A Figure in the Landscape

In painting, particularly those showing huge expansive landscape vistas, there’s a tendency for the viewer not to settle on any one particular part of the image, instead the viewer is encouraged to explore the whole of the work. A good example of this in photography is Ernst Haas’ famous street scene entitled “Albuquerque“. There’s so many elements and subjects fighting for the viewers attention that the viewer never dwells on any one thing for more than a few seconds before the next thing attracts their attention, then the next, then the next…

Sometimes though, as an artist, you want the viewer to stop, to dwell, you want to encourage them to visually slow down, take a few seconds before carrying on taking in the rest of the image. A perfect example is Turners landscape “Crossing the Brook” where the young woman in the bottom right acts as a visual anchor, bringing your eye back to her after viewing the rest of the painting. Many landscape painters would add a figure in the landscape to achieve exactly this slowing down process. Also by putting a person in the painting it becomes much more engaging. To give you an example from my own photography look at these two images.

These two photos were taken a few seconds apart on the Rue De Rivoli in Paris near The Lourve. I was composing the shot on the left and was just taking a few test shots when the little boy walked in to frame. At first I thought “oh no that little lads in the shot” but then I remembered reading about photographs being more engaging with someone in them and so I quickly pressed the shutter. The photograph on the right therefore is much more interesting. Now the viewer is thinking “who is that little boy, what’s he looking at, how old is he, where are his parents, is he the son of the photographer etc”. I’m very proud of this photograph as it was a runner up in a Nikon Photography competition and was also exhibited in Getty Images London gallery in an exhibition showcasing the best in photographic talent.