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Magazine
Eight varieties of Photographic Vision

 

by Editor Wicher Bos 

Recently I read a book of one of my favourites, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). The book “Vision in Motion”, “presents a broad and general view of the interrelatedness of art and life.“ In this book Laszlo presents his view on
(a new education of) visual arts.

In the section about ‘Photography’ he mentions eight varieties of photographic vision. This appealed to me because of its logic and because it matches our “seeing” to a categorization of photography.

And… of course… my next idea was, are there examples of each of his classification items in the 1x gallery.
Well, this is what I found…
The bold items are Laszlo’s category, below each of them (indented) you see my findings…

 

Abstract seeing by means of direct records produced by light; the photogram which captures the most delicate gradations of light values, both chiaroscuro and colored.
I could not find a true Photogram, but for me, this ‘smoke’ gets close

 

'Silk' by Aida Ianeva

 

Delicate gradations of light values



'As green as grass.....!' by Huib Limberg


Abstract illusion of a spiral – not truly a direct record of light though, just beautiful



'Spiral illusion' by Jacqueline Hammer

 

 Exact seeing by means of camera records; reportage.

 

'Innocence' by Vincent chung

 


'Eagle Girl II' by Rui Pires

 


'Blue' by Burak Senbak

 


'The road to the future' by Francesco Fratto

 

Rapid seeing by means of fixation of movements in the instantaneous snapshot, stroboscopic photography, an instantaneous photograph with rhythmical interruption of motion flow.
Mind the bullet...


'Stop global warming' by Lex Augusteijn

 


'High speed squirrel ;)' by Mircea Costina

 


'This dog can fly!' by Claudio Piccoli


Slow seeing
by means of fixation of movements spread over a period of time, prolonged time exposures; e.g. The luminous tracks made by headlights of cars passing along a road at night; virtual volume.

 

'Super, eclipse, blood red moon' by David williams

 


'Headlights and Brake Lights' by Karl Klingebiel

 
Prolonged time



'TIMELESS' by Paulo Dias

 


'Slow motion' by Larry Deng

 


'Silence' by Santiago Pascual Buye


Intensified seeing
by means of:

* Macro and microphotography

 

'Phantasmagorical' by Thierry Dufour

 


'Daddy Longlegs' by Victor Mozqueda

 


'African devil' by Jimmy Hoffman

 

* Filter photography which, by chemical variation of the sensitized surface, permits photographic potentialities to be augmented in various ways, ranging from the revelation of far-distant landscapes veiled in haze or fog to exposures in complete darkness-infrared photography.
Also a difficult category as it is hard to see if filters like a polarizer were applied but these infrared will at least give a good impression:


 
'Lapland' by Vaans Ruijten

 


'Iribas water mill' by Martin Zalba


*
Bird, frog and fisheye view.

Bird’s eye view:


 
'Birds eye view' by MikeC

 


'Follow the path' by Gunarto Song

 


'Drain pipe' by Radu R.

 

Fisheye view:



'Santiago shapes' by Henk van Maastricht

 


'the tower II' by Bildwerker Freiburg

 


'Santiago Bernabéu' by Jesús M. Garcia


Frog or bug’s eye view:



'Stars' by Massimo Della Latta

 


'Palazzo Pubblico – Siena – Italy' by Frank Smout Images

 


'The Portal for Pillar Agmina Mk.II' by Dr. Akira TAKAUE

 

Penetrative seeing by means of x-rays; radiography

Couldn’t find a real X-ray either – no surprise – but to show some example, here is a well to known x-ray of a hand


Free stock image

 However, this beauty is almost as good:

 

'Spoons Abstract: X-ray' by Jacqueline Hammer

 
and should you be more interested in more true x-rays images, just google for photographer Nick Veasey to see some stunning x-ray art.


Simultaneous seeing
by means of superimpositions; a process of automatic photomontage.

 

'manipulated …' by Esther Margraff

 


'golden memories' by mehran chitsaz

 


'Where Books Come From' by Michael Delman

 


'viewpoint' by Adrian Vrican

 
Distorted seeingoptical jokes that can be automatically produced by:

* Exposure through a lens fitted with prisms, of reflecting mirrors or the distograph.

If any one of you knows what the “distograph” actually was, I will be grateful.
(It can’t be the MacMillan distograph in my view, that would not make any sense.)



'Blue window in a red frame' by Harry Verschelden




'I believe I can fly' by Anja Buehrer

 

 
'polarized' by Manfred W.

 

'I' by Oren Hayman


Mechanical and chemical manipulation of the negative during or after developing, using oil drops, suds, soaps, etc.; lighting, heating or freezing, resulting in distortion, reticulation, solarization, etc

In digital times the hit you get for Suds is this:



'Suds' by Cathyt

 
modern version of this approach: added texture and double exposures:



'Eye Catcher' by Delphine Devos

 


'Soulmade part II' by Stefan Eisele

 


'City' by Zsóka Lorincz

 
I hope you enjoyed the selection and although some elements of Laszlo’s categorization seem a bit outdated, (like the chemical manipulations), they presently have found a new shape in the digital era (in all kinds of software manipulations) – in my opinion.

I like to end this contribution with a quote from Lazlo
“The enemy of photography is the convention, the fixed rules of 'how to do.'
The salvation of photography comes from the experiment.” (Laszlo Moholy-Nagy)

As always, I just express my personal views and feelings… also in selecting these specific 1x iimages.
Let me know your favourite examples or if you disagree, why…
Your response is always appreciated!

Wicher Bos

Source: Vision in Motion – 1946 – Laszlo Moholy – Nagy (publisher Paul Theobald, Chicago)

 

 

Write
Thank you very much for including one of my infrared works!
Excellent and interesting article. Thank you and congratulations to all.
Thank you for choosing one of my photos,congratulations to all! Beautiful images!
Wonderful way of expressing a simple context for photography!
Nice to see one of my pictures in this interesting article.Thanks and congrats to all!
HI, thanks! glad to see one of my pictures in the article.
Thank you for choosing one of my images, Wicher Interesting article
Thx David!
Thanks and congratulations to all
Thank your guys so much and congratulations to all. What a honor to be selected. Many thanks Yvette !!!
Million thanks to Wicher bos !!!
Thanks for your appreciation, Larry ;-)
Superb image, a big thank you for choosing one of my photos. Many thanks Yvette Wicher bos !!!
You're welcomen, Thierry!
Thx, Thierry!
Thanks a lot for this fine article and gorgeous gallery of 1x images, Wicher! Congratulations to the authors... I wish you all a fine weekend ahead! Cheers, Yvette
Thx Yvette! Entirely my pleasure ;)
Thanks and congratulations to all. Truly splendid photographs
Thanks, dear Massimo!