Breaking the rules is not as easy as songs about teenage angst, delinquents and pro-peer pressure motivational speakers make it out to be. Well... at least not the rules of composition. Taking a photo successfully breaking the rules of composition AND looking beautiful at the same time have proved to be difficult while shooting for this assignment. In order for me to get a "so good it's bad" photograph, I simply did the things I normally do or observe while I'm at home. I figured life doesn't abide by the rules of composition and neither would my photographs if I simply observed the life I already see with my eyes everyday...but this time with a lens between them. I played with my dog, watched TV, did homework, and sat on my kitchen counter silently with the exception of a few clicks and snaps.
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I took this photo with a Canon Rebel T2i with an 18-55mm lens, an aperture of f6 and a shutter speed of 1/60s. This photo breaks the rules because the couch is the focus of the photo, and all the "action" in this photo has nothing to do with the couch. The two paintings in the background are unbalanced, but the chair arm on the left balances out the photo in a way and keeps unity in the photo. |
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I shot this with a Canon Rebel T2i with an 18-55mm lens, an aperture of f7 and a shutter speed of 1/60s. This photo breaks the rules because the flowers are the object of interest in this photo, but the interesting parts of the photo are perfectly unrelated and related at the same time (confusing... but not as confusing as breaking the rules of composition to create a perfect photo). The boys feet somewhat merge with the girls head in the right corner. The woman's arm and the boy's leg are going in the same direction, this secretly mimics the compositional rule of "line" and makes it an interesting and strangely eye-appealing photo. |
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This photo was taken with a Canon Rebel T2i with an 18-55mm lens, an aperture of f7 and a shutter speed of 1/60s. This breaks the rules of composition in a number of ways. The lines on the floor and on the girls contrast each other and don't compliment the rules of composition but they do compliment this photo in its own way. The frame of the carpet does not work in the way that composition/interior designers would like it to. However, this photo works because it is all brought together by the direction and placement of the dog's legs and the girl's legs. After getting some "perfectly bad" photos, I continued with my idea of capturing perfection in the daily livings of a compositional rule breaking world... and decided to use the new knowledge of alternative processes to bring these photos to life...literally. I decided to create acrylic lifts of each photo and use them as placemats. I think placemats match the same criteria as a compositionally awful photograph. Place mats bring some sort of unity to the table, now matter how disheveled the contents on....or around... the table are.     |
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