Why Images Work # 5 - Brett Weston

Heresy of Heresies, I actually prefer many of the images of Brett to his father Edward, both his abstracts and his landscapes. This particular image appeals on several levels. To access the image, right click Brett Weston: Cracked Glass, 1955 to bring up the image in a separate window. Resize as needed so you can see both windows at the same time.

Right off the patterns are interesting. The glass shows well against the almost black background and the glass has interesting shading. Note the large horizontal s curve starting top left then down the middle and curving back to horizontal in the lower right and hinting at curving up the right with the edge of the glass.

The delicacy of the pattern is intriguing - we all know such patterns even in glass can't last forever. Ask yourself which part of the image is surplus to requirements - I think they all work together.

Re cropping, he's almost touched the edge of the glass on the top near the left (but not quite) while giving a bit more generous space to the glass on the far right - I think this was almost certainly deliberate and the right choice.

Can you imagine the image without the two tendrils of glass that are hanging almost straight down in the large dark area in the upper left - they are essential to the image - such a large dark area would be hard to justify otherwise but in fact here provides the perfect background for them - too cluttered would have spoiled their dramatic appearance.

It's hard to see on a small web image but even here we get hints that the dark areas still contain some detail and are not absolutely black. The curve of the lower left corner matches the curve in the upper left and is of course the inverse of the curves on the right.

Altogether a very nice image.