civilized ku # 2094 ~ seeing red, pt. 2
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 10:06AM ;)
Grapes ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenAs I suspected, yesterday's entry, civilized ku # 2092, caused Colin Griffiths to clarify his previous statement, re: "I really suspect that there is something different about the way you and I see the colour red." In yesterday's comment, Colin stated:
I don't think I explained myself very well ... [I]t's not a matter of the technical nature of the colour red ... ®ather, that you have an ability to notice and capture red objects in such a manner that makes them appear ... almost incongruous within the image ... it's as if you are pointing something out to me that I'd never noticed before.
my response: If I now correctly understand Colin, what he seems to be stating is that my use of the color red within the frame of my pictures (and my awareness of it in a picture making environment) is different from the manner in which he does so - that I use the color red as a kind of exclamation point within the frame in a manner that he does not. And, as somewhat of an aside, he also suggested that some familiar-to-both-sides-of-the-Atlantic objects might, in fact, be made of different colors.
To be certain, I agree with both of Colin's points. Having traveled to Europe and Japan, I can state that there are colors in use on public signage and the like that are more or less different from similar objects here in the States. No real surprise there.
Re: my use of the color red (and red-ish) in my pictures - I do use red in some of my pictures as a visual exclamation point of sorts. That would be especially noticeable in scenes where the red referents in question are in a neutral or near-neutral color environment - yesterday's Fire hydrant picture as an excellent example. And, while the environment is not very neutral, the reds "dancing" about the frame in the Between periods / Saranac Lake HS vs Lake Placid HS picture (civilized ku # 2087-91) is another good example of reds keeping the color field of a picture rather lively.
As some many know, the first 25 years of my commercial life was devoted to making pictures for advertising agencies / commercial clients. However, the following decade-and-a-half was split, about 50/50, between commercial picture making and creating graphic design for similar clients as a designer, art director, and creative director.
However, prior to working in the graphic design field, I was well aware of the work of and worked with (making pictures for) many good/great graphic designers / art directors. It was always my desire and ambition to work on projects (large and small) together with quality graphic designers / art directors - there is nothing worse than making a really nice picture and then having it mutilated by its use in bad/questionable design work. Conversely, there is little better in the commercial world than the visual synergy created by mating good/great pictures with good/great graphic design.
That said, prior to working in the graphic design field (as a designer / art director / creative director), I was well aware of the work of Milton Glaser, one of the all-time giants of the graphic design universe. Somewhere along the line (far far back in my picturing and commercial life) I read a piece about Glaser in which he was quoted as stating that the colors red and black were the only colors needed for good/great graphic design - as in his timeless (in continuous use since 1973) and widely recognized I Love NY logo design.
Most certainly, Glaser was stretching a point but that point was well taken, nevertheless.
Now I am not suggesting that it was the words of Milton Glaser that raised my awareness of the visual power of the color red. However, after reading them, I did become much more consciously aware of and much more deliberate in the use of that visual power.
That said, I strive to never use the color red as a cheap visual trick. Like, say, isolating red in a full color spectrum picture and then de-saturating all the other color to emphasis the red. I can state that, in my pictures, the color red is an honest / found element, never to be fiddled with in PS for visual effect*.
FYI, in the Grapes picture accompanying this entry, the bright red objects in the upper left are as I found them - I did not place them there.
In the making of this picture, I was first drawn to the grapes and the quality of the light falling on them. Consequently, my first notion was to make a picture that was tight in on the grapes and the plate, to exclude the surrounding elements. I did, in fact, make a few pictures just in that manner.
However, after viewing the picture on the camera LCD, I deemed the picture to be nice enough but rather too relaxed / placid / restful, aka: yawn inducing, for my eye and sensibilities. At that point I decided to bring the Mickey Mouse Pez dispenser and the mini Coca-Cola carton into play and, without question, their inclusion livens things up quite a bit, visually speaking.
Some might think that those items visually overwhelm the main referent (the grapes) to the point of being visually annoying / disruptive. To which I would respond. "Yep. Sure enough." I wouldn't have any other way.
Why would I do such a thing, you might ask? The answer is simple - I hate falling asleep when viewing pictures, my own included. I want to be emotionally / visually / mentally pricked, prodded, rattled, confronted, challenged and otherwise invigorated when viewing pictures. I want my eyes, mind, and heart to dance across the visual field to be found on the 2-dimension surface of a print.
I want pictures to wake me up. I spend enough time sleeping and don't want the dumb-ass picturing adage of "simplify, simplify" to put me in a coma-like picture viewing state.
*other than to make it as true to the real red (as found/seen in a scene) as the medium and its apparatus allow.
Reader Comments (3)
Now we are both singing from the same hymen sheet. And now I really wish I could comment with a red exclamation mark!
Mark, I'm sorry, I think I just made a Freudian slip,I meant hymn. How embarrassing, I think it's me that's just gone red!
I suppose "red!" is a red exclamation mark. :)