That Which Is Called Style.

WallPaper. Copyright 2009: Knut Skjærven.

“The one element absolutely essential in every composition is balance, without which no picture can ever be satisfying. Lacking this,  a picture becomes restless and irritating, and the beholder turns from it with a sense of relief.

No formula can be drawn up for the simplification for the course of study necessary to an understanding of what constitutes good composition. To a natural taste must be added a careful and understanding study of the best accepted work of all forms of art, old and new. In photography this is even more essential, if possible, then in painting, for the photographer, usually working in monochrome, has not the resource of color upon the painter can draw. Consequently, the only advice is study the best pictures in all media – from painting to photography –  and to study them again and again, analyze them, steep yourself in them until they unconsciously become part of your esthetic being. Then, if there be any trace of originality within you, you will intuitively adapt what you have thus made a part of yourself, and tinctured by your personality you will evolve that which is called style.”

Alfred Stieglitz: Stieglitz on Photography, His Selected Essays and Notes, Compiled and Annotated by Richard Whelan, Aperture, New York. Library Thing.

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