The Depicitive Level

Mary Ellen Mark – Amanda and Her Cousin, Amy Valdese, North California

Spatial hierarchy refers to the ranking of emphasis based on focus in a photograph. Typically, the photograph's subject will be most in focus while the rest of the depicted content hold different levels of sharpness. The observer's attention immediately goes toward what's most in focus, though there may still be important content in the photograph. In Mark's photograph, the girl standing is presumably the subject based on the fact that she's on the highest plane of focus. Everything about her is sharp, from her fingernails to her earrings to the ash on her cigarette. You can even tell that she's wearing eyeliner. The other girl, though less sharp and in focus, contributes heavily to the composition and interpretative meaning of the photograph, but probably isn't the subject.

Josef Koudelka – Kendice

"Vantage point is the key to Flatness – it can solve the picture more than compose one."

Instead of composing a photograph by constructing an artificial scene, one can alter his or her vantage point to find that 'perfect moment,' though in terms of visual relationships and not time. In Koudelka's piece, he found a vantage point that highlights the wall decoration as well as his subjects. The two are placed in a visual juxtaposition that makes the curved line look like it's flowing from the man's head into the head of the little boy, or the other way around.