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 (of artists and techniques) 

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 above images were photographed using Black and white film.  The resulting images represent graphic images of urban America.    The prints were created to achieve a deliberately high contrast which makes the signs stand out.   (Connotations)  The signs imply motion as indicated by the arrow in the street or the moving car.   The "Shine" image is of a Shoe shine street store, it is neatly ordered with its shoes placed below the sign.    The image has connotations of 1930's America where street hawkers would clean the shoes of passers by and symbolises that America is a place of enterprise, yet both rich and poor live in close proximity to one another (the shoe shine vendor as a low income worker and the clients are relatively rich)

I gained inspiration from this by producing my own images based on street signs which I subsequently converted to black and white.

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 tyne images that I felt I could capture within Harlow. They represent a variety of lines, most of the images are quite abstract closely cropped and shot in black and white (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.

Selected Images

Contact sheet(s)

I selected the following as my best images:

Images that require improvement:

The first image was selected as I feel that the image is too messy, the background can be distracting from the main subject which is the gate. Also, part of the image is out of focus as it is too close the camera. Next time I would put my camera on a manual focus mode to ensure that being to close to the subject would to potentially ruin the photo.

For the second image the lighting could be improved. Without using a flash the subject was too dark, however the flash did not reach enough to cover the whole gate and therefore the left side of the image is slightly darker. Additionally, to correct this i would focus on a smaller part of the gate in which the flash could cover so that the whole gate is lighter. However, instead of this I could use a longer exposure on my camera so that the whole image is a the same level of brightness. I struggled doing this when taking this image as i did not have a tripod to ensure the image did not blur.

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

My idea for recording line was to photograph the urban landscape exploring different lines present such as curves, horizontal,vertical lines and leading lines.   I was inspired from my research of Walker Evans' street images with regards to the geometry and composition.  His use of lines and signs gave me an idea to photograph street signs and buildings within Harlow.    

      The images came out as I expected, however I had to pay particular attention to getting the right exposure settings. I took these images handheld, without a tripod.

  

       Referencing to my best images:

       The image of the bench was shot from the side and I used zoom so that I just captured the subject that I wanted to, cutting out any unnecessary noise in the background. The angle that I took the image at ensures that the curve within the bench is in the centre of the image.

The image of the windows in the roof were shot facing upwards, I slightly zoomed the camera for this image to capture the area I wanted. I liked this image because I was able to capture the lines shadowing on the wall as well as the windowpanes which changed the dynamic of the image.

I like the image of the road as it contains symmetry within the lines as the edge of the curb and the double yellow lines painted on the road all lie perfectly next to each other. There are also lots of smaller lines in between all of the bricks. This particular image was directly influenced by my research for line.

I shot the image of the boots from a birds eye angle. I liked the variation of lines on the boots, with smaller lines running around the outside of the edge of the boots and longer lines running across the front of the boots.

The image of the road with white paint was also facing downwards and at an angle where the bike was in the bottom right hand corner and the line going upwards in the shot on the right side. This image was also heavily influenced by my research of Walker Evans.

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

I used a Canon EOS 350d for all of the shots taken, The images were photographed on automatic settings for aperture and shutter speed.

If I were to reshoot my images again I would use a tripod to hold the camera steady and change some of the camera settings such as aperture and shutter speed so that I could make sure the image was sharper.

(analyse an image i took that i progressed on)

To improve my images I decided to import some of them into photoshop and use this to create black and white images with more contrast....   Information on how this was done is shown below in a sample image.

The screen grabs selected show how Photoshop was used to create a high contrast black and white image.  To do use this, I used the Curves tool and the Black and White tool adjusting the colour sliders to get the desired hard contrast effect.

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

The artist research was helpful as I realised that the theory on line meant that I could tackle the subject from a range of perspectives. My research of Walker Evans helped me to focus on the hard geometric shapes of modern cities. This was helpful to me as the college is located in Harlow where many of the buildings gave me opportunities to photograph geometric shapes. The research on line and emotion/mood was not particularly helpful to this study, however some of the shots were composed using leading lines where the perspective of the buildings draws the viewer into the composition.This aspect of research was useful. 

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.

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 contrast and converting them into black and white images.