weston 'pepper #30' (1930)
weston 'nude' (1925)
weston 'shells' (1927)
weston 'excusado' (1925)
Today begins a series about various stylistic movements in art and photography. I have had several requests to explain more about Formalism since I mentioned it in my post about ‘10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Photos (Part 1)‘ and ‘(Part 2)‘.
Formalism is a style of art and photography that emphasizes the forms and shapes of objects over other components of the image. Someone who is a complete Formalist would not care what the object was that they were photographing. They would be primarily concerned with its shapes. Formalism can also be a lesser component seen in photographers with a strong graphic design or compositional component to their work. Famous photographic Formalists include Alfred Steiglitz, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Margaret Bourke-White. I will be addressing each of these people individually in future posts.
The movement of Formalism in photography was spearheaded in the early 1920′s by Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. Prior to this movement, the predominant style of art photography was Pictorialism. This was a very romantic, soft focused, impressionistic style. Formalsim grew out the the American Industial Revolution at the turn of the 20th century. Technological advancements were being celebrated all around, even in art. Edwards and Adams began an organization in California call the f64 group. They believed that since they had such wonderful technology, photographers should be using it to it’s fullest extent. No longer were blurry, emotionally charged images accepted. They wanted everything to be sharp focus, small apertures, very precise. You can really see this in Adams’ landscape images where everything is in focus, everything is in order, almost too perfect for nature.
The images above come from Edward Weston. You can really see that he was a pure Formalist at the time these were made. Everything is about the shape and form of the objects or the body. One of his most famous images, ‘Pepper No. 30′ made in 1930 caused great scandal when it was shown. People thought that it was too erotic and sexual. Hey, it’s a pepper. This shows the real power of form over other compositional elements. You can learn a great deal from scrutinizing his amazing work and the precision involved in the process.
My work contains a great deal of Formalism, but I do not consider myself a real Formalist. I like to explore shape, design, and composition as it relates to Beauty. I encourage to try out this style in your own work. You may already have a compenent of this in your style, so try to push it to the purest limit.
Gary Miller
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