Compare the close in typology shot with the wider view showing the messiness of the site to demonstrate the art of composition and choosing what to include and exclude in the image.

Two different photos of the same scene from a (more or less) similar position. Both photos are interesting in their own right, but the intent is different. For the first – my first typology photo – the intent was purely to show the pure forms of the structures in a Becher-esque style, whereas the second was to show the reality of the wider scene which is of course an abandoned coal mine.

While the initial photograph is very tightly composed – more so than the Becher’s did, and more so than my subsequent headgear photographs – it does show the power of isolation of subject matter. In focussing on one particular element of the scene and excluding everything else the message / intent of the photograph is radically changed. It become less about the scene and documenting what is there and more about, if not all about, the headgears. And to my mind this is why the Becher’s composed like this so as not to distract the viewers attention away from what they felt important. And that is arguably what photography is about – composing in a way that best shows what you want the viewer to see by composing, exposing or focussing the lens on the aspects you want to draw attention to.

Of course the Becher’s didn’t just photograph in this way, their body of work is much richer in a compositional sense than this, with industrial landscapes very much part of it and their typologies weren’t just photographed side on!