Project: Rectangles

Rectangles to me are solid frames within which there may be something else.  They reflect the "frame" of a "negative" and are strong at providing structure and order to the image.

To us, frames are typically doors and windows, so there may be a suggestion of something else within.  Use of rectangles and the more specialised form of rectangle, the square, are a design device of splitting the overall frame into parts, the most classic of these being the Golden Section. As a consequence, because this organisation is no longer implicit, rectangles need to be positioned carefully in order to have a well designed image.

Red Door:  ISO 400  35mm  f10  1/125

 The door and window is an architectural rectangle which successfully further sub-divides the frame into into sections.  Here the door is balanced by the white window which is located nearer to the centre of the frame.

Shop in a church:  ISO 2500  90mm f5  1/50

 This rather curious juxtaposition of a goldsmith's shop in the front facade of St Mary's Church at Moorfields caught my eye because it all seems to be contradictory.  However from the design perspective, it is full of rectangles so a useful illustration here.  The top third is a rectangle in itself, bounded by the frame, but also contains the two frescoes which themselves split that rectangle into two parts.  The shop front is split into three main parts - the sign and then the window and the much darker area of the doorway.  The sale signs and other advertising are all in rectangular format as well, though I consider these to be more points of interest rather than part of the main design.

Boxes:  ISO 2500  55mm  f5  1/80

 The streets are full of rectangular shapes - you just cannot get away from them.  Here my eye was caught by the black telephone box which was conveniently bounded by the rectangular pillars.  The background is yet more rectangles - the metal screening and then the building with its windows.  I placed this telephone box centrally to exagerate the mass suggested by the black colour.  It almost seems to act as a pivot for the two stone pillars on either side.

Shopping Mall:  ISO 2500  105mm  f5  1/40

This shopping mall has a concentric rectangular design.  It feels much more enclosing, than if it was rounded, the regularity, almost bellows-like, providing for a very stable structure.  This photograph, and the next one, provide examples of the rectangle as a frame within a frame.  The outer frame of photograph providing the boundary and telling the viewer that there is something within and theen in the case of the mall above, a concentric series of frames leading the viewer through to the end-point.

Palma street:  ISO 640  105mm  f4  1/125

 Hear I framed the side street by using the archway created by the building and the road / pavement in the forground.  A picture within a picture - the outer structure provides a framing for the woman walking past - herself creating a triangular shape, and then the eye being drwn in to the lighter part, through a series of rectangles created by the buildings.

Home decorations:  ISO 800  24mm f5.6  1/25

Here the rectangles are in fact the edges of box shapes which house various shells and other materials to be used in decorating a room.  The edges provide order to the more random shapes contained within.  This is one of the functional design devices, where rectangles provide a sense of order to their contents.