"Love" cityscape in Mandalay (Burma) by Pascal Riben

[pascalriben]

Click a link to see the ORIGINAL SIZE or the LANDSCAPES gallery

 

[amolitor]

This isn't doing much for me.

It strikes me as an exercise in formal composition, and as such it falls down pretty thoroughly!

There's a nice gradation of tone from lower left to the brightest area upper right, but the black 25% or so of the frame on the right seems out of place (formally, I see what it is and why it's there as a picture of a thing, a scene, but as a formal composition it's wildly unbalancing). This creates a "highest contrast" area upper left there, where the brightest area meets the black area. This draws the eye, but there's nothing there. The interesting stuff is all in the middle-toned area in the middle, lower down.

If the scene were more obvious, if it were immediately clear what we're looking at, these formal qualities would not be such a problem, but as it is this is nearly an abstract.

 

[pascalriben]

This isn't doing much for me.

It strikes me as an exercise in formal composition, and as such it falls down pretty thoroughly!

There's a nice gradation of tone from lower left to the brightest area upper right, but the black 25% or so of the frame on the right seems out of place (formally, I see what it is and why it's there as a picture of a thing, a scene, but as a formal composition it's wildly unbalancing). This creates a "highest contrast" area upper left there, where the brightest area meets the black area. This draws the eye, but there's nothing there. The interesting stuff is all in the middle-toned area in the middle, lower down.

If the scene were more obvious, if it were immediately clear what we're looking at, these formal qualities would not be such a problem, but as it is this is nearly an abstract.

Thank you for you comment... but to be honnest, I cannot understand the way you analyze and see this picture!

 

[amolitor]

Am I being unclear, or are we simply thinking in different directions? I don't mind either one, but if a further comment from me would be helpful, I would be happy to write one!

 

[pascalriben]

Am I being unclear, or are we simply thinking in different directions? I don't mind either one, but if a further comment from me would be helpful, I would be happy to write one!

No, you're very clear... but I cannot understand - I should share - the way you analyze a picture. Or as you say, we're thinking in different directions!

Anyway, thanks a lot for taking time to comment deeply.