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Surface Wave
Surface Wave
zeuszen


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Best of 2009 (Advanced Editing VII*)
Camera: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS
Location: Chehalis River, BC, Canada
Date: Sep 20, 2009
Aperture: f/36
ISO: 100
Shutter: 4s
Galleries: Abstract, Black and White
Date Uploaded: Jan 20, 2010

 In response to all those who clearly struggled with this entry, as well as to those who articulated resentment or contested any worth or merit of this "kind of photography":

From Design and Composition: by Nathan Goldstein

Closed Shapes

No matter what the style, the works of most artists show a preference for images either of a sharp-focused and edge-orientated kind, or of a less sharply focused and mass- and field-orientated kind.

The Art Historian Heinrich Wölfflin, in his book Principles of Art History, classifies a number of opposing characteristics that provide useful insights to visual qualities in image making. Among them are the contrasting qualities of "linear" versus "painterly" and "closed" versus "open" shapes.

Wölfflin points out that the linear and closed modes of presentation are given more to facts than to impressions, and to the fixed and explicit, rather than to the moving and metaphorical…

Open Shapes

Artists working in this usually more animated and sensual mode are attracted to the spirit, rather than to the letter of their subject's parts, to the fluid, not the fixed.

Their works show bold moving energies, which for all their contrasts, bring parts together, rather than the more sedate energies of the linear, closed shape mode that is more given to an overall union of clearly defined and somewhat more independently conceived parts. Or, to quote Wölfflin, the painterly approach, "aims at that movement which passes over the sum of things."

In this mode, symmetrical and front-facing arrangements are avoided, and illumination unifies as it bathes forms, as often obscuring as explaining them. Shapes do not enoy the relatively independent identity of the linear mode, but depend on eachother for meaning.

In Wölfflin's words, "as soon as the depreciation of line as boundary takes place, painterly possibilities set in. Then, it is as if at all points everything is enlivened by a mysterious movement"

Statistics
Place: 436 out of 445
Avg (all users): 4.4280
Avg (commenters): 5.5625
Avg (participants): 4.5464
Avg (non-participants): 3.9592
Views since voting: 1260
Views during voting: 414
Votes: 243
Comments: 43
Favorites: 6 (view)

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AuthorThread
 06/24/2011 12:19:42 AM
I've seen a lot of fantastic work here but I this is the image I keep coming back to. Moving.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/09/2010 01:31:54 AM
This was my 1st choice for the pick your fave thread, but got distracted by all the other great stuff :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/03/2010 05:10:46 PM
Makes me feel like something sad happened.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/02/2010 12:52:59 PM
I thought this was yours, Zeus, in light of some of your other recent challenge entries. I know abstracts don't please everyone but I'm a bit stymied by your super-low placement. If I can be literal about the image, my first impression was "wave" -- though later I imagined a first-person view from the back of a bird in flight. However, I'm sure you are more concerned with abstract qualities than "puzzle macro" images.

This looks rather like a charcoal illustration, so my only qualm would be that one might think it was a photo of an existing artwork -- something I seem to remember being said about another "controversial" artwork of yours (and an impression I didn't share, btw).

