This photo, taken of a beach in Leland, MI, looks as though it could have been taken anywhere on the north Atlantic or Pacific coasts as well as along the great lakes. Its most apparent feature is that is of a landscape merged with a waterscape. The universality of the subject matter lends itself to the few signs of humanity in the photo as there are only two items that can be attributed to people—the boat beached high on the shore and the pile of logs in the foreground, though the origin of the pile of logs is unknown and may not have involved work by humans. Other things that lend themselves to the absence of people include the boat-less horizon and the undisturbed sand where the waves break.
The overall photo demonstrates incredible symmetry for a landscape. The sandy beach and the lighter-grey portion of sky, and the blue-grey sky and the green of the grass, though not perfectly symmetrical, almost seem to be reflections of each other about the water. The two different parts of sky, the beach, the water, and the vegetation are so separate that, although they represent one unified scene, each can be singled out as one separate component.
Although the photo is not in grey scale or black and white, the tones of all the colors in the photo are the same as they are all cool blues and muted greens. The most striking color in the photo is the bright grey of the sky because even its dull white is bright in contrast to the other colors represented in the photo. The water does contain a few different shades of green and blue that show depth but, besides the white of the cresting waves, there is nothing in the water that is particularly striking.
Each separate chunk of the photo has a completely different texture than the others in the photo. The two different parts of sky, one clouded but smooth in how it is totally undisturbed, the other marked by smooth transitions from shades of blue to grey that make that clouded portion of sky look like long ripples of jersey cloth. The sand in the foreground looks at first like any other sand that has not been trod upon; however, the sand’s surface contains gravelly lines that mark where the waves have come and left a web of fine pebbles. The grass that lines the bottom and right side of the photo follows the curve of the shore. The grass that is closest to the bottom of the photo is sparse and patches of sand show through the weed and emphasize the separate stalks of grass, making it look scratchy. The white flowers right at the bottom of the photo look almost like they were dabbed on with a sponge but detract from the coarseness of the grass with their even distribution. Further down the curve of the beach, as the grass condenses, the green turns into a softer, fluffier carpet.
The water is the only part of the photo that denotes movement. Although the dark clouds are rippled, they do not relate the presence of wind. The grass in the foreground shows best the lack of movement because, for all of the distinctly intersecting stalks, it appears unified in its uprightness and is still. In contrast, the water appears to be choppy because of the heavily rippled surface and, in its wavy state, does show movement.
The photo succeeds in breaking one scene unified by symmetry into distinct components. The colors are not surprising and could almost be considered boring if it were not for the different textures and contrast.
October 12, 2008...9:24 pm
Leland
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