ON PERFECTLY FRAMED PHOTOGRAPHS

In order to illustrate the problems with selectively chosen, carefully framed images being used to present a project - a practice that has been criticised previously – see: https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2023/03/architectural-presentation-problems.html - one can use the images in this article on Perfectly Timed Photographs – see: https://www.thefunpost.com/en/make-timed-will-look-perfectly utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=create&ly=native_one&mbid=19892358130_ - to show how illusory such deliberately composed images can be; how potentially misleading they are.

The images that have been published as ‘perfectly timed’ examples in this article vary from amazing to cleverly funny; certainly they are all quirky in their own way and offer a sense of how manipulative the preferred, arranged image can be: it has the power to truly dramatically transform how and what we see. It is this ‘trickery’ that lies at the heart of the concern with the photographer’s output. The tools available and the techniques used for positioning, aligning, and framing leave photographs open to easy manipulation.

One can appreciate how an architect could be cajoled into allowing, even encouraging, the photographer to use his skills to ‘add wings’ to make a project ‘fly.’ So it is that we get the cliché statement in presentations by architects who might be showing images of their work taken by themselves, that they “haven’t had the project photographed yet,” when it is obvious that we are looking at photographs of the project. What is being said is that a professional photographer has not yet woven the magic to create new and unseen interpretations of the work; the artful illusions.

The images are self-explanatory: each reading involves an interesting discovery/realisation that, in itself, is not only intriguing, but revealing.

. . . and there are many more!

24 April 23

NOTE

More tricky illusions: see - https://www.kueez.com/en/first-seem-arent