I think it's good for someone like me to know how to take the calendar-type images (before rejecting them), but I hope you keep doing what you are doing!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/30/2010 02:19:51 PM
I didn't Participate in this challenge, or vote, but I personally like this photo and would have voted it 8 or 9..... It is easily a favorite.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/29/2010 04:15:51 PM
I don't really see a wave, I think I see a female body half submerged in dark water... maybe it's just me :). as I noted earlier, it has a great textural quality, makes me want to touch it. should look terrific in print.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/29/2010 02:25:29 PM
I'll echo that, "seriously good". Got an 8 from me, and made me come back for several looks during the week. What particularly struck me is, which is the surface and which the ground, which is the wave and which is the substrate? I love ambiguity, I find it more and more in the simplest things as I age, though I've yet to find the courage (?) to attempt to render it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/29/2010 10:45:48 AM
One of my faves, can not believe it scored so low =(
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/29/2010 08:14:52 AM
Beautiful and moving. In my top few favourites of the challenge. Inspiring.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/29/2010 03:24:07 AM
Seriously good :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/28/2010 11:34:52 PM
Still a favorite of mine.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2010 09:41:04 PM
must be ZeusZen. great texture
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2010 08:16:56 PM
Very abstract, very cool. 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2010 07:39:47 PM
I'm totally hip to this. A top pick for sure.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2010 06:36:50 PM
I'm hanging this in the Posthumous Fantasy Art Show.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2010 04:54:31 PM
Hey zeuszen. :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2010 01:23:59 PM
Not sure what is going on with this shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2010 06:17:48 AM
more a feeling than a photo - cool stuff
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2010 06:16:55 AM
I just don't quite grasp this......4
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/27/2010 07:31:11 AM
sorry does not appeal to me. 3
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2010 11:00:30 PM
I know some people will 'get' this better than I do. I am trying to look at this with an open mind but I don't think I am recognizing what is being portrayed here. I understand that this image is being entered into the 'best of 2009' so you are either looking for reaction from the folks who appreciate abstract art more than I do or you are just playing with us to get a reaction. Good luck either way.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2010 09:38:19 PM
cool abstract. I think I'd love this with a blast of subtle gold through it
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2010 06:26:32 PM
Hmmm is the left hand side someone's head and the right is their left shoulder? Very abstract, will check after the challenge to see what it is.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2010 11:22:46 AM
Maybe this just isn't for me but I just don't know what I am looking at. It almost seems as if it is a messed up negative from film. Sorry.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2010 01:10:34 AM
great abstract feel to it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2010 11:15:09 PM
There are those photographers that can record events as they happen. Those slightly better will capture the emotion that goes with the event. Still others can preserve joy, happiness, bliss without a human subject. The rarest of photographers can create an image that illustrates balance with despondency, angst and confusion. This image is the latter.

OR

you have a brand new camera and don't have clue how to work it.

:) :) :) :P
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2010 09:18:58 PM
I thought I was done commenting for this morning and was just browsing what I had coming up when I came across this.

I always find this sort of thing interesting. This particular one instantly made me think of Guinness :)

I like the form here, it does look very wave like, though it's hard to tell if that's actually what it is or not. For some reason I keep looking for details in this which I never find, I'm not sure exactly what I'm expecting to see.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2010 03:26:49 PM
I don't know what this is, but it's sure different. Not bad different but different.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2010 02:06:44 PM
Beautiful, mystical. I love it :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2010 09:30:05 AM
Nice abstract. I like it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2010 04:01:10 AM
The style is easily recognizable. An interesting capture and abstract/artistic affect that leaves the mind to wandering.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2010 09:44:51 PM
I like the abstract balance of this...how the blacks fade for gray then to the lighter gray...I'm not sure what it is...but it's a stunning picture
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2010 07:13:32 PM
interesting abstract
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2010 05:23:42 PM
Interesting, but I think it's a little too abstract for my taste.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2010 12:14:57 PM
Im unsure of what to make of this. Im sorry but I really cant give any comment that I believe that would help. Would love to know the thoughts behind this frame.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2010 11:18:16 PM
Abstract is not always artsy. However, here i think that it makes it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2010 10:39:32 PM
I could choose almost any one photo in your Leica portfolio as "Best of 2009". If forced to choose, I would pick this one:
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2010 07:37:55 PM
hard to distinguish what this is
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2010 04:16:38 PM
Sorry - this does absolutely nothing for me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2010 03:51:37 PM
A bit too abstract for my tastes.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2010 01:57:09 PM
Not my type of photography. I'm all for art but a blurry, dark photo doesn't necessarily make it art.
 01/22/2010 01:35:08 PM
A different image in the challenge, showing your different style compared to the majority on this site. The wave is interesting and the use of B&W is good.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2010 08:17:49 AM
I am sure the voters will hammer you, but I like these kind of images
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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