This image provided inspiration for my assignment. Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956), a Russian photographer, was one of the founders of constructivism, a movement that originated in Russia in the 1920s. He believed that art should be “constructed” with a social purpose. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, progress was linked to industrialization; art celebrated this new world and its new customs. Rodchenko led the avant-garde in this new way of seeing, with his odd angles (from very high or very low) and unusual perspective.
My response image was taken at Pattee Library on Penn State Campus. I like Rodchenko’s play with perspective and angle, especially the resulting diagonal lines and geometric shapes. My image was taken with a wide-angle lens (24 mm) at f/9, ISO 800, hand held at 1/250 sec. The wide angle creates converging lines that recede from the camera to a vanishing point in the sky. Upward, vertical lines are more difficult to accept as normal than similar receding lines in horizontal images. I think this effect – redefining perception – was what Rodchenko sought in much of his work.
PhotoChronologies 