rococo techniques, on the other hand, used delicate colors and curving forms and beautifully decorated their canvases with cherubs and myths of love. Additionally, portraiture was a popular phenomenon with rococo arts.
The extent to which romanticism as a movement influenced “The Crucifixion” is embedded in the salient features that characterized it. Romanticism began in the late eighteenth century to mid nineteenth century. It was an artistic and intellectual movement that stressed radicalism against the established social and religious structures.
As such, the movement hailed subjectivism, individualism, imagination, subjectivism, emotions, as well as nature. Artists who subscribed to this movement adored nature, their clairvoyance, passions and inner struggles, among inclinations. These artists explored human nature, folk culture, the medieval era, the mysterious, and even the diabolic.[4]
“The Crucifixion” is evidently an expression of Romantic Movement given the imagery that it conjures up in a spectator. From the painting, one can see how Poussin presents the emotional experience of those aggrieved following Christ’s crucifixion such as Mary Magdalene, Mary his mother, the disciple whom he loved, and a host of bystanders who must have been thrilled by the occurrence.
The inclusion of the two thugs who were crucified with Jesus in the piece of artwork depicts the artist’s exploration of the human nature that subjectively reflects his feelings for the victims.
Furthermore, the figure of a lone bystander has been used perhaps by the artist to enable the viewer to contemplate his or her conception of the scenario. To this extent, therefore, it can be said that the painting of Nicolas Poussin was influenced by romanticism. “The Crucifixion” merits being categorized as one of the artworks of this movement given that it bears the features that resonate with the styles of similar works.
It is worthy of mentioning that Poussin’s painting “The Crucifixion” was also influenced by the works of a renowned renaissance artist who lived between 1483 and 1520 in Italy called Raffaelo Sanzio.
The painter did admire his mentor, Raffaelo, for his characteristic classical forms and balanced compositions that were in perfect harmony consequently divorced of the cacophonous emotions of the contemporary painting. As a matter of fact, artworks such as Raphael’s School of Athens was of particular influence to the artist. Poussin actually struggled to copy this skill by returning to the piece over and over again as an inspiration for the complex and multi-figure compositions.[5]
The influence of Raphael on Poussin work was indeed great. The indication of this was reflected in the artist’s 1633 painting with his historical and/or biblical subjects, not to mention “The Crucifixion”.
In “The Shepherds of Arcadia” painting for instance, he invites viewers to contemplate the world. The painting’s main motif is “the comforting gesture of the woman who is placing her hand on the shoulder of the young shepherd. The central theme in Poussin’s work is effectively humanism”[6]. Just as Raphael did, Poussin invites the view to meditate on the painting.
Poussin became the most respected artists in Roman artistic society. However, the classicism that formed the skeleton of his art contrasted to the excitement and vivacity of Baroque.
This artistic movement that occurred in the dusk of seventeenth century and the dawn of eighteenth century was distinguished by freedom of forms, the hunger for movement, the abundance of ornamentation, and finally, the growth of passion. It is worthy of noting at this point that the founding of Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture[7] broadened the span of influence of Poussin to subsequent generations.
“The Crucifixion” and other Paintings of Romantic Movement
The most defining feature in “The Crucifixion” painting by Poussin is its landscape layout besides other characteristics. Landscape painting was common in romantic artworks where focus was on nature and its immensity as compared to people. The moods of nature were frequently used to show the varying states of mind and moods of people. A closer look at the Poussin’s piece of artwork shows that the painter used the mood of nature, the dark background in the painting, to symbolize the somber mood that characterized the crucifixion of Christ.
A comparison can be made between Poussin’s “Crucifixion” and John Constable’s “Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden” that was painted in 1820. In this painting, the picturesque created by the landscape in the background compares well with that in the “The Crucifixion” which was pioneered by Poussin.
John Constable framed the cathedral with trees and people walking about the paths and cattle grazing beside the stream. The picture below from PaintingHere.com[8] shows Constable’s painting with the landscape resembling that in the Poussin’s work save for the different messages that they relay.
Another painting that compares with “The Crucifixion” as far as the theme is concerned is Theodore Gericault’s “The Raft of Medusa”. Melancholic theme as a feature of romantic art movement pervades both artistic works.
