"I was Framed", say those falsely accused of crime. Those falsely accused of being more than they are don't complain. Mug shots frame the former. Publicity photos frame the latter. Frames calls attention to what’s inside the frame, it has nothing to do with whether or not what’s inside the frame is worth framing.
Art, literature, philosophy, politics, and anything else worth thinking about, or looking at, depend upon frames-of-reference that say, "look at this".
Frames direct attention; it's their only real job.
Frames don't have to be physical to serve their purpose. All limits set on images, ideas, and speech are frames - intellectual frames. The frames say, "This is exactly what I'm talking about, or, this is what I want to you to see - let me frame it this way". . .
I took the picture above because I thought the interplay of shadow and shape interesting. Then I cropped the photo to convert randomness into composition.
Deciding what the frame should frame is the first step in composing anything.
Composing is Design - both are about deciding what's worth looking at. You can arrange the elements of the art to your liking, or, if what your looking at needs no arrangement, then only a frame is required. I didn't compose (organize) any part of the photo except how I thought it should be cropped.
I thought the scene worth framing, not just for the correlation of metal-bird to shadow- bird, but also because the shadow-curve of the metal-bird's breast is artfully coincidental with the curve of the terracotta dish. The arrangement of the dishes seems deliberate, poised.
Earthy ochre, green, and terracotta disks cascade as though purposeful. Nothing is in motion, yet movement is implied. The scene signified nothing, yet seemed significant. The light on the metal-bird is reflective, yet masquerades as translucence.
I saw the interplay of solid, shadow, and multicolored curves as visually conjuring some sort of importance to what was really only a random event.
It was a moment in time. In the next moment, the sun would cast the shadow to a less momentous position.
Outside of taking the photo, my only creative contribution was cropping the image in order to frame the contents of the photo to best effect.
My photo is modest. Greatness was never possible. The subject isn't important enough; though what's pictured is pleasant to eye and curiosity. Often, that's enough.
Deciding frame and content is the essential first
step in creating anything. No following technique or clever manipulation can make stupid, boring, or pointless, interesting. Truth, Beauty, and Good is always worth framing.
I don't intend that as grand as it may seem.
Truth is about anything that is truly so. Beauty is about anything that pleases the eye. Good is about anything that's worthwhile.
My photo is humbly about all three: It's true because it captured an actual event. It's beautiful - to me. That's why I framed it. It's good because recording what might have gone unnoticed is always worthwhile.
Truth, Beauty, and Good have no requirement
of grandness.
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is more often in the eye of whomever framed it.
The scene was framed, I think it deserved
to be framed.