26 The Image within an Image
The so-called frames of perspective (an image within an image) create a view and concentrate the viewer’s gaze. This form of pictorial language was employed by the Old Masters; one of the best-known examples of the use of an image within an image is Caspar David Friedrich’s Woman at the Window.
The easiest way to create an image within an image is to photograph the views seen through a window. The inclusion of windows in a photo is fascinating owing to several reasons:
• They connect two spaces that possibly have nothing to do with each other to create a whole in the photo—inner and outer space are blended into one.
• They give the illusion of three-dimensions in a two-dimensional photo; after all, photographers aim to achieve this illusion as much as possible.
However, you can use the image within an image concept more freely. For example, the frame does not always need to be rectangular. The framing can also be implied, as you will see in the photo of the power lines in Chapter 27, “Interesting Irritations.” Regardless of how the frame of the perspective is composed or hinted at, it does create two pictorial planes and that’s what makes this kind of composition exciting.
Generally, the wide-angle lens is the best tool to use for achieving such a composition because its strong vanishing perspective coupled with the immense depth of field makes it ideally suited for blending two spaces.
1 Upper horizontal harmonic dividing line
2 Lower horizontal harmonic dividing line
3 Vertical symmetry axis
4 Breaking the line pattern
Melancholy with Binoculars
As you have seen, melancholic moods can be poetic. The photo in figure 26–1 has four planes that create this poetry: the table with the candle, the window with the raindrops, the blurred background, and the television screen. The image within an image is taken literally here because the image of the sailboat on the television screen and the opaque window achieve the main tension in this photo. The promising virtual reality contrasts with the sobering reality. This is surely a photo that could tell a story, a story about yearning and wanderlust. (In the language of classical painting, the sailboat often symbolized yearning.) Here, the sailboat is placed in rather dull premises: The window frame looks somewhat worn and the windowpane looks steamed up from the inside and rainy from the outside. Both the television and the barely recognizable sofa beneath it do not look so modern either. Only the candle seems to break through this melancholic mood, providing a bit of relief.
The photo was taken with an analog camera using a rather large aperture of a normal lens. Table and background are blurred, but this lack of sharpness actually helps the image.
Backlight Projection
As I mentioned earlier, the frame created by perspective does not have to be rectangular. In the photo in figure 26–2, the sail of an Indian fishing boat serves as a projection screen for the image within an image. Here, the sun acts as projector for the silhouettes of the seven persons who are hoisting the sail. It was essential to shoot the photo at precisely the right moment because only a few seconds later the people moved and the composition was gone.
Because the photo was shot with an analog camera, it was very important to burn in the sky in the darkroom to intensify the framing effect. The sky that gradually becomes darker toward the top helps to lead the eye toward the bright part of the image within the image, where the action is concentrated and the distribution of light is strengthened.
It would have taken forever to create a template for every photo, therefore hand-blocking was used to shadow areas of the image where less exposure was desired. Naturally, a 100 percent clean result was never achieved because this complicated dodging act had to be performed during a certain exposure time. In this photo, the dodging is not uniform (the upper part of the sail is too dark and the left area is too bright). Such slight imperfections characterize analog photo manipulation.
This photo serves as an example of how the digital darkroom allows for more precise dodging and burning compared to the traditional darkroom. Digital dodging tools can be adjusted to all sizes, thus allowing you to take your time to gradually dodge and burn until the perfect result is achieved.
The photo was taken with a 28 mm wide-angle lens.
Ruin in Kurdistan
The photograph (figure 26–3) of a landscape illuminated by the flat light of the midday sun needed pictorial tension to be good. The mountainous terrain and the ruin divide the image into two halves, providing the necessary pictorial tension. In the left half, the eye can wander freely along the wild, barren expanse of the eastern Turkish landscape, while the right half is dominated by the ruin—and the view through the ruin toward the barren mountains creates yet another image. This creates the pictorial tension and a lot of depth that would otherwise be practically nonexistent.
Here, it was important to intensify the contrast between sky and clouds, something easily controlled in analog photography with color filters. In this case, I used a yellow filter, although an orange or red filter would have increased the effect to the mystical realm (such a ruin is reminiscent of another age), but I didn’t have one with me. If available space is an issue, the yellow filter is the universal filter for analog black and white photography. Since the release of the CS3 version of the program, Photoshop includes conversion presets for simulating a number of classic black and white filter effects. You can nearly always use the yellow filter preset to increase the contrast between clouds and sky. This photo was taken with a 28 mm wide-angle lens.
Square Concrete Blocks in the Landscape
If the image within an image in the previous photo stressed the wildness of the landscape, the photo in figure 26–4 expresses the joy of an idyllic landscape. Two gigantic-looking squares block the view of the boundless beauty of a mountainous landscape on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, a landscape that opens up behind a flower-filled meadow. The square concrete blocks create the frame of the perspective and act like two images within the image that taper off in the central perspective and lead your eye to the center of the picture. The square block in the middle makes the landscape in the background look like it appears on a television screen.
The image triggers a feeling of uneasiness. What are these blocks for? What is going on here? Such an image might force you to think about a deeper issue: Will concrete someday cover the earth? The mood evoked in this photo may express such a general feeling of uneasiness, which certainly reflects the mood of the times.
The photo was taken with an analog camera using a 20 mm wide-angle lens. I later scanned the negative and manipulated it in Photoshop to increase the medium-tone contrast by 35%. I then used the Burn tool to expose the sky in the upper edge of the photo by about 20%.