While in Poussin’s work Christ is ignominiously crucified with sympathizers looking on in sorrow, Gericault’s painting expresses a scenario of pandemonium with instinctive impulse to survive after a shipwreck.[9] The two paintings also share the historical approach in which their subjects are stricken with agony; that is, they report historical events in the form of images that replicates the feeling of the time upon contemplation by the spectator.[10]
All the above paintings were considered part of Romantic Movement because of the impressions that they created. The themes that they expressed such as sorrow resulting from the exploration of human nature that the movement advocated. Moreover, their historical contexts that make the spectator re-live the events and experience similar feelings that occurred at the time indicate their romantic background.
Conclusion
“The Crucifixion” artwork by Nicolas Poussin was a masterpiece of art that the artist worked on with finesse thereby bringing into existence landscape painting that would be emulated later by subsequent painters.
The outstanding nature of this painting among its contemporary at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts ensues from the materials that were used to produce it together with the rare skills that Poussin employed in its production. The landscaping style that he invented in this painting gave it the high rank compared to other artworks by different painters.
The painting conformed to the features of romantic art movement given its overt presentation of emotions, sorrow, use of landscaping, subjectivity, and historical contextualization. Similarly, other works by Theodore Gericault and John Constable share in the influence of the romantic art. Poussin was also influenced by the grandeur paintings of Raphael who practiced during renaissance period.
Bibliography
Artble, Nicolas Poussin. Web.
Artsunlight. The Crucifixion. Web.
Carrier, David, Principles of art history writing. Philadelphia, PENN: Penn State Press, 1993, p. 187.
Fried, Michael. Manet’s modernism, or, The face of painting in the 1860s. Chicago, ILL: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Honour, Hugh. Romanticism. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1979.
Nicolas Poussin (1594 – 1665), para. 7. Web.
Painting Here., John Constable Salisbury Cathedral Painting. Web.
Plett, Heinrich. Rhetoric and Renaissance Culture. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter, 2004, p. 330.
Footnotes
Carrier, David, Principles of art history writing. Philadelphia, PENN: Penn State Press, 1993, p. 187.
Plett, Heinrich. Rhetoric and Renaissance Culture. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter, 2004, p. 330.
Artsunlight. The Crucifixion.
Honour, Hugh. Romanticism. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1979, p. 55.
Artble, Nicolas Poussin.
Nicolas Poussin (1594 – 1665), para. 7.
The Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture was founded in 1648 under the patronage of Mazarin. This academy was a center for teaching, exhibiting, and in most instances controlling patronage. The academy was established to professionalize the artists working for the French court and license them, a practice that was lacking in the rival St. Luke’s guild.
PaintingHere.com, John Constable Salisbury Cathedral Painting.
Fried, Michael. Manet’s modernism, or, The face of painting in the 1860s. Chicago, ILL: University of Chicago Press, 1998, p. 94.
The painting shows the wreckage of a ship christened Medusa that went down and the captain together with senior officers save themselves with six lifeboats and abandoned the remaining 149 passengers and other crew members. The captain though left them a raft that floated for almost a fortnight killing all but fifteen people due to extreme weather, starvation, and revolt.
Ever since the phenomenon of rap’s popularity came to public prominence, the actual significance of this musical genre has been discussed from a variety of different socio-political, cultural and aesthetic perspectives. For example, according to Bohlman (1993), rap allows representatives of racial minorities to channel their frustration with their underprivileged social status: “Black music (rap) had become a simulacrum for the contestation of public space by groups forced to compete for the limited resources they offered” (412).
Sullivan (2003), on the other hand, suggests that rap is being regarded by its fans as the tool of undermining euro-centric cultural oppression: “Rap music and the styles of dance associated with it serve as forms of resistance to the dominant culture” (611). Nevertheless, even though earlier mentioned conceptualizations of rap do provide us with a partial insight onto rap’s socio-political implications, they nevertheless remain quite ignorant of rap’s music-related discursive connotations.
In this paper, we will aim to show that, even though, as of today, rap cannot be considered a fully legitimate musical genre, such situation will not last for much longer. Moreover, we will also strive to prove that there are good reasons to think of rap in terms of a ‘breeding ground’, out of which qualitatively new musical conventions will eventually emerge.
