This presentation is about photographer's experiments with scale as artistic method. Topics covered are, for instance, the work of Karl Blossfeldt, Aaron Siskind and Minor White, who used extreme closeup to achieve a surrealist and disorienting effect with their photographs. Other photographers such as Edward Burtynsky used the opposite, extreme distance, to achieve a similar effect. The presentation also covers difference in scale as used by Julia Fullerton-Batten, Tim Walker or Marc Da Cunha Lopes. Tilt-Shift photography makes landscape photographs look like miniatures, for instance in the work of Vincent Laforet, while other artists use real miniatures to deconstruct the viewer's sense of what is real.

1. All artwork is copyright of the artist.
Where possible all artists have been named
and all artwork dated. This document should
be used for educational purposes only.
Composition 4:
Experiments with
Scale
Edward Weston
Cracked Earth, Borrego Desert
1938

2. One of the main effects of scale in photography is that
it can render the subject abstract and unrecognizable.
Familiar objects become strange and mysterious, and
the viewer must ask him- or herself:
“What am I looking at?”
Photographers can use both extreme proximity and
extreme distance to achieve this effect.

3. Karl Blossfeldt
Beckmannia cruciformis,
Slough grass, fruiting spikelets
c. 1928-32

4. Karl Blossfeldt
Cephalaria, Scabious family
c. 1928-32

5. Karl Blossfeldt
Chestnut branches
c. 1928-32

6. Karl Blossfeldt
Horsetail
shoots
c. 1928-32

7. Susannah Hays
Smilax Root
2000

8. Edward Burtynsky
Rice Terraces #2,
Western Yunnan
Province, China,
2012

9. Edward Burtynsky
Glacial Runoff #1
2012

10. Edward Burtynsky
Pivot Irrigation #1
2012

11. Edward Burtynsky
Xiaolangdi Dam #3,
Yellow River,
Henan Province, China,
2011

12. Experiments with scale can result in the emergence
of undiscovered elements in every-day objects, such
as textures and other details which are otherwise
overlooked. Artists may use such images to
contemplate the archival layering age lends to objects,
and the impact of age and environment on man-made
or natural objects.
Such images are often timeless - could you say whether
the image was taken in the 1930s or yesterday?

13. Aaron Siskind,
San Luis Potosi 16
1961

14. Aaron Siskind
Volcano 54
1980

15. Minor White
Root and Frost
1958

16. Minor White
Peeled paint
1959

17. Minor White
Sound of one
hand clapping
1957

18. Unexpected difference in scale lends photographs,
collages or photomontages a surreal aspect, as in the
following photographs.
In some photos it suggests a misfit, a break in the
normality of things, as in a weird dream. In other
photographs it reinforces the intended focus of the
scene, for instance the teenage girls in the following
photographs.
It can also serve as a metaphor, for instance in the work
of Marc Da Cunha Lopes, in which giant cockroaches
operate machinery.

19. Julia Fullerton-Batten
Teenage stories, Milk Bottle
2005

20. Julia Fullerton-Batten
Teenage stories,
Broken Eggs,
2005

21. Tim Walker
Eagle owl and
hatched eggs
2010

22. Tim Walker
Lily Cole
2004

23. Marc Da Cunha Lopes
Cockroaches at work
2010

24. Marc Da Cunha Lopes
Cockroaches at work
2010

25. The technique known as tilt-shift photography turns
photographs of real scenes into seeming miniatures:
“Tilt–shift” encompasses two different types of movements: rotation of the lens
plane relative to the image plane, called tilt, and movement of the lens parallel
to the image plane, called shift. Tilt is used to control the orientation of the
plane of focus (PoF), and hence the part of an image that appears sharp. Shift is
used to adjust the position of the subject in the image area without moving the
camera back; this is often helpful in avoiding the convergence of parallel lines,
as when photographing tall buildings.
Other photographers working with scale use real
installations to confuse the viewer.

26. Vincent Laforet
Teterboro Airport
2006

27. Vincent Laforet
Maria Sharapova, U.S. Open
2007

28. Vincent Laforet
Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs
2007

29. Daniel Mennerich
Niagara Falls N.Y. - Maid of the Mist 02
2010

30. Olivio Barbieri
Tilt-Shift Rome Coliseum
2011

31. Slinkachu
Bank Balance
2014

32. Slinkachu
Alpining, Fulham, London
2014

33. Slinkachu
Faded Grandeur,
Lalla Hasna Park, Marrakech, Morocco
2013