Chapter 10

Mrs. Herd, the art teacher, clicked the mouse and the next picture showed up on the wall. She asked, “What do you think of this picture?”

It was the picture that he had taken of the girl on the bleachers studying. Seeing an image projected on such a large screen, rather than the little one of the camera, made obvious every little flaw of a picture. He didn’t see much wrong with it.

“I like it,” Danny said. “In fact, I think it is one of the best pictures I took that day.”

“Why?”

“I think it portrays an interesting mood.”

“Is the girl pretty?”

“Maybe, but she’s such a small part of the picture that it’s hard to say,” Danny answered.

“Despite the fact that she’s such a small element in the picture, she’s clearly the centerpiece of the scene.”

“That’s true, but it’s more about her posture and attitude than it is about her appearance.”

“I happen to agree with you. It is one of the best pictures that you took,” Mrs. Herd said.

She clicked the mouse and a different picture appeared. This was of the cheerleader with the twisted ugly expression on her face. Mrs. Herd frowned while studying the picture.

“Why did you take this one?”

“I liked the contrast between her expression and her attractive body,” Danny answered.

“It is a rather shocking picture,” Mrs. Herd said.

“Do you like it?”

“Not really. You made a lovely girl look ugly.”

“Oscar Wilde said, ‘No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.’ Isn’t this picture proof of that?”

“The context that produced such an expression is missing. It’s like you’re trying to tear down an attractive woman. Was she looking at some disgusting thing or was she looking at something wonderful? The difference is between an ugliness rightfully or wrongfully invoked.”

“I didn’t see it that way,” Danny said although he could appreciate what she was saying. “I guess what you are saying is what Aristotle said. ‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.’ All I caught was the outward appearance and not the inward significance.”

“Yes. It strikes me as the kind of picture that a paparazzi would take. There’s a kind of tacky feeling about it. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth after looking at it.”

She clicked the mouse and two images appeared side by side. They were two pictures of pieces of paper. She asked, “Which do you like better?”

“The one on the left,” Danny answered.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. They are both focused on pieces of paper, but the one on the left looks ... I don’t know ... deeper somehow.”

“Which one would be easier to draw?”

“Probably the one on the right,” Danny said after taking a moment to study both images.

“Why?”

“It’s simpler.”

“Yes. It’s simpler. The paper is flat and lifeless. It is just there. The paper in the other picture has a complex texture to it. The wrinkles in the paper produce a myriad of shadows so that it just isn’t a plain piece of paper.”

“I see that.”

“The background is rough and covers a spectrum of different shades of dark gray. It contrasts with the white and light shades of gray of the paper. The effect pushes the paper even more into the foreground.”

“You’re right,” Danny said. “I should have remembered what Conrad Hall said. ‘Contrast is what makes photography interesting.’ It is kind of easy to forget things like that when you get caught up in the moment or during the daily grind of life.”

“The picture on the right is of a flat bit of a paper sticking out of the flat surface of a locker. I only know that it is a locker because I see them every day.”

She clicked the mouse and a new picture appeared. This wasn’t one of the pictures he had taken. She said, “I recreated the scene and took this picture from a slightly different perspective.”

“I see. The paper has become more interesting because you see more lockers in the picture,” Danny said. He had to admit that it was a much better picture than he had taken. It took him a second to realize what made the picture have more impact. He said, “It’s like the picture of the girl on the bleachers. It isn’t so much about what the paper looks like, but the context in which it exists.”

“Exactly,” Mrs. Herd said.

She clicked the mouse and the picture of the gravel on the road appeared. She pursed her lips while looking at the picture.

“What do you think of this one?” she asked.

“I like it, but I can’t tell you why,” Danny said.

“Look at the shadows cast by the pebbles and the imperfections in the surface of the road. The shadows fall off to the side just enough that they aren’t aimed at the viewer. The position of the sun and the perspective given by where you took the picture leads to a greater sense of shape and texture. If you had taken the picture from the other side, they would have been monotonously colored rocks. From the point you took the picture, the presence of shadows gave the pebbles greater definition.”

“I see that now that you’ve explained it,” Danny said.

She quickly went through the next few pictures without much comment other than to suggest that the quality wasn’t really enough to make an impact of anything except boredom on the part of the viewer. Much to his chagrin, Danny agreed with her.

She stopped clicking though the pictures when she came to the picture of a trashcan. She asked, “What do you think of this one?”