The brief analysis of what used to traditionally account for musical pieces’ ability to end up being referred to as masterpieces, will reveal an undeniable correlation between such pieces’ perceptional greatness and the sheer intensity of an aesthetic message, conveyed by them. In Bach’s toccatas, for example, the extent of such intensity is being reflective of particulars of these works’ technical composition: “(In Bach’s toccatas)
The dissipation of counter-stress through tonal and durational enlargement on a hypermetric scale is a major compositional issue” (Willner 1989, 289). While composing his toccatas, Bach would often go as far as violating a variety of early 18th century’s musical conventions, which in its turn, can be explained by his unwavering possession of a strong will-power (ego). As the result, Bach was able to go down in the history of music as genius.
The same can be said about another major European composer, which is now being often referred to as musical genius – Ludwig van Beethoven. Even though, at the end of his life, Beethoven started to become increasingly deaf, it never prevented him from continuing to compose music.
And, it namely the fact that Beethoven’s latest works, composed while he was already half-deaf, appear to be particularly emotionally-charged (intense), which prompts today’s critics to think of these works as being the most valuable, in artistic context of this word: “Beethoven’s late works were in fact his greatest and that his loss of hearing was beneficial, even vital, to the creative process” (Knittel 1998, 51).
In other words, just as we had mentioned earlier, one of the major keys to musical piece’s high aesthetic value, is the extent of its emotional intensity, which in its turn, derives out of composer’s endowment with existential vitality. It is namely due to the fact that the workings of their creative genius have not been obstructed by any form of ideological oppression, concerned with imposing perceptional feminization upon men (in form of ‘political correctness’, for example), that such composers as Bach and Beethoven were able to gain a world-wide fame.
In the light of what has been said earlier, the popularity of rap in Western countries appears perfectly explainable. Apparently, while being emotionally intense and semiotically aggressive, rap music emanates particularly high extent of existential vitality, on the part of its creators. What is existential vitality? This notion can be vaguely defined as person’s ability to observe objective laws of nature, while facing life’s challenges.
And, given the fact that most of these laws are being closely associated with the concept of survival of the fittest, it comes as not a particular surprise that, it is specifically due to rappers’ ability to emanate raw power – hence, exposing the artificialness of politically correct notions, which makes this music especially attractive to those men, in which masculine drives had not been completely atrophied.
In its turn, this partially explains rap’s clearly misogynistic overtones: “In this genre of rap music, women are reduced to mere objects—objects that are only good for sex and abuse and are ultimately a burden to men” (Adams & Fuller 2006, 940).
Yet, it is important to understand that rap singers are being the least concerned with exposing women in derogative light as ‘thing in itself’. Rap’s misogynistic motives are simply reflective of rappers’ emotional attunement with objectively existing laws of biology, to which people are being subjected in the same manner as plants and animals.
After all, within the specie of Homo Sapiens, males represent a dominant gender – pure and simple, as it is being the case within just about every specie of primates. Therefore, even though rapping about ‘bitches’ may not sound particularly pleasing to one’s sensitive ears, it nevertheless does not undermine such rapping’s conceptual objectivity. After all, Bach, Beethoven and Wagner have also been known for their misogynistic attitudes. This, however, does not make them less of musical geniuses.
Therefore, it is quite inappropriate to refer to rap as specifically Black musical genre. After all, as time goes on, rap continues to gain fans out of just about every ethno-cultural group in America. In the article, from which we have already quoted, Sullivan states: “Rap’s popularity has increased significantly since 1992, and the White audience for rap has increased” (611). The reason why many White males nevertheless continue to regard rap as ‘criminal music’ is that, unlike Black males, their existential mode has been overly feminized.
After all, it is not a secret that, as of today, many White yuppies do not think that there is anything wrong with them to be concerned with polishing nails, as one of their foremost priorities. While never ceasing to profess their belief in ‘multicultural tolerance’, they nevertheless prefer to reside in secluded White suburbia, while being terrified of a prospect of venturing out of their houses to take a leisurely stroll in the ‘hood’, especially after it gets dark.
Yet, even among Whites, there are still many people capable of appreciating music as not solely decorative element of a surrounding reality, but as the instrument of revealing such reality’s very essence – the phenomenon of Eminem’s popularity, substantiates the validity of an earlier suggestion. It is because in his rap lyrics, Eminem was able to reveal the qualitative subtleties of a relationship between men and women with perfect clarity, without paying attention to the dogmas of political correctness, which allowed him to become a celebrity.
