Introduction
Chiaroscuro is important in artistic photography. Chiaroscuro heightens the dramatic presentation of the lone subjects in painting; thereby putting the audience attention on the central icon of the photograph. Originally, chiaroscuro was a technique used in the Renaissance period and even today to create the illusion of three-dimensional perspective and volume; by the Baroque period in the 17th centuries, the level of chiaroscuro emerged as one of the components of artistic presentation enabling images to mimic the real world setting. In photography, the discourse regarding to chiaroscuro has been left out; yet, it has been ubiquitously used by many artists to emphasize their subjects and add depth to the image. With the advent of cameras, this painting technique can be achieved through manipulation of the subjects and light source in order to create an artistic picture.
Chiaroscuro in Schneider’s Photography
Such circumstances can be seen on the photograph titled, Aura reading Maarit Verronen (ca.1995) explores the profound effects of chiaroscuro in creating a story in photograph. A lone woman sitting on couch with her feet propped beside her body for support; reads a book in silence, the only sounds emitting are from the soft shuffle of the pages. The dim light cast by the morning sun emerges from the wrought-iron window behind her figure. The surroundings were mostly muted in tones; especially the red clay bricks only provided the gloomy ambience of the room. On the lower side of the photograph, a small potted plant can be seen divided in half. The whole iconography is concentrated on the woman’s reading figure alone, unmindful of the environment, her face absorbed into the details of the book. Neutral expression is noticeable on her face. In this picture, although it seems quite ordinary, the artist focused more on defining photograph as one of the artistic mediums of telling a story to the audience. Despite the fact that the identity of the woman is unknown to the viewing public, the message conveyed by the image explains the absolute serenity and implied delight in reading books. The balanced foreground and background of the image unifies the designs as whole to create a tranquil atmosphere. The dramatic effect of chiaroscuro helped the image in its purpose of story-telling. Light emerging from the window was dim and the woman’s position with her back directly facing the light source provides the ‘shadows’ or chiaroscuro effect on the image. The chiaroscuro effect only highlights the white skin complexion of the woman against the dull background. On the other hand, the pages of the books were also evident due to the fact that the chiaroscuro presents objects exposed to the light source with lighter colors while the rest of the image were soaked to darkness as a result of her reading position. Chiaroscuro is important in building the sharp definition of contrasts of tints making the image comply with Burnside’s argument of an artistic photograph.
The artist, Carrie Schneider’s successful use of this technique in photography can be attributed to her manipulation of lighting in the scene. It is ubiquitous that lighting influences the degree of chiaroscuro attained by the image and it depends on how light or dark the artist wanted the image to appear. In this case, I would consider this as a photograph mimicking Caravaggio’s work, a Baroque era painter noted for his sharp contrast and heavy chiaroscuro and dramatic presentation. The only important things highlighted in Schneider’s photograph are the face of the woman in serious thoughts while reading, her limbs, and the book she was holding. Even from a far distance especially when placed on an isolated wall, the effect of the chiaroscuro highlights the quality of the image, making the lighter objects more discernible thereby attracting the attention of the viewers to look closely on the iconography of the photograph to reveal its message. Schneider’s work emphasizes that one should have experienced reading books in an isolated environment to learn the knowledge of the world. Looking from the distance, the image certainly caught my attention due to its simplicity and lack of unnecessary ornamentations saves from the wrought-iron widows and other things on the living room. The artist managed to transform chiaroscuro into implied words that translates the value of stillness as similar to looking within one’s self and the value of books in the humans’ life as the temple of knowledge. This image exemplifies the aesthetic value of chiaroscuro as a technique to enhance the appearance of the image through manipulation of light in order to create a balanced light and dark color. Chiaroscuro further increased the possibility of capturing viewers’ attention especially since the image only diminishes the less important figures while highlighting the figure of a woman engrossed in reading her book.
As a conclusion, chiaroscuro is also a valuable technique in heightening the dramatic appearance of the subject in the field of photography; photographers should be able to understand the value of chiaroscuro in artistic presentation of the image in order to create a visually pleasant picture that combines simplicity along with artistic portrayals.
