Customer Reviews

The Photograph: Composition and Color Design

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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)

Serious photographers! Immediately purchase and immerse yourselves in this extraordinary volume of instruction and inspiration. Of all the hundreds of photo and image texts we've reviewed at MyMac Magazine, The Photograph - Composition and Color Design is the most important one for helping intermediate to advanced photographers grasp the precision and acuity necessary to achieve the finest images. Those are strong words, matched by author Harald Mante's strong content.

He is an acclaimed German professor of photography who has been teaching and publishing photo textbooks for over 45 years, with numerous exhibits in many countries. Such a resumé is mere fluff if his photos and tutorials aren't impressive, which they certainly are.

Over 600 of Professor Mante's powerful photographs illustrate his lessons, each of which is accompanied by detailed descriptions, plus charts and graphs of his own creation. Photo presentation is world class, as are all production values within The Photograph. My heart was racing as I turned page over page, both from Professor Mante's sensational photos and with enthusiasm for his methods.

You must understand image design (composition) and color design to be a top notch photographer. If you consider yourself already to be at your peak, the mountain will rise by the application of Mante's methods. Beginning with "The Point," and progressing through line, shape, and contrast, concluding with "Using the Tools," this book is its own reward. Your photos improve as you marvel at the author's.

Now stop reading, and order The Photograph - Composition and Color Design. Then send us a thank you note.

MyMac rating: Perfect 5 out of 5!

If you have read Michael Freeman's book, the Photographer's Eye, and liked it and you have patience for a bit denser treatment, you should like this one. Just be prepared for a lot of flipping back and forth to look at examples. Like Freeman, Mante, builds the concepts from points up though colors and then veers off a bit to cover more general topics such as creative unsharpness. As with Freeman's book I'll be reding it more than once.

T Campbell wrote an excellent review of the book. The concept is excellent and would recommend it to all who are interested in improving the way to see. Few practitioners of the visual arts are able to articulate ideas about their own images in analytical terms or, even, acknowledge any value in doing so. This book gives the photographer the opportunity to incorporate analysis into a critical view of theirs as well as other photographers. Ther is a constituency of significant size who are at a stage in their lives that they can realize for the first time or are returning to creative passions after their income earning years and who may be receptive to incorporating analytical aspects in their approach to or understanding of the visual arts. However, it is a difficult book to read because of the lack of organization between the text with the photographs or figures.

This book is my first text on picture composition and design. I've read books about the technologies involved with photography and books that explain why a particular photograph really works.

But Mante's book explains the principles behind good photographs. And the value of this is that it gets you past understanding why a particular picture looks good and into how you can replicate the success of that photograph.

How exactly does Mante go about doing it? He breaks his large book down into the basic elements of interest in a picture. There are five major sections on photo composition in the book dealing with points, lines, shapes, universal contrasts and color contrasts.

All through his text, Mante deploys copious photographs - some almost thumbnail size. I found this to be hugely useful because it gave me lots of data points for each of the principles described by Mante. There are multiple elements at play in each of the pictures, but instead of explaining all of them at once, you tend to focus only on the ones being described. This allows the reader to understand the mechanics contributed to the picture by the immediate principle alone.

It's really not coincidental that Michael Freeman's The Photographer's Eye is regularly compared with this Harald Mante title. They are top two books I have read on photo composition and, in my opinion, are both compulsory reading for anyone who is interested in making better photos.

Let me first touch on what robbed The Photograph of the one star that would make it perfect. With no disrespect to the translator, the text is a little clumsy and at times, hard to follow. I had to reread many passages, sometimes relying on imagination to grasp what the author intended to mean. The countless reference to diagrams and photographic images did help with the extrapolating process. One good thing that came out of this was the attention this book demanded of the reader, making many important lessons stick.

Now on to what makes this title so good. In two words - EVERYTHING ELSE.

Like Freeman's The Photographer's Eye, Mante's The Photograph is filled with diagrams and photographs. Half or more of every page is dedicated to images; as a book on photography, I'd expect nothing less. The book starts with the 'quark' of a photograph, the Point, then to Lines and Shapes, before moving on to Colors - tones and hues, contrast and harmony. The building blocks of a photograph are meticulously examined and elucidated over 190 pages. I paused at the end of chapters to mentally review the contents because the material is so rich and of such considerable depth. A keen student would benefit much from taking the mental gestation a step further by going out and making some photos based on the lessons in each chapter.

In summary, The Photograph does read like academic text. Not surprisingly considering Mante's history in teaching. That said, whatever 'dryness' usually associated with academia is diffused by the myriad of practical examples. Also, it may seem a little repetitive at times but the subtle differences do make the coverage on the subject quite comprehensive. If it's any concern, I can safely say that the book is not boring. Far from it. I'd recommend reading The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman first, then followed by The Photograph by Harald Mante.

I read the book in my native language, german. In deed Mante is a German university professor. No wonder he writes in a technical, sometimes not easy to understand manner. Even in German I have to read some sentence twice for a complete understanding. May be that's the reason because the translation into english can't be perfect.
But the content is worth any cent.
Sorry for my poor english.

It seems that the author doesn't bother what practical sense may be from what he is writing. Half of the book is filled with pretty obvious concerns, which makes nothing to improve your composition. A lot is about how the eye moves through the picture described in some kind of a medicine jargon. After 25 years in art and design I found many things in this book badly-explained, though I know them from another, more logical and better illustrated modern sources. I know, that this way of presenting information will not do anything except for filling out some more pages to get a thicker volume of the book. Sorry to sound harsh but this is the only reason I can find for such an awful pointless assertions through the book. The reason may be that the texts are a bit outdated and a reprint.
Though I'm a professional, it was a hard read from time to time, and lead me to think that they way the information is present will do not much in improving beginner's work, and those who know what the talk is about will just agree with statements and move on. No practical benefit to anyone.
The color theory borrows almost all from Ittens theory, and, in my opinion, is wrong, as it's based on a subtractive "painter's" color wheel. Both photography, which is book about, and the light itself, among with the structure of the human eye, which is based on RGB, are correct additive systems. This leads that color schemes are pretty useless and ugly to my taste. Yet the color theory lacks clear organised explanation of most color schemes like complement, split-complement, analogous and so on and for a strange reason are scattered though the book. The same about color pigments discussion: why does it take place into a book about photography? Well, outdated. The photos are clearly not new ones and their color schemes look a bit antique, though as one person explained to me color preferences are influenced with time, so those photos really looked cool 30 years ago. Some photos are nice, some are awful to fill the space to illustrate the concepts, and they do the job bad.

The book yields to the Michael Freeman "the photographer's eye" almost in all aspects except from "the point", "the line" and "the shape" discussions from the first three chapters. For these only the book is worth of reading in my opinion. It is clearly an outdated book unfortunately, which did not take into consideration the progress was made in the last 25 years in the art theory and pace of time.