Adviser Update Spring 2016 | Page 18

M OV E M E NT What path does the viewer take when looking at a picture? What does the viewer see? THAT IS MOVEMENT. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but a picture could also be a cluttered desktop. Where do your eyes go when you look at a cluttered desk? That is movement. Movement is about the viewer... your viewer. Movement is not motion. Movement is not linear. What do you see when you look at a photo or page? What do you see second? Third? I often return to the Getty Museum’s Education site when I confuse movement and motion. It doesn’t really matter if you confuse the two, as long as you know both exist. Many bad photos would be eliminated if more photographers understood Movement. Annika’s second image allows for a viewer to move through the image. I probably start looking at the big fish and follow it to the left. I probably follow the school of fish into the top left corner and go across to the top right where the image is the brightest. The seaweed gives me another thing to see as I am going along with the fish. The image is not too busy or cluttered, but there is enough to keep me viewing. Oh look, fish on the bottom left! And then back to the main topic fish. I have included a couple of my roller derby images to demonstrate that students can combine motion and movement. In this photo from the Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Regional Tournament in Tucson, Arizona, I photographed Australia’s Victoria Roller Derby League All-Stars warming up before the final with a slow shutter at 1/40. The photo also has movement. In this culture, we read from left to right, so we often read images from left to right. I read the white board that lists the black and white team first. After moving left to right, I see the skaters moving right to left. I also see the WFTDA poster in the background going back in the other direction. Perhaps my favorite part are the three read letters SLY. Is this a great photo? Probably not. The photo lacks emotion and nobody cares that I am being sly.