Line

Line 

Definition & Theory

• A line represents a "path" between two points.
• A line can be straight, curved, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, or zigzag.
• Lines imply motion and suggest direction or orientation.
• A line can also be implied and is then filled in by the mind when several points are positioned geometrically within a frame.

The direction and orientation of a line can also imply certain feelings 

• Horizontal lines imply tranquillity, peace and harmony
• Vertical lines imply power and strength.
• Diagonal lines imply movement, action and change.
• Curved lines or S shaped lines imply quiet, calm and sensual feelings.
• Lines that converge imply depth, scale and distance - a fence or roadway converges into the distance provides the illusion that a flat two-dimensional image has three-dimensional depth. 

I have included the following visual examples which relate  to the above theory

Research 

A photographer that I researched was Walker Evans.  Walker Evans was an American Photojournalist (1903 - 1975), most of his work documented the everyday life of Americans however he did photograph street images and signs. 

The images above were photographed using Black and white film. I believe that the photos above represent the simplicity of urban America. The prints were purposely made in black and white to attract attention the detail of line that has been created within the photos. The first image that I have looked at indicates motion due to the arrow that is on the street. The arrow is slightly faded which could indicate the constant movement that happened daily in urban America because the paint would have faded due to many cars passing over it. I would like to use this in my work and try to portray movement in other ways. In Evans image of the Shoe shine street store shows  four pairs of shoes neatly ordered in a line. Shoe shine store owners were earning a low income and their customers were usually of a higher class. This image represents higher and lower class citizens living in close proximity to each other. Walker Evans could also be trying to portray that the lower class and poorer people living in that time period were just as important and deserved equal opportunities. This photo is showing the type of businesses poorer citizens had to own to make a living and the photographer wants to show the business owners are helping the community.    

I have also been influenced by another photographer names Peter Keetman. Keetman was born in Germany and worked in a Volkswagen factory. In April 1953 he photographed the factory and this became a series of his most famous work. This series of work focuses on the lining up of construction units and technical details in Volkswagens work.

Peter Keetman focuses on the line that has been created within certain objects. I really like his photography because he looks at very fine details. By turning all of his photos to black and white I feel as though it highlights the finer details because rather than focusing on the colours within the photo you are looking at the depth of the photo itself. The first photo that I have focused on is of water droplets. I believe this photo represents the company of Volkswagen that Keetman worked for. The varied size in water droplets suggests that there are many people working within the company, all with different levels of importance. This could also mean that although everyone has different roles deep down everyone is the same. This is because all of the water droplets are identical in their looks. Keetmans photo of the circular pipes is very eye catching due to the way that the formal element of line has been expressed. This image is of something in a factory however it almost looks as if it could be some sort of coral or beautiful piece of nature. This implies that Keetman wanted to make simple things look different and unique to allow people to use their imagination when looking at his collection of photos. I believe that he took the series of photos purposely for people to be able to think when they look at them and wonder what they could be. His photos have a slight sense of mystery which I believe is very intriguing.  





 Image bank

The following images were added as part of my visual research.

This above collection of photographs(/pictures/paintings by other artists/photographers) represent some of the images that I feel I could capture within my photography.    They represent a variety of lines, most of the images are quite abstract and they are all shot in black and white. I find the black and white photos very interesting as your eyes are immediately drawn to the detail within the photo. I decided that I would adopt a similar approach for my work.


 AO:1 - Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

  

Contact Sheets

 The intentions for my shoot were to capture photos that have been inspired by both Walker Evans and Peter Keetman. The successful elements of my shoot were that I captured close up photos that contain a lot of detail. The unsuccessful elements of my shoot were that some photos were out of focus and did not have the correct composition. I can alter the composition of some of my photos by using the cropping tool on Photoshop. This will allow me to focus in on the smaller details of the image. I could develop my ideas from this shoot by capturing more photos linked to movement. I feel as though I could incorporate some unique ideas and link the photos I have taken to the photographer in a more subtle way.  I have annotated my contact sheet by ticking the images I feel initially look successful and I have crossed the images I feel were not as successful. I also made small labels on some of the photos as to why I crossed or ticked them.

 

My Best images

I selected the following as my best images 

The image of the arrow on the street was inspired by Walker Evans. This image was very easy to shoot because I had a lot of natural daylight which allowed me to get the correct lighting. I will change this photo to black and white to make it resemble the artists work in more detail.

This image was shot close up to a bicycle. I like the way that the photo is zoomed in because it makes it more abstract and less straightforward when knowing what the image is. 

This photo was taken looking directly at the sign. I did this so that I could contrast different ways in which people would see objects on the side of the road when going on a journey. The inspiration for both of the images of the signs was that I wanted to resemble the different ways people would look out of their window and see the same thing but from another perspective. 

This photo was taken looking up at a sign and this would be from the perspective of someone walking along the pavement rather that being in a vehicle. When this image was taken it was sunny therefore I altered the ISO from 200 to 100. 

