Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!).
Upon my daily visit to the Flickr pool this morning, a photograph by Ben Giesbrecht captured my imagination. A not uncommon scene here in Vancouver, Ben's description of his image West is "Hillary observing a pair of small sweater clad dogs taking a dip at Third Beach."
But what captured my imagination was the idea that Ben has employed a compositional technique known 'rückenfigur'.
"Wait, did he just say rückenfigur? I thought this was a family-friendly blog?!"
Rückenfigur is a technique often associated with German Romantic painters in general, and in particular the works of Caspar David Friedrich. Literally translating into 'back figure', these works typically feature a figure in the foreground whose back is to the viewer, contemplating the scene (landscape) before us. And since the figure has their back to the viewer, the device invites the viewer to assume the role of the figure (in this case, Hillary) contemplating the landscape before them/us (in this case, Third Beach). The pair of what appear to be French Bulldogs wearing sweaters frolicking on the beach here is a pure bonus, as is the lovely back-lighting on Hillary's hair.
So there you go. Rückenfigur: not just a bumper sticker for the art history-loving, Volkswagen bus-driving crowd anymore.
