Depth Figure Plane

DEPTH, FIGURE, PLANE Nicholas J Fratta Prof Vladimir Krstic Kansas City Design Center Photography Independent Study

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[Table of Contents]

04

DISCOVER

Y

14

ATMOSPHE

RIC DEPTH

32

NEGATIVE

FIGURE

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TEXTURED

PLANE

PHOTOGRAPHY INDEPENDENT STUDY My earliest interest in architecture developed from a love for photography. I sought originally to capture in film the feeling of the built environment as I experienced it, and found new challenge and opportunity in producing a new feeling from the selective capture of specific elements composing the environment. What I have attempted over the course of this independent study is to capture elements of the Kansas City environment as I know it in a way that produces a feeling as I’ve never known it.

[Table of Contents]

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[Discovery]

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ATMOSPHE

RIC DEPTH

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NEGATIVE

FIGURE

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TEXTURED

PLANE

DISCOVERY These photographs are representative of the experimentation that preceded the foucsed investigations. From these I became more familiar with my equipment, and operation of all features to portray light in the most desired way, even to manipulate light to enhance the reimagination of the environment.

[Discovery]

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[Atmospheric Depth]

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DISCOVER

Y

32

NEGATIVE

FIGURE

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TEXTURED

PLANE

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ATMOSPHERIC DEPTH In the process of discovery, three elements of the environment seemed to be possible to emphasize dramatically through the photograph. The first of these is atmospheric depth. While operation of the camera allows control of depth of field by aperture adjustment, atmospheric depth is something more powerful.

It exists when unique environmental conditions compliment otherwise elusive conditions of the built environment.

[Atmospheric Depth]

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[Negative Figure]

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DISCOVER

Y

14

ATMOSPHE

RIC DEPTH

TEXTURED

PLANE

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NEGATIVE FIGURE The second element dramatically emphasized in the photograph is not the built environment itself, but the inverse of it. Much as the object of the form can be considered the figure, the remainder between forms can be considered the negative figure. This is particularly of interest in photography, since the frame becomes an object of figural presence contributing like building form to definition of negative figure.

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[Textured Plane]

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DISCOVER

Y

14

ATMOSPHE

RIC DEPTH

32

NEGATIVE

FIGURE

42 TEXTURED PLANE The third and final element of the built environment at focus in this series is the textured plane. Dusk light cast across material, historic detail of construction, and fluorescent light puncturing building surface at night all contribute to a unique experience of the built environment. Building surfaces, themselves textured planes, become again textured planes when reduced to the two-dimensional photo.

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[Depth, Figure, Plane]