The oscar winning cinematographer Conrad Hall (American Beauty, The Road to Perdition) said "if you pan between a close-up of a person to then find their lover, in the middle of the shot is what cinematographers call ‘dead space’ - but for the true artist there must be no dead space". Hall positioned colours & shapes in the background to create the route that the eye & mind to take between key moments to deepen concentration throughout the shot. Hall knew that if you are to engage the audiences mind you must honour it through composition. Bill Viola also had a phrase for this idea:
“Duration is to Consciousness, as light is to the eye”.
As light energises the eye, so images with duration can energise the deeper mind through contemplation. Then contemplative mind focusses our energetic attention on a much deeper level than interpretive mind (formed for other more quotidian tasks) - so my work centres on composing images to engage our minds in an energetic exchange, where attention IS energy.
For more information: https://www.terryflaxton.com/ Unless stated all soundtracks by the artist.
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