#figure ground

hi yall, its me

made this thing so i can post stuff im proud of on more than one account, specifically ambigrams

REQUESTS APPRECIATED AND ENCOURAGED

... if you're gonna be respectful ab it. i won't do bigoted, harmful, mean shit. the words of an ambigram are united into one beautiful work of art, and as should we. i can do most any type of ambigram, symmetrical or asymmetrical, conventional or nonconventional, or maybe one you made up! that would be really cool.

----------but flippy, what are ambigrams????------

the definition is quite hard to pinpoint, as it either is too vague to properly distinguish it from something entirely different (like synonyms, heterograms, etc) but the main thing is:

an art form where one or more words are taken and combined with respect to each other such that both are visible from different perspectives/orientations

symmetrical means it uses a single word, while asymmetrical (or symbiotic if you prefer, although that makes them sound like theyre alive) means two or more words.

----------------------flippy, i can't read them!!!!!!----------------------

yeah, it takes a really really really good ambigram to be able to be read clearly both ways. if you can't, and i mean really cant read an ambigram, it's ok, its likely nobody else does either, and i or the ambigram creator is biased to the reading bc they already know it. this is why i made this account, to try to learn how to make mine better :D

-------------but flippyy, what do they look like?????????--------------

examples include:

correct readings in order of top to bottom, left to right:

Prominence 

When I started out, I’d get my prints back (this was back before digital) and look at the images and think ‘why did I take this picture?’ ‘What about this scene captured my interest?’ And then I’d look closer and see the tiny speck of the subject that I was trying to capture.  Over time I learned the lesson that Robert Capa said best with "If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough."

If the subject of the image isn’t prominent enough the resulting image is weak and the viewer is left wondering what they’re looking at. Now, as I look at my photographs I find that the ones I like best have a strong, prominent subject that occupies at least a third of the image height or width.

This image from a canyoneering trip in southern Utah illustrates my point. The two rappellers are the subject of the image and so they are prominently featured in the image. I’ve kept them large enough so that it’s clear the image is about them and left enough context so that the viewer get’s an idea of where they are and what they’re doing.

(Nikon AW110, 5mm, 1/160s, f/3.9, ISO 400)

Figure / Ground

Another reason that we might dislike a photo we’re reviewing is due to poor figure/ground separation. The figure/ground relationship can be thought of as the contrast between positive space, the figure, and negative space, the ground or background.  

This image strongly illustrates the figure/ground relationship. The three kids are the figure (positive space) while the water is the ground (negative space). 

(Three Sibs on a SUP, Canon 5DMII, EF70-300 @ 195mm, 1/125s, f/9, ISO 400)

The following image is a more subtle example. 

A few years ago I spent a week Oregon and was fascinated by the moss growing everywhere. (I live in southern Utah; we don’t have much green.) Try as I might I couldn’t get an image that I liked. All my images were of vertical brown tree trunks covered with moss. There was so much verticality in the images that nothing stood out. And then I found this scene.  The horizontal branches break up the mass of verticality and create a figure that has some separation from the ground.  

(Mossy Branches, Canon 5DMII, EF24-105 @ 96mm, 1/40s, f/7.1, ISO 800)

Distractions

As a photographer we’re responsible for EVERYTHING within the frame of our images. 

If a branch is encroaching on the blue sky in the upper right corner of the image it’s going to create a distraction for the viewer and draw their attention from the subject toward the edge of the image and allow their attention to move out of the frame. Tree branches, road signs, trash, bright objects, etc. can all create distractions and draw attention away from the subject and cause an image to be rejected. 

Idea.

I m taking my very first art class ever, and it’s been very interesting. For one of the assignments we were to create a figure ground with black and white type of themes, and to create your own original character/characters of course. At first I was stressed due to the time limit and all with my other classes due dates for their assignments, but in the end I decided to just go with it, and create whatever I wanted, and this is what came out in the end. I definitely already have a few ideas in mind for this, but time is limited.

Giambattista Nolli: Nolli Map, Pianta Grande di Roma, ichnographic plan of Rome; 1736 - 1748

The Nolli map reflects Bufalini's map of 1551, with which Nolli readily invited comparison, however Nolli made a number of important innovations. Firstly, Nolli reorients the city from east (which was conventional at the time) to magnetic north, reflecting Nolli's reliance on the compass to get a bearing on the city's topography. Secondly, though he follows Bufalini in using a figure-ground representation of built space with blocks and building shaded in a dark poché, Nolli represents enclosed public spaces such as the colonnades in St. Peter's Square and the Pantheon as open civic spaces. Finally, the map was a significant improvement in accuracy, even noting the asymmetry of the Spanish Steps. The map was used in government planning for the city of Rome until the 1970s; it was used as a base map for all Roman mapping and planning up to that date.

The map is framed with a vedute by Stefano Pozzi. A scaled-down edition, a collaboration between Nolli and Giovanni Battista Piranesi, was published in the same year the original map was finished. Piranesi was instrumental in getting the work printed; Giuseppe Vasi also contributed.