Perspective, Scaling, and the Story Behind the Image

The beginning of this year has triggered the desire to travel back in time, and revisit some of its gentler moments with the help of old photographs. In the process, I discovered that those photographs have preserved the memories, and the stories surrounding those memories. And the visual stories come to life more vividly and powerfully than ever, attempting to fill the absence of places and people that are no more.

And speaking of visual storytelling, in this post I’d like to talk about a few more image composition rules, and share the backstory of two images I captured not that long ago. Today, I’d like to talk about:

• perspective
• scaling
• black-and-white

About the image(s):

To be honest, I struggled with finding titles for the two images posted below. They’re two images I captured a couple of year ago, while vising Princeton, NJ.

It was a warm fall day. It might have been around. the end of October, because I remember the Halloween decorations still marking the houses and windows on the streets of this iconic university town. It might have also been the beginning of November, because I recall people gathering around voting sites around town.

It was also the beginning of the new school, university, year. New students were around the campus trying to figure out their destinations for the day…just like I was.

After strolling around the Princeton University campus, I spotted the industrial structure of the fountain, and decided to take a closer look. It was the middle of a sunny and bright day, offering natural lighting conditions optimal for conversion to black-and-white.

Middle-of-the-day light, especially on a bright and sunny day, offers harsh shadows and light, and contrast. Hence, images captured during this time of the day, under these lighting conditions, work well as black-and-white images. Even more so when the subject is dramatic, itself, because black-and-white also helps emphasize the dramatic element in an image, evoke a dramatic mood. And I think that the subject in the above image (right), the fountain itself, makes for a dramatic subject.

Hence, from the moment I spotted the fountain, I knew that its image was going to be a black-and-white image.

I first photographed just the fountain, mesmerized by its power, intensity, mystery, and, yes, beauty. And I wondered about its symbolism, meaning.

It stood on the grounds of the Princeton University, emerging from the ground and reaching for the sky. I thought of the structure, itself, as a cradle of science and knowledge, of culture and education. I thought of the water as a student’s mind, about to be shaped into the mind of a scientist or researcher, and so on. And I thought of the sunlight sipping through this veil of ever-changing water, brightening it with the knowledge that education always has to offer.

And then I zoomed out, as if to look around, only to notice a person, its silhouette standing small and straight, facing the fountain, as if sizing up fountain, perhaps considering potential obstacles and opportunities the new school year had to offer.

And I couldn’t help but wonder. If that metal structure cradling the water were to come undone, the water (the knowledge) would flow freely, reaching the person. How would the person react? Would they let themselves be touched by the water, or step away from it?

And, metaphorically zooming out even more and generally speaking:

If a person was to find themselves in a cradle of knowledge such is Princeton, NJ, would they embrace and possibly advance the science and knowledge it holds or turn away from it? One can only wonder, especially nowadays….

That’s the story, the visual story of the above photographs. Keep capturing visual stories, and preserve moments and memories. It’s good for the soul, I believe.

As always, thanks for stopping by,

Alina Oswald