Therefore, we cannot agree with Stephens (2005), who discusses the phenomenon of Eminem from perspective of a self-appointed guardian of conformist morality, which has nothing to do with how world actually works: “It is unclear if he (Enimen) is a sophisticated satirist and/or a shameless exploiter reveling in misogyny and homophobia for commercial gain” (21).
Apparently, it never occurred to the author that the key to Eminem’s popularity is the sheer power of his lyrics, which in its turn, derives out of artist’s ability not to simply state the truth, while rapping, but to relate to this truth on emotional level. Just as it used to be the case with Bach, Beethoven and Wagner, in their times, Eminem does not simply compose music – he ‘lives’ his music.
When being assessed within the context of earlier provided line of argumentation, the suggestion that rap music may be thought of as the new form of minstrelsy, does not appear thoroughly appropriate. After all, it was namely the prospect of receiving a material reward from feudals, which motivated minstrels to indulge in composing music more than anything else did.
Today’s rappers, on the other hand, think of rap as primarily the tool of emphasizing their individuality. This is the reason why; whereas, minstrels’ chances to succeed professionally correlated with the strength of their determination to conform to musical conventions of the time, rappers’ chances to attain fame reflect the strength of their determination to do something opposite – to defy contemporary conventions of music.
What it means is that rap should be discussed as nothing less than revolution in music – just as it was the case with European greatest composers, most rappers are being overfilled with energy, which is exactly the reason why their rap-lyrics radiate raw power, as these lyrics’ foremost characteristic.
This also explains why, just as was the case with Beethoven and Wagner, for example, rappers do not seem to be simply preoccupied with indulging in purely artistic activities, but also with trying to expose the hypocritical aspects of today’s living: “Rather than ignoring the social inequities that persisted in their neighborhoods, rappers became the ultimate capitalists by creating and owning a music form designed to expose inequities and social contradiction” (Richardson & Scott 2002, 184).
Apparently, rappers are being fully aware of the fact that, in order for music to represent a high artistic value, it must emotionally correspond to the very essence of people’s socio-political anxieties. This is exactly the reason why, unlike today’s avant-garde musical forms, such as ‘visual music’, for example, rap continues to grow ever-more appealing to the broader audiences.
Nowadays, rap music can be heard on the streets, in people’s cars, in student campuses, etc. Thus, it appears to be only the matter of very short time, before rap will attain the status of fully legitimate musical genre, even in the eyes of its pretentiously sophisticate critics.
The reason for this is simple – rap is essentially an artistic actualization of physically and mentally adequate people’s existential energy, which is why its emergence was dialectically predetermined. Allegorically speaking, rap is small but highly competitive mammal, which is about to take on dinosaurs of conventional music.
We believe that such our conclusion is being fully consistent with paper’s initial hypothesis that rap should not only be regarded as one of many musical genres, but also as discursive matrix, out of which new musical conventions may eventually arise.
References
Adams, Terri & Fuller, Douglas “The Words Have Changed But the Ideology Remains the Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music.” Journal of Black Studies 36.6 (2006): 938-957.
Bohlman, Philip “Musicology as a Political Act.” The Journal of Musicology 11.4 (1993): 411-436.
Knittel, K. M. “Wagner, Deafness, and the Reception of Beethoven’s Late Style.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 51.1 (1998): 49-82.
Richardson, Jeanita & Scott, Kim “Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America’s Culture of Violence in Context.” The Journal of Negro Education 71.3 (2002): 175-192.
Stephens, Vincent “Pop Goes the Rapper: A Close Reading of Eminem’s Genderphobia.” Popular Music 24.1 (2005): 21-36.
Sullivan, Rachel “Rap and Race: It’s Got a Nice Beat, but What about the Message? “ Journal of Black Studies 33.5 (2003): 605-622.
The Special Exhibition of Cézanne’s work on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until May 8, 2011 confirms the master’s importance and solidifies his influence on modern art as a whole.
Pablo Picasso once characterized Paul Cézanne ‘the father of us all’ – the “all” meaning every painter who identified with the modernist movement – and Cézanne apparently “referred to himself as the Moses of Aix” (Feaver 128). Cézanne is perhaps best known for his 1906 masterpiece “The Large Bathers,” a modern art essential work that served as the inspiration for Picasso’s later masterpiece “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”.
