61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Second Outstanding Book on Composition/Design is Finally in Print, March 20, 2008
This review is from: The Photograph: Composition and Color Design (Hardcover)
First, the disclaimer: I translated this book from the German 2001 and 2007 editions of "Das Foto." So errors of translation are mine. I did so for my own edification. I encouraged the publisher to find a way to get this information into English, because I thought the content of this book should be available to the English language readership. As it turned out, the publisher eventually asked to use my translation. I was paid for my work, but do not receive royalties from sales.
Now some history on Harald Mante's books. The last time his books were available in English was in the 1970s, when Van Nostrand Reinhold published his "Photo Design" and "Color Design," the first covering the design elements and contrasts in B&W and the second covering the color contrasts and their effects when incorporating the design elements. These books are classics of long standing among people interested in analytical presentations of these subjects. Over the years he has written several other instructional books, but until now, none had made it into English.
This is the second truly outstanding book on the subject to appear in less than a year, the first being Michael Freeman's "The Photographer's Eye," on which I have a review elsewhere. The bottom line is that my strongest recommendation is to own both of these books. Together they constitute the strongest, most thorough presentation of composition/design up to the intermediate level available anywhere in print in English. No other books in English deal with this material in the depth, breadth, and level of these two books, for photographers or for drawing/painting artists.
Now to review Mante's book. Mante was taught and presents his material in the tradition of the teachings of such Bauhaus masters as Vassily Kandinsky. Aspects of his presentation, adapted to photography, remind one of Kandinsky's landmark book, "Point and Line to Plane."
Whereas Freeman starts in a more traditional photographic writer's manner with a consideration of the implications of different viewing frames, Mante assumes the 36mm x 24mm frame and starts right into the grammar of visual structure with the point: 26 pages about the point. How one point works within the 35mm film frame, then two and more, and the visual implications. Then 26 pages on lines. He moves on to shapes, in fewer pages, but with equal thoroughness.
He moves then to what I have translated as "universal contrasts," covering figure-ground, tonal contrast, and representation of space. Next he covers the seven most commonly recognized color contrasts, along the lines of J. Itten, as they pertain to photographing.
The last, long, chapter covers a number of techniques and considerations the photographer can use to improve the chances of achieving one's goal in taking an image. Several of the topics relate to the ratio the photographer has to choose between objective representation and subjective interpretation, another important topic in Kandinsky's writings. The last two sections are on photographic sequences and series. Mante has used these two techniques as elements of his teaching over many years, and has published and exhibited students' work using these ideas.
The over 600 photographs illustrating the topics are signature Mante, based solidly on strong visual design. Many of the illustrations occur in his fine art portfolio publications and have been exhibited in many countries. The large number of diagrams also support his textual argument.
Short digression: One measure of the value of this book may be that "the Rule of Thirds" does not appear anywhere. He prefers the European use of 5/8ths and 3/8ths. It turns out that between the two guidelines and the third way of using the frame diagonal and dropping a perpendicular from an opposite corner, all three points are pretty close. However, the primary advantage of the 3/8ths;5/8ths division is space management. The Thirds Rule divides the frame into nine identical rectangles, overzealous use of which is a prescription for boring space management. The Europeans' preferred approach encourages a more varied result. The diagonal/perpendicular technique also produces a variety of rectangles dividing the image frame.
This book contains no camera/lens/aperture/shutter/photographer's thoughts about the illustrations. Mastery of the equipment and what it can do is assumed. This book is all about the image - building it and analyzing it. It is not elementary either in topics or presentation: basics, yes, elementary, no.
Art/photographic practitioners, historians, teachers, students, and arts administrators would find this book an excellent text. Mante's presentation equips one to understand the structure and dynamics of an image in one's viewfinder and to analyze the result after firing the shutter. No other book does that in quite so elemental and analytical a manner.
The chapters are either six or eight pages long. Each chapter has 20 or more photographic illustrations and several diagrams. Since a photograph or diagram may be referred to more than once in a chapter's text, the reader will be obliged to move about within the six or eight pages of that chapter. While this may be offputting to readers used to the text and illustrations generally coinciding on the same or a facing page in elementary presentations on this subject, it is difficult to build the argument as the author has and not have to do some page turning. Readers familiar with exhibition monographs, or books on artists/photographers or groups of artists/photographers will be used to having to turn through tens, sometimes more than a hundred pages to track among the illustrations (plates), invariably located in the back, with the essays in the front.
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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Different Approach for a Few Photographers, April 7, 2008
This review is from: The Photograph: Composition and Color Design (Hardcover)
Rocky Nook is a relatively new entrant into the field of photography publications. One of the niches that it has taken aim on is the translation of books into English that appear in European languages. One might think that in a global culture, where a digital camera is the same in Germany as in the United States, and Lightroom has the same interface in both countries, there would be little room for variation in theory, but this book seems to prove that thesis incorrect.
While I have not read every book on photographic composition in the English language, the theories of composition presented by Mante differ from most that I've encountered. When discussing composition, most authors speak about the rule of thirds, or where to put the horizon in a picture, or simplification. Mante on the other hand, discusses the importance of the point, or multiple points, or lines or shapes, or ground and field, or contrast. (At least one other author, Richard Zakia, has tried to deal with these same concepts, but his book is too idiosyncratic to recommend.)
The chapters of the book are organized to present a single concept, like a line of points, with text, several illustrative photographs, and diagrams. Frequently one is required to flip back and forth between text, photograph and diagram. The photographs by Mante are quite beautiful, although they bear a close resemblance to the self-referential. By that I mean that the content explicated by the form is the form itself. For example, those familiar with Albers color squares recognize that the content is the perception created by placing certain colors in proximity to each other. Mante's photograph of a purple wall with a green beam in it is not about the wall, but rather about the relation of purple and green. Most current photography seems to be far more about the content, with technique explicating the content, then Mante's pictures and instruction. Mante doesn't disdain content. In fact he recognizes its primacy. But this is a book about form, and that's what the photographs emphasize.
The text is quite difficult reading being quite dry and technical, and I suspect that many photographers will not be interested in following this theoretical line of the development of composition. Yet for those photographers who are given to a more technical, cerebral approach to the creation of images, this material, because of its different approach, may provide new insights into composition. It will also appeal to photographers who are searching for an approach to design different from the common wisdom.
Even though I was willing to consider a new way of looking at composition, I found that Mante stopped just short of where I wanted him to go. His final thesis seems to be that the photographer should direct the viewer to content through contrast in design. But I would have liked for him to explain how particular forms of contrast can direct the viewer's inner eye to the photographer's vision, or how "technique is discovery". Still, the approach to design holds so much promise for a new way to compose photographs that I will try to apply Mante's teachings to my own work.
In summery, if you are a photographer who is willing to consider broad theory in an effort to enhance the composition of your photographs and are willing to risk an investment of your time that may or may not be productive, this is a book for you.
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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Return of an old classic, May 13, 2008
This review is from: The Photograph: Composition and Color Design (Hardcover)
This may seem to be a mutual back-scratching club, as I'm following a review by Tom Campbell, who also reviewed my own book, The Photographer's Eye. Nevertheless, I'm compelled to say that this is the welcome return of one of the classics of composition in photography. And excellently updated and revised, too. Mante methodically and sympathetically presents an exhaustive account of the formal elements, from points and lines, through colour, to purely photographic forms such as time sequences. His painter's training allows a refreshing and rare cross-discipline analysis. An essential read for anyone with an interest in design in photography (and any photographer SHOULD have just such an interest).
Michael Freeman (author of The Photographer's Eye, among many others)
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