single woman # 27 / triptych # 17 ~ context and conceits

single woman ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
La Tour CN Tower ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggenJust as the Lone Ranger was repeatedly asked in the recent Lone Ranger movie - "What's with the mask?" - I have often been asked - "What's with the black border?" Here are a few thoughts from others on the subject (borders) followed by my thoughts on the same:

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

To quote out of context is the essence of the photographer's craft .... The central act of photography, the art of choosing and eliminating forces a concentration on the picture's edge - the line that separates in from out - and on the shapes that are created by it .... The line of decision is the picture's edge .... The photographer edits the meanings and patterns of the world through an imaginary frame. The frame is the beginning of his picture's geometry. It is to the photographer as the cushion is to the billiard table. ~ John Szarkowski - THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S EYE

I use a black border for a number of reasons:

1. back in the day of film picture making, it was not uncommon for picture makers to print with a negative holder which had been modified to allow a part of the unexposed edge of the film to be printed. One of the most oft cited reasons for this was to demonstrate that the picture maker in question didn't need no stinking easel blades to crop his/her pictures. No siree! "Cropping" was performed in-camera at the moment the picture was made. Post-picturing cropping during printing was only for amateurs and incompetent boobs. I am not a boob. Hence, black borders.

2. while any observer should know / recognize when viewing a picture, the edges of the picture are where the picture ends. They should should also know / recognize that the picture maker has consciously decided where to put an end to his/her picture information. However, some observers are boobs and I use a black border to make my picture ending decisions very unavoidably obvious. And, for the other picture viewing boobs who are much concerned with art about art / photography about photography, I hope the black border gives them some comfort and joy when viewing my pictures.

3. in a tip of the hat to John Szarkowski and his "as the cushion is to the billiard table" analogy, I must admit that I have always used black borders for just that analogical reason - most of my square pictures evidence a center-weighted form of design. However, I have always quite deliberately ignored the notion that a picture should have only one principal idea, topic, or center of interest to which the viewer's eyes are attracted. No siree, not for me! IMO, that idea is a good one only for simple-minded boobs who are not, re: the acts of picture making or picture viewing, very good at visual multi-tasking. So, since I am not a simple-minded boob, I tend to pack my pictures with a fair amount of visual information - aka: visual energy - which most often is floating / hovering around my central and centered primary visual referent. And it is here where my black border comes into play - as the viewer's eye is moving about the visual field, drawn by various shapes, colors, forms, collateral referents, etc. - aka: design strategies - the eye inevitably bangs into one of my billiard cushions and ricochets - visually speaking, a glancing (blovius 1 / jimmi nuffin 0) rebound - back toward the central referent. Black border mission accomplished.

3a. the glancing rebound effect is also a get your ass, visually wise, back where it belongs. That is to write, within the edges of my vision where the stuff I have selected that want you to see can be found. Sure, there's a whole world beyond the black border, but that's why I make a lot of pictures of other stuff. However, the time for viewing them is later. The time for viewing this picture is now. Pay attention.

4. when I first began making digital medium pictures, I was not very impressed with the idea that digital-based picture making was changing the medium and its apparatus (aka: conventions - not gear). How pictures were/are being made, gear and technique wise, has certainly changed but the bottom line is still the same - a good picture is a good picture no matter how it was/is made. Additionally, a good picture is a good picture inasmuch as the brains behind the operation are what matters most and that aspect of the medium and is apparatus has not changed a whit. Consequently, part of reason for using a black border in my digital-based picture making is to reference the history of the medium and its apparatus (see reason # 1) to make that point. Hence, the other question, black border related, I hear quite often (although never from the medium and its apparatus history deficient boobs)- "Are you still using film?" - which, to my way of thinking, confirms my belief, re: picture making, that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

5. for a long time I have been in the habit of employing black borders and like all habits, good or bad, it has taken on a life of its own to the point where my pictures seem unfinished / naked without it. Consequently, all of the preceding reasons, rationalizations, and conceits aside, I just flat out like the way my pictures look with a black border.