One of the excitements of photography is the balance of meaning

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A good example would be of a balance between the two would be Nude (Charis, Santa Monica) by Edward Weston. It is both beautiful in its formalist attributes as well as its potency in its representation of what a human is - that is to say, not seeing the human simply as a visual object, but the humanity that it represents. We see the beautiful form, the shapes that comprise it, the delicate gradation of tones, the nuances of texture and the movement of lines that lead us around the image to visit every part of this well designed composition. From a distanced and dispassioned appreciation of the image, this is the aesthetic value we can find in the image: it is beautiful simply for how it looks, never mind what it is. That same mindset is behind all formalist photography - things are beautiful for how they appear, regardless of what they are. But Weston’s nude is not purely formalist, regardless of his intentions as a photographer. His photographs Nautilus and Pepper No. 30 succeeded as beautiful photographs in the strictly formalist sense, because the potential meaning of the subjects he photographs never emerges in the composition as a point of interest. The pepper is not a pepper, it is a convoluted and dynamic form of light and shadow, powerful and struggling. The shell is not a shell, but a smooth, delicate, symmetrical form that has nothing more to do with the ocean than it does with a flower. But the subject in Nude (Charis, Santa Monica) is not a mere form, no matter how beautiful that form may be.

>>3001155
Despite how well Weston holds a dispassioned and disinterested eye toward his subject, and how well he captures the beauty of his subject’s form, the subject itself is too easily recognizeable as a human being to be seen as a mere composition of lines, shapes, tones, and textures. We can never underestimate the human mind’s ability to conceptualize and attribute meaning to an object, and the moment that the figure of Weston’s subject became recognizable as the figure of a human being, It has transcended into the realm of form to subject matter. A floodgate of meaning associated with the subject in Weston’s Nude is opened up the moment we see that the subject is a human, and that the human is female, and that she is nude, and that she is holding her body, and that her body is contorted, and that she is hiding her face. It is now much more than the aesthetic beauty of the form in Weston’s photograph that attracts us, it is the emotional potency in the recognizable humanity that it represents. This is the balance of meaning and form.

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>>3001155
>>3001157

not the best example
it's obvious that nude is pure formalism: deliberate effortful pose, deliberate light (the shadows on the right arm are crucial for the pose/whole photo to work), no (human/behavioral/ambiental) spontaneity, i.e. elements of the frame which cannot be easily controlled. I believe it's easier to derive meaning from something spontaneous. in nude, the human element is just used to exploit it's (i.e. the female body) inherent aesthetic value.

there are many examples of meaningful formalism in street photography, photojournalism and even fashion photography. In early posed photography, that spontaneity is best observed in facial expressions.

(both are great great photos)

blablabla

fucking faggot

go away junk, you schizophrenic weeb.

>>3001559
>>3001567
>>3001599
Don't bite the hand that feeds you :^)

>>3001600
cake when you demand it is heaven. cake when you're full and someone thrust it upon you is torture.

please be a little bit less patronizing. thank you. good bye.

>>3001601
when the egg shell breaks, it's a little painful at first, but that's when the light comes in. it

>>3001601
cake when offered to you on a buffet table with a variety of other dishes to choose from is sorta ok though

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>>3001599
I didn't write this, but props to OP for trying to start some kind of informed discussion in the fallow field that is /p/. (You'll be able to tell when I post something because my tripcode will appear in the name field.)

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>>3001610
buhsteed

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>>3001611
DELETE THIS

(what I just felt my initial reaction was unduly harsh towards OP)

>>3001614
thats fair

>>3001614
no, it was adequat. don't be a pussy.

>>3001153
>>3001155
>>3001157
>>3001532

Good luck with your exam, that looks exactly like the kind of stuff they want you to write

diploma/10

>>3001614
Hey Junk, I'm not a troll. Can you please assess and correct what's wrong with OP's ideas so that I can stop thinking about it? Is the core idea just wrong, and if so why, or is the OP just misattributing terminology?

>>3001614
you're literally ruining this thread. Please leave

Remember to report avatarfagging when you see it.

>>3001153

Are these ovaries or a pair of testicles?

>>3004344
it's a pepper you jokester