Novemberby
JondorComment by e301: From the Critque Club
Well, welcome ot the dpc world Gerhard. Prepared for the frustrating adn hugely rewarding trip that it can be here?
I like the idea of the parallels between photography and line drawing: I'm intrigues about where it is that one draws that line myself. A couple of my own shots from challenges here are working around the sense of the computer rendered/photographed image, and what it is that distinguishes the former from the latter for us.
I can certainly see where you're headed here - though I didn't, during the challenge, get the sense of framed art, nor of line drawing, from the shot. I found it more intriguing that it was plainly an autumn leaf, although the element that one would expect to provide that sense (the colour) has been removed. It suggests, by that means, that there are other, un-thought of elements to the seasonal decay of our world, that we do not necessarily see, and I liked being prompted to that thought very much.
Where I think it falls down is that it doesn't have that sense of terribly smooth progression of light and shade that a fine line drawing (I'm thinking of the great draughtsmen, like Escher) would achieve. The amount of reflected light, it seems to me, is a phenomenon of photography alone, though adopted by some schools of art more recntly, but only after the advent of photography. Quite what, in terms of shade, it is that constitutes that is difficult to say - perhaps it is simply that whole thing thends too much to white to give a sense of deliberate shading. Perhaps the black point in the image is too high. But something here certainly makes it blatantly photographic. I'd be almost certain that a less waxy textured leaf would have seemed far more effective for the idea of approaching a drawing.
I find something about it unsatisfying. It might be a simple as not liking that waxy, shiny texture you've caught, it might be more complicated, verging on the sense of not finding anything new here. A sense that this is not a shot that shows me anything I can revel in: sure the realisation I talked about at the beginning is a good strong element of this for me, but I think my personal tast is more for the rougher textures, the subtle graduations that speak more to meof the organic rather than the shiny and smooth (despite my predeliction for shots of cutlery).
I wonder if the graininess evident in the shadow areas has something to do with that feeling also? i would like to see it smoother in that sense, to see what the impact would be on the apparent texture of the leaf itself ...
I hope this is as useful to read as it has been fun to spend some time with your photo.
Ed
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