Saturday, May 2, 2009

Sacred Geometry



I have been drawn to photography and it's aspect a few years back. As I was feeding my interest, I came across images from a french photographer that inevitably commanded my attention. Henri Cartier-Bresson (http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R14T1LX&nm=Henri Cartier - Bresson) was arguably the greatest photographer of the 20th century. Most so called "Famous Photographers" can lay claim to 5 maybe 10 or even 20 images that define their style and consequently earn their living but Bresson has hundreds of images which I find astounding!
Thanks to youtube and people who has plenty of time to load videos I was able to ponder on the ideas of what can make a compelling image.
Henri Cartier Bresson has a natural perspective or what he refers to as "Sacred Geometry" or Golden Ratio or the Golden Rectangle ( i.e. 3.14, 1.1618) ; He applies this to most of his works and most often with great success. This technique eventually led to his "Decisive Moment" that made him a household name in the world of photography. The Golden Ratio is omnipresent in nature.


The ratio between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger one and the smaller. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.6180339887.[1](Wikipedia).
File:FibonacciBlocks.svg




A Fibonacci spiral created by drawing arcs connecting the opposite corners of squares in the Fibonacci tiling; this one uses squares of sizes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and 34; see Golden spiral (wikipedia)





These are the basis of the greatest paintings

i.e. La Gioconda aka. The Mona Lisa ...





Architectures,

parthenon.gif






and in Music the Golden Ratio is believed to have been applied in Beethoven (Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67), Schubert (Piano Sonata D 959), Debussy (La Mer) and Strawinski (Le Sacre du Printemps - Symphony in Three Movements).




The Fibonacci Spiral is also apparent in the Nautilus shell.




By applying the Golden Ratio in composing, the result can be a lot more interesting than the usual plain cliche pictures. i.e. (Henri Cartier-Bresson's work);



for more check out my flickr photostream @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/26063518@N03/


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