One of the paintings on display in this exhibit is Paul Cézanne’s “The Card Players,” which dates from 1890–92. It is oil on canvas and measures 25 3/4 by 32 1/4 inches. Cézanne was in his early fifties and resided on his family estate at Aix en Provence in France at the time of its inception and execution. Aix en Provence provided the backdrop as well as the subject matter for the work; it was here that he used the local peasants employed by his family on the estate to sit for the paintings.
“The Card Players” is part of the Metropolitan Museum’s Special Collection put together by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The Courtauld Gallery based in London, England. This painting is part of an exhibition that opens with engraved reproductions that locate card playing in its historical and artistic context from Renaissance painters to Flemish and Dutch Baroque masters (Campbell n.p.).
The exhibit also shows Cézanne’s studies used for the Card Players series, as well as three of his five major oil paintings that focus on card playing. The exhibit also houses portraits of some of the men who posed as the original Card Players (Campbell n.p.).
In the “The Card Players,” three men sit playing cards at a table while a fourth watches from the rear of canvas smoking a pipe. Overall it is a monochromatic work: the colours stay within the blue palette, with subtle contrasts of light blues against darker blues, and colder blues that give way to warmer indigo and violet hues.
Red is used to delicate effect – in the cravat of the pipe smoking spectator and upon the face cards on the table. “The Card Players” is a “single figure study,” and the cards at first glance appear to be little more than smudges (Schjeldahl 78). However upon close inspection it is apparent that the “clutter of coarse, arbitrary-seeming strokes” actually comprises flesh and blood men (Schjeldahl 78).
The compilation of images seems to belong together and yet conflict and contrast with each other at the same time. The card players and pipe smoker, painted in a rich tapestry of bronzes and golds, fight the dogmatic nature of the colder blues and grays. In these paintings, the master detail reveals the painter’s obsession with reality, almost as if “Cezanne starts with a psychologically intense close-up and then steps gradually backwards” (Campbell-Johnston 15).
The main draw of the work remains Cézanne’s brushwork. The master was intensely exact and attempted to paint exactly as people saw, “to the testimony of eyesight,” thus the angles within the painting are slightly askew, testifying to the function of vision from the right eye as it moves to the left. The brushwork strikes bold forms into being with dark globs of colour, and he creates “surfaces so exciting that they seem almost to vibrate as you look” (Campbell-Johnston 15).
Essentially Cézanne points out to the viewer the illusion involved in the act of seeing. The net effect on the viewer of this brushwork seems simultaneously haphazard and intricately detailed, and the overall emotional impression of the canvas reflects this paradox. The viewer feels conflicting emotions while observing the canvas – the card players appear simultaneously thrilled and dejected, contented and forlorn, there and not there.
Though he began as an Impressionist, Cézanne doggedly worked through and surpassed Impressionism, as he was “dissatisfied with a style that sacrificed physical structure to retinal sensation.”
Cézanne’s goal was to find a way for painting to mirror the way of seeing, the way the human eye, optic nerve, retina and brain worked together to render meaning out of an endless series of disparate colours and shapes. Cézanne articulated his artistic vision herein: “I want to make of Impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of the museums.”
Cézanne eventually grew to the stature of the “beau ideal of modernist values” (Schjeldahl 78). According to Schjeldahl, his work came to represent for the twentieth century what paintings by Raphael had represented for earlier movements in that Cézanne’s paintings made “our perceptions of art inextricable from how it comes to be. Our eyes and minds, as we look, repaint the picture” (Schjeldahl 78). The exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers viewers a chance to see a modernist master’s work up close and personal.
Works Cited
Campbell, Thomas. “Audio Guide.” www.metmuseum.org. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Special Exhibitions. Web.
Campbell-Johnston, Rachel. “Best show in London? It’s on the Cards; Cezanne’s Meticulous Studies Give his Gamblers a Human Dignity, says Rachel Campbell-Johnston.” Times [London, England] 20 Oct. 2010: 15. Web.
Cézanne, Paul. The Card Players. 1890-1892. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Special Exhibitions, New York. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web.
Feaver, William. “The Moses of Aix.” ARTnews Dec. 1995: 128. Web.
