Last week we were asked to dismantle some of our own images, to break them apart, cut them up, see how the different shapes in the frame work together. At first it was hard to distance myself from the subject in the images, to focus on the lines and curves and shapes only, to 'see' the different compositional elements in the photographs.

Then i suddenly 'got it' and really 'got into it'.....

I started off with one of my favorite landscapes. Here the lines and shapes are easily discernible. Looking at the collage i can see why the original image invokes a feeling of balance and tranquility. There are only a few simple lines and curves, centered around the horizon.

The second image is a bit more complex, the lines and shapes are a bit harder to find. The collage is completely different from the first one, there are no straight horizontal lines and the focus is on the bottom half of the image, where the concentric curves form a kind of 'embrace', making you wonder what is being cherished or protected 

The third image has a lot going on. Many lines and curves and less negative space than in the other images. There is a clear difference between the big curved shapes above the horizon, with the main focus on the trees, and the diagonal lines and curves below the horizon, meandering toward a vanishing point behind the trees.


Tracey also showed us how we can play around with our dismantled images, by leaving the main subject or object of the image in tact and then cutting the remaining shapes out of colored paper, thereby getting even more visual information about how the lines and curves and shapes in the image work together. I had a lot of fun doing this!

First i took my favorite autumn image (also see this previous blogpost ) and used bright colors below the horizon and soft colors above it, a bit like in the original shot. The intense colors surrounding the main subject of the rolling haystack makes the collage even more appealing to me than the original shot. 

The second image is a Black and White hipstamatic shot that i really love. While cutting out the main shape i discovered that the heads of the boy and the dog form a heart shape, and the arm and the paw form an enclosing circle, which is probably why i like this image so much. 
In the collage i used the same blue color for the boy's pants and a bright red for the couch behind the heart shape of the two heads.
I realize now that the vignetted corners of the image also are an important shape that i haven' t included in the collage. The vignette repeats and therefore emphasizes the circle of arm and paw which gives the original image more impact.

The last image is of a decaying butterbur. I love the way the huge leaves first start to change color from dark to a transparent light green, then get covered with brown spots, which become holes, and finally shrivel up and turn into a papery brown wad. Here the top leaf is still green, while the bottom leaf is already crumpled and faded. I used the bottom leaf as the main subject and chose soft greenish colors for the surrounding shapes. They emphasize the texture of the bottom leaf and gives it a bit of a 3D look.