“It’s kind of boring,” Danny said.

“I did little magic with Photoshop to up the impact it would have. Would you like to see the result?”

“Sure.”

She clicked the mouse. The next picture was a highly magnified and cropped version of the original. It was difficult to recognize what part of the original image was being revealed. The image showed a green fly resting on the rim of the trashcan. It was surrounded by a dark patch of crusty filth. Just about every color of the spectrum was present, although it was subtle.

“That’s much nicer.”

“All I did was enlarge the portion of the picture which held the fly. Once I cut the unnecessary from the picture, that which is left is rather dramatic, wouldn’t you say?”

“Definitely. I am reminded of what Scott Adams said. ‘Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.’”

Mrs. Herd said, “I have emailed you three of your pictures. To be quite honest, the pictures are bland. On studying them, I did find elements that could be of interest. You need to sit down with Photoshop and extract a reasonably good picture from each of them.”

“I have to admit that I’m a little surprised at the quality of the image that you produced. I had thought that it would have smeared out more than that,” Danny said.

“That is why I asked that you take all of the pictures at the highest quality setting of the camera. You can bring out details that are captured in the image without introducing too much distortion. You can only push it so far, though.”

“Okay,” Danny said wondering what three pictures she had sent him.

“Do you have any questions?”

Danny said, “Yes. When am I going to learn how to draw?”

“Your lessons have already started. Art isn’t about drawing lines on paper or dabbling paint on a canvas. It’s about seeing the world through an artistic eye that’s important. A couple of the pictures you took demonstrate that you have that eye, but it is undeveloped.”

“I always thought art was about making things from raw materials like paint, fabric, or stone,” Danny said although that wasn’t really quite accurate. He knew there were all kinds of art covering everything from fabric pieces to bronze statues to digital images.

“You’re taking pictures and will be manipulating them with a computer program to create a vision that you alone possess. That is one way of making pictures. It is art.”

“It just seems to me that using Photoshop is cheating.”

“It is not. Photoshop is an artistic tool, just like a paint brush. It isn’t the program that makes the picture change just so, it is how you use it that creates the change.”

“I suppose so. I guess I was expecting to learn how to draw,” Danny said.

Mrs. Herd smiled sadly. She said, “If that was your passion or even a minor interest, you would have learned to draw by now. Your drawings are more like schematics than art. Don’t get me wrong. That is perfectly fine for an engineer or scientist, but not for an artist. On the other hand, you are comfortable and well versed in making computers do your bidding. Coupling photography and the computer is a modern art that is still just emerging. That is your medium of choice, so why not develop it further?”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Danny said.

“So what is the role of taking the picture?”

He thought for a minute and then answered, “Dorothea Lange said, photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”

“Exactly. And what does the computer allow you to do?” Mrs. Herd asked.

“According to Georges Braque, ‘Once an object has been incorporated in a picture it accepts a new destiny.’ I know that he didn’t mean it in the way one could interpret it in light of the computer. Still, I think that the idea fits.”

“I agree,” Mrs. Herd said.

Thinking the critique session was over, Danny rose to get to work on the photographs she had sent him. She gestured at him to sit down. He did.

“I really didn’t like that picture of the cheerleader.”

“Sorry,” Danny said. “I won’t take any more pictures of people looking ugly.”

“You’re getting the wrong message.”

“Why?”

“Art isn’t always about people who are beautiful in a classical way. Some of the greatest art pieces are of people who have been beaten down by life. I mean people who have really been beaten down by life. Every blow shows as a wrinkle or scar.

“Consider a picture of an old man or woman who has bent under the load of troubles that life has placed on them. At first glance, you want to say that it is an ugly picture. Then you look at it a little more closely and you realize that there is a less conventional beauty captured in it. Maybe it’s a spark of spirit that remains that changes the downtrodden figure into a heroic figure who just hasn’t given up yet. Maybe it’s an echo of the young and beautiful person that they had been at one time.

“There’s an album cover by Led Zeppelin that is of an old wall with torn up wall paper and paint flaking off of it. Through a large hole in the wall is a modern cityscape. Hanging on the wall is a picture frame with a picture of an old man carrying a bundle of sticks on his back. He’s bent over and supporting his upper body with a stick that he’s using as a cane. His clothes are worn. He’s got a white grizzled beard. He’s looking towards the viewer.