black and white: then to now Kitchen, German Village Style

This is a kitchen in a German village and also a study in the

occurrence of 'threes'. How many can you find? Please let me know

how many in your comment. Your comments and critiques are invited

and most welcome. (If you rate harshly or very critically, please

submit a helpful and constructive comment/Please share your superior

knowledge to help improve my photography.) Thanks! Enjoy! John

You have given a great glance to an very usual thing. It's a goog job. The choice of b&w is good too. Regards, Pascal

This is a far more complicated photo than it appears. I posted it once briefly, then withdrew it for a better scan and it's been almost a year.

 

The subject of this photo not only is transforming something ordinary into something aesthetic, but how I have done so. I 'recognized' something about the scene, inchoately, when I viewed it, and later when I posted it, realized what it was -- it was the subject of 'threes' which I captured.

 

I count at least four sets of threes in this photo.

 

Can you name all of them?

 

Why don't you or others try. I think three of them are easy to name, and I urge anyone to name those and try guessing at the fourth . . . which is much more complex.

 

John (Crosley)

 

(oh, and I appreciate your rating this photo)

Ok, so here's six starting with the most obvious finishing with the rather obscure. 3 bowls; 3 wall hanging dishes; 3 sets of objects namely the afformentioned combined with the baskets (imagine if there were 3 of those); 3 horizontal sets of lines namely the door handles, the basket weave and the tiles; the n shaped curves created by the bowls, the basket handles and the pipe; 3 vertical lines from the pipe, the stick and the edge of the chest to the right. Feels like an IQ test! To be honest I think the last few are pretty invalid as I believe you shouldn't have to work to hard to get something out of a photo. The overall aesthetic is far more important and this quite simply "works."

Without getting into such detail as basket weave, etc., there are four basic sets of 'threes' as elements in this photo.

 

The first is the pet dishes, botton, the second the three wood stove 'drawers' left, the third the set of three 'gelatin mold' pans on the wall, right.

 

The fourth, and surely the most difficult to discover, is the walls themselves.

 

There are three walls, roughly evenly dividing this photograph into three vertical segments, all forming a sort of zig-zag pattern.

 

(One could go into the 'dark stripes on the wall tile, etc., but I was genuinely thinking of 'threes' grouped together and more of 'threes' for the grouping, as opposed to disparate 'threes' such as the black tile lines.

 

I am continually fascinated by how I am drawn to those photographs I take in which 'threes' occur, and which I somehow find richer -- maybe because of the asymmetry of the number 'three' -- being a prime number and all, and each point of an element of a grouping of 'three' usually (not always) forming the corner of an imaginary triangle, which often compels the eye to connect the 'dots' to form the triangle itself, and, of course, the triangle is a most interesting photographic element because its asymmetry suggests tension and draws the viewers' eyes through each triangular figure.

 

One day, I'll finish the presentation I've been working on, all on the subject of 'threes' in my photography, and you can see what I'm talking about. It includes any photograph in which there is a diagonal, bisecting line or even in which there is a strong diagonal within the frame, as each diagonal in a rectangular frame will divide the frame into two 'triangles' each with three corners.

 

It's a 'device' that I've not seen written about, and if anyone who sees this photo does see it written about by someone else, I would appreciate their posting a link or otherwise contacting me.

 

I have a large number of photos posted that contain the theme of 'threes', as related above. I'm not fixated on that as an element, just aware of it now. I also have a number of photographs I like in which the frame is divided into four parts or fourths. (See the man walking by Woolworths, San Francisco, CA from my Early B&W folder, the woman glasses shopper in the optometrist shop in front of a wall of glasses in display frames (in fourths) topped by an advertising photo of an attractive model with glasses, in my single photo portfolio.

 

Miles, I think the point of all this is to find out WHY some photos 'work' and some don't, and then (as is the vision of most who dissect such things), being able intentionally to arrange or 'find' such elements to recreate new, different and interesting photos that also 'work' through a more intellectual than intuitive process or at least to add the intellectual TO the intuitive process when one looks through the viewfinder or even before.

 

Capiche?

 

And cheers . . .

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

John