Picture of the Month — Istanbul by NYIP Graduate Evaldus Darskus

This month, NYIP Associate Dean Jerry Rice has written the Photo of the Month Review. Jerry's keen eye can help readers decipher any type of photograph. A lifelong lover of fine photography, when Jerry talks about photographs, everyone at NYIP listens. We know you'll enjoy Jerry's observations on this month's photograph.

At NYIP we teach our students a simple Three-Step Method for setting up every photograph they shoot:

• Step 1. Know your subject.
• Step 2. Focus attention on your subject.
• Step 3. Simplify.

This simple Three-Step Method is the secret of every successful photograph ever taken. We teach our students to consider these three steps every time they look into the viewfinder or LCD panel. To consider them before they press the shutter button.

When our students mail in their photographs for analysis by their instructor, the instructor starts by commenting on what we call the three Guidelines. Of course, the instructor analyzes other elements of the picture too — focus, exposure, filters, etc. But the key to every good photo — and the essential element of every great photo — is adherence to these three Guidelines.

How do they work? How can you apply them? It's beyond the scope of this Web site to teach you every nuance, but you will get an inkling from the Photo of the Month Analysis that follows.

Istanbul

Photo by NYIP Graduate Evaldus Darskus

NYIP Graduate Evaldus Darskus of Kaunas, Lithuania has contributed this month's photograph, and it appears to have been taken in a bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey. The braziers, incense burners, lamps, etc. help to establish the location of the scene.

As you know, we strongly recommend the application of NYIP's Three Guidelines for Great Photographs to every picture. The third Guideline stresses simplification of the picture by eliminating the unnecessary elements. But this is a very complex study. Does its structure negate our third principle?

Not really. Any photograph can comprise numerous elements or few or merely some in-between number. It is not the number of items that matters, for one can photograph one bee on a flower or six hundred bees at a hive (heaven forbid!). Still, it is necessary to eliminate what must be done away with while leaving intact umpty-umph other things.

Let us turn now to the focusing of attention on the subject (or subjects). The photographer, Darskus, used the steps in the bazaar as leading lines or converging lines that direct one's attention to the descending individuals. Furthermore, he has framed the people with the braziers and lamps. In addition, he has rendered much of the artifacts in silhouette or semi-silhouette. That effect of dark against light tones adds considerable emphasis and a strong three-dimensional feeling. One is reminded of the manner in which both Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas used dark foregrounds to call attention to lighter backgrounds where the more important subject matter lay.

In the world of photographic artists the above-mentioned technique played a significant role. Consider the beautiful photographs of such luminaries as Frederick Evans and his English cathedrals, and Alvin Langdon Coburn's "Vortographs." And, in modern times, the brilliant work of the most famous NYIP alumnus, W. Eugene Smith. Gene's magnificent use of dark foregrounds can be seen in many of his series such the one on Albert Schweitzer, the Pittsburgh scenes, the study of the Spanish village, and his world-famous Minimata series about the effects of mercury poisoning in Japan.

I think that one of the more interesting aspects of photographing crowds of people is the unity found within the apparent disunity. It is one thing to photograph the 2nd Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division (an old Army outfit of mine); everyone lined up in parade formation, everyone looking essentially the same. But it's another thing to photograph random large groups such as this one in Darskus' picture of an Istanbul bazaar. In such a photograph the grouping seems disorganized, but there actually are patterns — little knots of people bunched together (perhaps friends or relatives) and yet clearly separated from other groups. Hence, unity with the framework of apparent disunity!

I mentioned before both Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas. There is yet another aspect related to Impressionism here. Note the fact that the photograph is unsharp throughout. It probably was due to camera shake and slow shutter speeds due to poor light. But let's give the photographer the benefit of the doubt. The softness could have been deliberate. The photographer may have felt that the sense of airy impressionism was more to be desired than razor-sharp rendition. In other words, more of an appeal to our imagination rather than dead-on factual rendering. It's a possibility, no?

Alfred Stieglitz and his protégé Eduard Steichen both employed soft focus lenses in their earlier days. Both men eventually changed their approach and began to produce much sharper photographs. Stieglitz once argued that we really do not see the world sharply. Rather, there is often a sense of fuzziness Stieglitz and Steichen both altered their technique, and Steichen even anglicized the spelling of his name (Eduard to Edward).

So, as the sun sinks slowly in the Bosporus let us leave the Golden Horn of Istanbul. Maybe we'll come back some day.