For the past few months I’ve been enrolled in a photography class at PCNW here in Seattle. It was a fantastic experience–great teacher, nice digital lab, and fun classmates. Each week we were given an assignment using a specific technique or topic that we had covered in class. Though I didn’t post about every week, I did upload photos from several of them.
Week one was open, but then we explored capturing motion, depth of field, portraits, light as subject, and self portraits. For our final project, though, we had the freedom to do just about anything we liked.
It took me a while to settle on a topic. But when I finally decided, I knew it was right – finding lines. When I was coming up with titles for my blog, I really liked that phrase to describe what I enjoy about making pictures. So it seemed natural that my first self-assigned collection should fall into that theme. It’s broad enough to encompass just about anything, but it still rings true for me.
Finding Lines
Curved, straight, blurred—the world is made up of lines. We draw them in the sand. People cross them. We all hate waiting in them.
Sharp and angular, lines create intricate geometric forms and patterns. Smooth and curved, lines can be abstract, revealing no discernible arrangement. Lines define the edges of a leaf or a tree, or become obscured in a blurred reflection. The crow’s feet etched near the corner of the eye hint of a genuine smile or mischievous smirk. In the foreground, in the middle, over and under, straight and angled—lines offer up layers of pleasing simplicity or of mind-boggling complexity.
The symmetrical and repetitive designs found in both man-made and natural objects catch my eye. I notice the rusty pilings of a pier. A bike rack on a beach captivates my attention, its lines curving and straight. The mysterious silhouette of a grove of trees just past dusk enchants me. I find myself fascinated by the layers in the petals of a water lily, the leaves and their rust-tinged edges. The color and curves of a “garden†of whimsical bottles transports me to a surreal, otherworldly landscape.
Lines are everywhere. Finding and capturing them is what I love.
– Mike Russell