Schjeldahl, Peter. “Game Change.” The New Yorker 28 Feb. 2011: 78. Web.
The film As It Is in Heaven (2004) dwells upon some of the most important planning issues. It portrays the difference between two cultures, urban and rural. It goes without saying that these two cultures shape people’s behavior and their ways of life.
One of the basic differences between the two cultures is community environment. For instance, in urban areas there can hardly be the notion of neighborhood, since in urban areas people are concerned with their problems and do not pay attention to what is going on around them. On the contrary, rural areas are characterized by certain community environment where people know each other, and often intervene in each other’s lives.
It is important to add that public opinion is what people in urban areas ignore in the majority of cases. People simply have no time to watch after someone else. Besides, there are far too many people in urban areas, so everyone is almost invisible in such a crowd. However, in rural areas people try to have positive image and take into account the public opinion, the opinion of people living in the neighborhood.
This peculiarity of rural areas is revealed in the film. For instance, many people (especially women) try to make their neighbors conduct in accordance with high morality. Such people as Siv even have no time for their private life since they keep an eye on the neighborhood.
It goes without saying that such peculiarities of culture shape people’s behavior. As far as urban areas are concerned, people enjoy much individual freedom and that is why they are bolder, so to speak. As for rural communities people do not have much of individual freedom. People are afraid to do something that can evoke negative attitude of neighbors.
Some may say that it is good since people in rural areas are watched and will have to conduct properly. However, this is not the case. In rural areas people often misbehave, but try to conceal their inappropriate behavior. Thus, Gabriella is beaten by a husband and community did not affect her husband to prevent that disgraceful behavior.
However, rural areas provide people with something that cannot be underestimated. In rural areas people feel the support of their neighbors and whenever something bad happens they can count on others to help them. There is almost nothing of this kind in urban areas where people often feel lonely and depressed because of the lack of support and even communication.
I have experience in both cultures so I can point out positive and negative point in both of them. The negative facets of these cultures are as follows: in urban areas people are too distant from each other, and in rural areas it is sometimes quite hard to feel free.
However, I must say that in rural area it is easier to live since people feel support and can count on their neighborhood. I was lucky to live in a rural area where people were not so concerned with morality, and there was quite a lot of individual freedom. Thus, every rule has exceptions, and in urban areas people sometimes feel support.
On balance, I would like to point out that proper and effective planning presupposes that all the peculiarities of these two areas are taken into account. Perfect area for living should include positive points of both cultures and should not have negative facets of these cultures.
Colour and light are two inseparable factors and especially for those in the field of photography. The ability to achieve a perfect composition of colour and strike a balance between colour and light always poses a challenge to many people. How well these two aspects balance largely determine the outcome of the process. This discussion looks at these two very important aspects and how once can achieve balance between them to get that perfect shot.
Colour
While every aspect of photography is important, colour and light are the most fundamental (Verity 23). Colour plays a significant role in determining the content of any picture in terms of emotions. Just by looking at the colour composition of a photograph, it is possible to easily depict the mood that the photographer intends to create.
Every colour has a meaning and depending on how much it has been emphasized, an onlooker can easily derive a message from it. Bright colours like orange and red for instance are a depiction of happiness and excitement. Dull colours on the other hand create a refreshing, relaxing and cool mood. Colour yellow does not create excitement like red does neither is it a colour of relaxation like blue and green are. Instead, yellow brings about a feeling of warmth
Other than creation of moods, colours are also used to create certain desired effects. Depending on the angle of the camera together with the proper framing, it is easy for a photographer to draw great attention to a subject that though is brightly coloured. For example and Indian woman wearing beautifully coloured sari can have the right colours in the sari captured in such a way that the draw attention.
One can also use contrasts of colours to create dynamic patterns and designs. Colour contrasts are always catchy to the eye so that it tends to explore the various colours contrasted. Light also influences colour composition by and large. For instance on sunny day you may want to concentrate on bright colours like red and orange.
However, for a dull cloudy day a combination of saturated colours will work best. The amount of exposure that you give when taking a photograph also influences the colour composition and consequently the final product (Popular Mechanics 23). Therefore if you would like to have some colours subdues, then you may allow more light to pass. On the other hand, when intending to emphasize particular colours less light should be allowed so that such colours can stand out.
