26 August 1999 - photo: composition

In evaluating a photograph for artistic merit, one factor overrides all others: the image must be “dynamic”. Fortunately for the aspiring critic, dynamic images are easy to recognize: the subject of the picture is off-center. If the photographer pointed the camera straight at the subject, then the image is “static” and can be blasted as a klutzy “snapshot”.

Other positive elements are “tension”, which means the presence of diagonal lines, “mystery” which is caused by dark areas where you can’t make anything out, and “understatement” which comes from omitting stuff you need to understand the picture. Putting it all together, the optimal art photo consists of a faint uninterpretable spiderweb of diagonals near one corner of an otherwise dark frame. Anything else is inferior, and probably a “snapshot”.