Images that require improvement. 

These images were selected as I feel that the composition is not right and it is slightly out of focus. For the image of the screws I did not fully wait for the camera to focus and that resulted in the photo coming out slightly blurry. The photo being blurry means that the fine details of the screw are not clear. The camera was set on full auto mode and therefore focused itself. If i were to reshoot this image again I would use the manual setting on the camera to allow me to adjust the camera settings and ensure the photo is fully focused. 

The second image of the escalator was inspired by Walker Evans however I feel as though the composition of the image did not look very aesthetically pleasing. I feel as though I could have photographed the entire width of the escalator. I also believe that the image is slightly out of focus and not centred. This is because there was a long shutter speed when the photo was taken. I can overcome this issue by using a tripod and reshooting this image. If I do this then I can ensure that the image is centred and is focused.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

I gathered my ideas for my photographs were mainly based on my artist research however I was inspired by images that I decided to put in my image bank. I wanted to look at line in a more unique way, for example my image of the twisting tree shows line but it isn't just horizontal or vertical. I was interested in the clear, harsh lines that Walker Evans used in a number of his photos like his image of the road saying 'only' on the street. I think that this was reflected in my images I took of the arrows in a car park. I decided to take some images of modern buildings in London which incorporated a lot of line within them. This idea came from Walker Evans because his photos are taken in the city. His images of street signs also inspired me to take photos of some signs that I saw when photographing in Harlow. I also took ideas about the composition of different photos by Peter Keetman. His photo of a close up screw was very centred. I tried to take very centred photos when taking photos of my own screws. The images mostly came out as expected however when photographing certain images in the Harlow town centre tree were a lot of people and sometimes it was hard to capture the exact shot I wanted as I had a limited amount of time. I believe this is why my images of the escalator did not have the right composition. Although I looked at two different photographers, Walker Evans and Peter Keetman, I do not feel as though the photos I took relate to Peter Keetman's work therefore I decided to use images that specifically relate to walker Evans. By making this decision I am able to create a meaningful response to the research that I have done.  
   

With regards to some of the images that did not come out as I expected, I struggled to adapt my camera settings as I was unfamiliar with how the camera worked.   Some images lacked focus, whilst in the other cases I did not have enough time to capture the correct image that I wanted.   I believe I can overcome these issues through more practise.

AO2: AO2:Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

I used a canon eos 400D for all of the shots taken. Most of my photos were taken on a larger aperture. I took them on an f-number of around f/1.4. I used a small f-number because I wanted to isolate the foreground from the background which made the foreground objects look sharper and the background blurry. For some of my images I tried to increase the aperture so that the overall image was sharper. In some cases the lighting was slightly poor and I was not able to capture focused images. For one of my images I had to increase the ISO to 800 and adjust the setting on my camera to balance out the lighting.

To improve my images I decided to use photo shop and I changed four of my images to black and white and altered the brightness and contrast of the images. Information on how this was done is shown below using one of the images that I have edited.

The screen shots that I have selected show how I used Photoshop to create a high contrast black and white image.  To do use this, I used the brightness/contrast and the Black and White tool. I adjusted the brightness slider to 15 and the contrast slider to 7. By doing this it slightly brightened up the overall image and made the detail stand out that little bit more.

AO1: AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

My artist research has helped me understand the theory on line and how you can capture different images that involve the formal element line. I believe that I have gathered a lot of information on a range of perspectives. Specifically my research on Walker Evans helped me to focus on harsh lines that are in a city setting. This was very useful for me because I was able to incorporate these harsh lines in my photos. I took photos in Harlow town centre and used objects from my home. The objects that I chose to photograph in Harlow town centre were inspired by Walker Evans photography. The images that I looked at from his work mainly have an element of motion. For example the image of the road with the arrow on it has connotations of moving in a certain direction. I have used this idea to try to create a very strong series of final images that can all represent motion in a journey. I was able to pick and choose certain objects that I knew would express the formal element of line in an interesting way. During my research on Peter Keetman I gathered information on how to focus in depth on fine details. I was able to use this in my photography. For example I cropped one of my edited photos so I could zoom in on the detail within it. I also used my camera to zoom in on the objects and places that I used to take the photos. By looking at the different perspectives that these photographers used I could incorporate them into my work and draw the viewer into the composition of my work.  In addition I feel as though my series of photos links to Walker Evans because I have approached the photography using a similar approach to the abstraction of the photos. I did this by working with composition and the contrast. Evans takes the photos from angles that resemble what our eyes would see if we were looking at the location in real life. I have tried to do this by angling the camera at the floor and slightly upwards as if I am looking at the surroundings around me. 

AO4: AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
  
I believe that I have produced a strong series of images inspired by my research of line, composition and the images of Walker Evans. The final images produced were refined by developing the brightness and contrast and then converting them into black and white images. I believe that the images created could represent a journey because the image of the road and the signs are directing the mode of transport which in my series of images is a bike.