Light
Light is said to be an electromagnetic wave that moves through vibration that could be as long as 360 degrees. By definition, light is a radiation that is electromagnetic in nature, which the human eye is able to perceive. Light travels in the form of a wave. The different speeds at which these waves of light travel are perceived as different colours by the human eye. Polarization of light refers to the direction taken the wave of light when it is vibrating.
Usually, when the wave of light is undisturbed, it tends to move and vibrate randomly. The wave of light experience constant changes as it moves buy depending on the medium through which it is passing, it may be polarized in a number of ways. One way in which light is polarized is limiting the direction of vibration so that the wave is only able to vibrate in only on direction. The outcome of such polarization is that the light gets in through a medium is not the same as the one that comes out on the end side of the medium.
Filters are responsible for polarization of light and they do son in varying ways. Some filters polarize by filtering particular colours so that they are no longer visible in the wave of light. Two filters placed together with one bring on top of the other have the effect of being opaque or transparent to light. If these filters were to be turned round, then the light passing through the filters can be sort of turned off and on.
There are those filters that are made in such a way that they do not allow transmission of light. They are known as crossed polarizers. These filters are such that when one allows light form a horizontal angel, the other allows from a vertical angle and thus preventing transmission.
Relationship between Light and Colour
Having discussed colour composition and polarization as two independent concepts let us now shift focus on the relationship that cist between colour and light. It has been said that light has a nature that is considered triple. This is a common argument especially by photographers (Konnen 87).
By this they mean that light has three very essential aspects that are the quality, the direction and the colour. How well one is able to master the three aspects will determine by and large the final images produced and whether ort not one will be able to achieve certain desired effects like the dilution of some colours for purposes of creating certain moods (Hirsh 78).
According to the research and discovery of Isaac Newton, ordinary light as perceived by the human eye has seven rainbow colours namely, red, yellow, green, blue, indigo, orange and violet. Light is therefore a combination of different colours. What appears as pure white light as perceived by the eyes of a human being is light that has these colours well balanced. However, it is not always easy to have light with these balanced colours as the constantly get altered as they travel in form of waves.
The colour of light has a great impact on the mood that an image taken has. It is of great importance therefore for any photographer to understand the concept of lighting and colour composition to use them to his advantage and create the desired effect.
Another very important aspect that must be looked at is what is known as saturation of colours. Simply put, this is the concentration of a given colour. This is also used to mean how intense a given colour is. This means that colours that tend to be very vivid or highly conspicuous are considered saturated. Colours that are somewhat dull on the other hand are considered unsaturated. Lighting affects saturation of colours so that polarized light may reduce saturation so that pretty much of the colour is diluted and the vice versa is true.
Being aware of the existence of this concept, it then becomes important to for photographers to know how to control saturation and use it to their advantage in order to achieve the desired effects and moods. The time of the day by and large affects saturation of colours. This is because the sun being the source of light is at different intensities at different times of the day. When the sun is rising in the morning, the colours at that time tend to be saturated.
This is also the case in the late afternoon. Colours however tend to be less saturated at midday. Therefore, if you were taking the photograph of a landscape, the best time to take the photo would be very early or late afternoon when the sun is about to set to achieve highly saturated colours.
One may also use a filter to alter the saturation of colours. Polarizers are used to increase the intensity or saturation of colours. When light is polarised it has the effect of diluting colours. Thus use of polarisers will help reduce the amount of polarized light coming ion the surface of the image being photographed thus increasing the saturation.
Conclusion
It is indeed of great importance that photographers grasp the concept of polarisation of light and colour composition really well. This is because it is the only way to achieve the best images possible. When one is not clear about either of these two aspects, then they may fail to achieve the desired results in their photographs.
Any poor picture that is produced by a photographer is as a result of failure to balance these two aspects and this makes it all so vital. It is only through experience that one is bale top master these aspects properly. Photography is an art that is perfected over time through constant practice.
Works Cited
Hirsh, Robert. Exploring Colour Photography: From Films to Pixels. London: Focal Press, 2010. Print.
Konnen, Gary. Polarised Light in Nature. New York: CUP Archive, 1985. Print.
Popular Mechanics. “Hearst Magazines.” Volume 76, No 3. New York. Sep 1941.
Verity, Enid. Colour Observed. Michigan: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980. Print.
