Expressive images use layers to deepen and broaden ideas. I speak of layering here as an organizing process, part of the structure of a photograph itself. (Don’t confuse this kind of layering with those post-processing layers that are often used to enhance or build an image in Photoshop.)
Layers can play a huge role in the composition of an image. We can read these layers from front to back, or from side to side. Layers can be used to create incongruous juxtapositions, or can create perspective by implying depth. We can guide a viewer’s eye through a composition by relating foreground, middleground and background layers of information. We can relate subject layers to context layers to help an image make its point. While some images are essentially flat, and require no layers, others may use two, three, or even four layers to express meaning. Layers can build substance into an image, enhancing not only its organization but its meaning. Layers can also create coherence by alternating soft and sharp planes of focus. They can even be used to abstract the subject, the final touch in building a delicious sandwich for the imagination – each level adding to the pleasure and substance of the whole.
In this gallery, I demonstrate how expressive images can make use of layering to express ideas and stimulate the imagination. These initial examples were photographed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. More examples will gradually be added to this gallery from future trips. I welcome your comments, suggestions, ideas, and questions, and will be delighted to respond.
The Vision, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005
I was struck by the incongruity of this mural – a surrealistic halo-wrapped Virgin Mary rising from a barren desert amidst a pile of enormous flowers. And then I saw the barred window cut into the sky of the mural. Meanwhile, that is real earth at the base of the mural, supporting a bush, incongruously growing in front of the painting. One might wonder which came first, the bush or the painting? This foreground layer provides the only reality in the image, yet it miraculously merges into the mural – the middleground subject layer — as if it was a vision created by the Virgin Mary herself. The barred window, along with the curved sliver of sky overhead, reveals the entire mural as painted on the wall of a building, which in turn creates a background layer. It is fascinating – we can look at the building as either a structure or as a mural. In this image, these middleground and background layers can change roles, depending upon how you choose to look at them.
