Photographs as Composition

A photograph can be composition in several ways. Primarily because it provides visual communication in a rapid and easily accessible way. The photo often needs no description because it is all there to be seen. Only perhaps names and dates are really required. Secondly photos can be analyzed for content. Who, what, where? What are their relationships? Why is this person not looking at the camera? Why was it shot from this angle and not another? What do the clothes, hairstyles, and backgrounds say about the people involved? If set up right a photograph really can become rhetoric.

A photo I do not have access to right now but that is an excellent example is one of my wedding photos. My wife and I stand on either side of a heavily posed Elvis. The background is rather obviously a Vegas wedding chapel. My wife's dress is just off white and radiant, and her makeup and hair are perfect. She appears to be squinting a little at the camera. I am looking mildly concussed, dressed in a prince charlie jacket and kilt. We are both smiling genuinely, but also appear somewhat scared. Elvis in the middle has sunglasses and enough bling to purchase a home in Graceland on his hands. His smile seems genuine.

This photo tells the story of our wedding perfectly. We chose to have "Elvis" do it in Vegas. We eloped because we were incredibly bad at planning our own wedding. As I look at the picture I remember e were incredibly rushed. In fact the entire wedding from entry to the chapel to out the door with our own DVD was 24 minutes, which I always remember because of the confused looks on our faces. Of course, the concussed look on my face was also from just getting married, which can be a bit of a shock to the system. I look at the kilt and remember how we had to have it shipped to the hotel because I had been running behind with my side of the wedding plans. My wife is squinting because she felt glasses ruined her beauty. My favorite part was Elvis' genuine smile. I had screwed up my lines so badly that the impersonator totally lost composure and emitted a totally NOT Elvis kind of laugh! He was still smiling when they took the photo. This photo also reminds me that "Elvis" told us it was almost precisely 40 years since "The King" had married Priscilla in that very city. The whole photo is an outstanding narration of our wedding. I still love it and keep it on a shelf in the living room for the whole world to see.