CONTRAST

The most fundamental overhaul of design
theory in the 20th century took place in
Germany in the 1920s and its focus was the
Bauhaus. Founded in 1919 in Dessau, this school
of art, design, and architecture was a major
influence because of its experimental, questioning
approach to the principles of design. Johannes
Itten ran the Basic Course at the Bauhaus. His
theory of composition was rooted in one simple
concept: contrasts. Contrast between light and
dark (chiaroscuro), between shapes, colors, and
even sensations, was the basis for composing an
image. One of the first exercises that Itten set the
Bauhaus students was to discover and illustrate
the different possibilities of contrast. These
included, among many others, large/small, long/
short, smooth/rough, transparent/opaque, and so
on. These were intended as art exercises, but they
translate very comfortably into photography.
Itten’s intention was “to awaken a vital feeling
for the subject through a personal observation,”
and his exercise was a vehicle for plunging in
and exploring the nature of design. Here is an
adaptation of his exercises for photography.
The project is in two parts. The first is rather
easier—producing pairs of photographs that
contrast with each other. The easiest way to do this
is to make a selection from pictures you’ve already
taken, choosing those that best show a certain
contrast. More demanding but more valuable is
to go out and look for images that illustrate a preplanned
type of contrast—executing shots to order.
The second part of the project is to combine
the two poles of the contrast in one photograph,
an exercise that calls for a bit more imagination.
There are no restrictions to the kind of contrast,
and it can be to do with form (bright/dark,
blurred/sharp) or with any aspect of content. For
example, it could be contrast in a concept, such as
continuous/intermittent, or something non-visual,
like loud/quiet. The list in the box below is from
Itten’s original Bauhaus exercise.
A passionate educator, Itten wanted his
students to approach these contrasts from three
directions; “they had to experience them with their
senses, objectivize them intellectually, and realize
them synthetically.” That is, each student had first
to try to get a feeling for each contrast without
immediately thinking of it as an image, then list the
ways of putting this sensation across, and finally
make a picture. For example, for “much/little,” one
first impression might be of a large group of things
with one of them standing out because it is in
some way different. On the other hand, it could be
treated as a group of things with an identical object
standing a little apart, and so isolated. These are
just two approaches out of several alternatives.