It’s Not Imbalanced . . . It’s Itten

Itten’s Contrasts – An Old Bauhaus Trick

I came upon the concept of Itten’s Contrasts in a photography book by Michael Freeman, The Photographer’s Eye (great book, by the way). Johannes Itten was a Bauhaus instructor who identified contrasts as the main element of composition. Freeman’s description:

The easiest way of producing pairs of photographs that contrast with each other is selection from files of pictures already taken, choosing those that best show a certain contrast. More demanding but more valuable is to go out and look for images that illustrate a pre-planned type of contrast – executing shots to order. You could also attempt to combine the two poles of the contrast in one photograph, an exercise that calls for quite a bit more imagination. There are no restrictions to the kind of contrast, and it can be to do with form (bright/dark, blurred/sharp) or with any aspect of content, or even concept, such as continuous/intermittent, or something non-visual, like loud/quiet.

A passionate educator, Itten wanted his students to approach these contrasts from three directions: ‘they had to experience them with their senses, objectivize them intellectually and realize them synthetically.’ That is, each student had first to try to get a feeling for each contrast without immediately thinking of it as an image, then list the ways of putting this sensation across, and finally make a picture.

If you’ve studied arts or graphics you’re no doubt familiar with this idea. It also helps explain the contrasts of human form and emotion, with sentimentality, as one example, being the sunny side of cynicism.

Freeman suggests photographers start the exercise by pairing two photographs, each containing an element that contrasts with the other. The exercise progresses to including both contrasting elements in one photograph. For example:

Horizontal:

Train at Alviso

Train at Alviso

Vertical:

Stacks at Morro Bay

Stacks at Morro Bay

Horizontal and Vertical:

Power Lines at Palo Alto Baylands

Power Lines at Palo Alto Baylands

Itten and Creative Absolutes

So, Itten got me thinking . . . about the absolutes, the boxes, the frames that keep people constrained to an identity or a style. It’s something I think about frequently. One of the earliest mandates for a writer is to find “your voice” and stick to it. Or as one blogging advice column suggested, “decide who you are and stay there. Readers want to know who they’re going to find when they land on your blog.”

But what if your voice is a representation of Itten’s contrasts? Very few of us view life through a single filter. What if you are overwhelmed daily with the brilliance that is the world . . . but simultaneously confronted with the chaos or cruelty as it pertains to that brilliance . . . then delighted by the cosmic humor, and then dismayed in our inability to delight in it?

Of course, your voice, who you are is a constant, even if that constancy is a duality and changeability. Even Kafka’s Gregor couldn’t pretend he wasn’t an insect when he was flailing upside down with his giant beetle legs in the air. So what I’m getting at, if I could just get to the point, is that dichotomies are the composition of life . . . and they’ll make for nice pictures, too. If you come to this blog and the voice sounds more like a wood rot fungus than a human some days, consider yourself a guest in the realm of Itten, dualities and complexities noted and appreciated.

On that note, I’ve never actually explored Itten’s Contrasts photographically. So, over the next few weeks, I’ll be making my way through Freeman’s list. And if you’re also so inspired, send me your pics and I’ll post them.