Visual Elements in Art and Photography

Vocabulary and key concepts covering visual elements, specific artists, and photographic techniques from Chapters 4 through 6.

Picture plane

The flat surface of a two-dimensional work, such as a painting or photograph, which can have the implication of being three-dimensional.

Line

A visual element that can define boundaries, shapes, and spaces, and may characterize movement or lead the viewer through an image.

Bridget Riley

An artist from Great Britain who became a hit with the public in the 1960s for creating op art, though art critics initially dismissed her work as a trick of the eye.

Op art

Short for optical art, a style associated with Bridget Riley that uses color and lines to create a sense of movement and visual illusions.

Aaron Siskin

A photographer in the 1930s and 40s who captured urban areas, paint peeling, and graphic design in a way that felt painterly.

Mark Rothko

A non-representational painter and friend to Aaron Siskin whose work is intended to be a visual experience.

Space

An element described as continuous, infinite, and ever-present; to be fully experienced in a three-dimensional sense, one must truly be in it.

Richard Misrak

A photographer known for his series 'On the Beach' and photographs from his balcony in San Francisco that deal with abstraction, scale, and space.

Temporal arts

Art forms that involve time and have a distinct start and end, such as films and music.

Spatial arts

Artistic mediums such as photography, painting, and printmaking.

Michael Kenna

A photographer known for using long exposures and 120 film to show 'invisible reality' that the human eye cannot capture.

Long exposures

A technique where the camera shutter is left open for extended periods, sometimes up to ten hours, to accumulate light and movement.

120 film camera

A square format camera that Michael Kenna predominantly uses in the dark room.

Chiaroscuro

The effect of light to dark that implies a two-dimensional object is three-dimensional by suggesting light is wrapping around it.

Value

The relative lightness and darkness on surfaces.

Tone system

A scale from pure white to pure dark developed by Ansel Adams to calculate and account for specific measurements of light in his images.