Formalism

10/14/09 This Way

I took this one on my walk to campus with my Panasonic point and shoot. I converted it to black and white in Photoshop to draw focus to the line and shape within the composition. The emphasis of compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context or content is called Formalism. Artists such as Piet Mondrian and Edward Weston produced formalist works. I really like working within this art theory because what you see is what you get. There's nothing to read in to. Sometimes its nice to just enjoy a photograph or painting for what it is, not what it means.

Links:
Piet Mondrian
Edward Weston