I had a bit of trouble coming up with something to write regarding patterns. I decided to look through the camera roll on my iPhone 7 and I noticed something in common with a lot of the photo’s I have taken…
They all have what is known as “one-point perspective” composition.
I don’t take photos from this perspective on purpose. I hardly take any photographs at all, aside from the ridiculous and gratuitous selfies I take for IG and Snapchat. I’m no photography student and I’m sure I do a million and one things wrong when I take a photo…
That said, my photos remind me of a favorite director of mine: Stanley Kubrick.
Kubrick was a photographer before he was a film director. Many of his movies contain scenes that utilize this one-point perspective composition. I believe this comes from his former practice of photography. (Alan Palomo, of the band Neon Indian, makes the point that all of Kubrick’s screenplays are adaptations of novels)
In the collage I made for this post, I’ve included some of my photographs along with some of my favorite Kubrick movies and the famous School of Athens fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael–it also utilizes the one-point perspective in all its glory.
What I like most about one-point perspective is the vanishing point. I find it to be a sort of symbol of the future, as if we are forever marching forward. To me it represents hope, progress; that there is more down the road for all of us. It represents adventure, promise, dreams–an everlasting sort of journey. You will find me walking forward, always, even if I don’t know what lies ahead, even if I can’t see the future.
The painter, Caravaggio, had a sort of motto: Nec spec nec metu. It means Without hope, without fear. The part about traveling forward without fear is a bit that always inspires me, encourages me, emboldens me.
I really don’t know what I’m going to do in the future. I have no plans. It almost seems hopeless. But I will go forward, without fear, into the vanishing point.
Images sources (clockwise from top left):
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, film)
Bottle Cap Alley at Northgate, College Station TX (2017, photograph)
The Shining (1980, film)
ATV Trail in Wolf Pen Gap, AR (2017, photograph)
Full Metal Jacket (1987, film)
US Route 190 by North Zulch, TX (2018, video)
The School of Athens (1511, Fresco)
View of the Oceanography and Meteorology Building from the Library Annex at Texas A&M University, TX (2017, photograph)
(center) Interior of NorthPark Center in Dallas, TX (2018, video)
a young writer from the lone star state 