The Art of Emotion
At the heart of all art, in my opinion, is emotion. All too often, the modern world seems unemotional and uncaring, lacking a human element. The constant hustle and bustle of modern life, compounded with the omnipresent nature of technology and the continued isolation of people through it has led to a world that sometimes seems lacking in humanity.
While there are certainly a lot of things that can help with this, I think that art is one of the best and most accessible ways for people to express and showcase their humanity, or more applicable to what I am writing here, their emotion. As I discussed last week, photography (although people often leave it out of this group) is an art, and as such, has a unique power to convey the human experience. The ways that it can do this are numerous.
The obvious example, of course, is a picture of raw human emotion. Look no further than sports for this. Capturing the celebration of a big play (usually a goal in my cases) garners some pretty epic looking shots.
Forward Brandon murphy celebrates a goal with his teammates on the Indiana elite u16 AAA hockey team in the 2023-24 season (taken with a nikon d5100 & nikon 55-200 mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 55 mm, 1/640 sec, f/4)
MSU Defender Remini Tillotson celebrates a penalty kick goal against USC en route to a 4-0 victory (taken with a nikon z6 & nikon 70-200 f/2.8 @ 200 mm, 1/2000 sec, f/2.8)
However, photography has so many ways to evoke emotion beyond simply capturing it in the subject. Another one of my favorites is through intentional composition. In the picture below, the dark, looming clouds create an eerie and ominous scene, yet the sliver of blue sky and the sillhouette of a single tree standing stalwart offer a stark contrast to the formidable storm. But the real artistry in this composition is the ambiguity of it. Has the storm already swept through? The tree a stubborn, resilient survivor; the blue sky the first signs of peace after the violence of the storm (which, for some interesting context, actually did produce a tornado)? Or, alternatively, is the tree to brace for what's to come, with the blue sky fading and a tempest taking over? I may know the answer because I took the picture, but for everyone else who doesn't, this ability to interpret the image and impart your own meaning is something that I think makes good art so compelling.
Is this Midwestern storm coming or going? (taken with a nikon z6 & Tamron 12-24 mm f/4.5-5.6 @18 MM, 1/250 sec, f/8)
Although it is a completely different image, the compostion of the image below nonetheless is what gives it its emotional appeal as well. Most of the image is vacant space: empty track, empty pitlane, empty stands. The single car with a scant crew and a single official gives hints at what is to come, though. An event of some kind is certainly on the horizon. Upon further inspection, you can see that while there aren't many, people are beginning to trickle into the stands, and another pit crew member is even hidden behind a fuel hose, lounging on the pit wall.
Pre-race preparations at the 2025 indycar farm to finish 275 at Iowa Speedway (taken with a nikon z6 & nikon 50 mm f/1.8 @ 50 mm, 1/8000 sec, f/1.8)
In addition to the composition, this image also has one other striking element: the color. I intentionally left the car and surrounding people the only things colorized in the picture. They are the subject, and should draw your eye first. Had the image been all black and white or all color, they not only would have stuck out much less, but the impact of their small size in respect to the space and lack of subjects in the rest of the image would have been more subtle.
On the note of color, it is yet another way that photography can draw out emotion. Color and composition go hand in hand, as one often affects the other, but they are ultimately seperate things. Anyone with knowledge of traditional art knows the power of color. Kids are taught the color wheel and often associate certain colors with certain feelings, states of minds, or events. As adults, this effect slips into the background but is still very much present. The classic exmaple is warm versus cool colors. Blues, greens, and purples are considered cool, while reds, oranges, and yellows are considered warm. In addition to implying temperature, cool colors are often said to relax while warm colors are more inflammatory. Color theory is an extremely complicated and nuanced field, so I highly recommend doing more research if you're interested (and I'm happy to write more about it!).
A frozen and frigid afternoon on Lake St. Clair (taken with a nikon z6 & nikon 50 mm f/1.8 @ 50 MM, 1/250 sec, f/8)
A doe wanders on the edge of a wood in thawing snow (taken with a nikon z6 & nikon 200-500 MM f/5.6 @ 360 mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6)
Furthermore, the absence of any color in a black and white image is often used to highlight the subject or create a sense of desolation, as in the image below.
A barren, arid beach, made all the moreso by the lack of color (taken with a nikon z6 & Tamron 12-24 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 20 mm, 1/1250 sec, f/9)
Finally (at least for today), is a brief discussion about lighting. Lighting could be thrown in with composition or even color, but I think that it is important enough to warrant its own section. Some say that photography is the art of capturing light after all. One of my favorite pictures that I've taken from a lighting perspective is my favorite because of the way that the duck gets a literal spotlight because of how the sun was shining and the way that the trees around it provided shade.
pruning under the spotlight (Taken with a nikon z6 & nikon 200-500 mm f/5.6 @ 500 mm, 1/640 sec, f/5.6)
While it's sometimes a secondary element like in the picture above, light can also be used to tell its own story. I'm a big fan of light trails: using a long exposure to show the motion of a subject. This shot with the light trails and a colorful sunset sky is another one of my favorites.
Indiana truly is the crossroads of america in this picture (taken with a nikon z6 & nikon 70-200 f/2.8 @ 82 MM, 2 sec, f/22)
As per usual, there is so much more that I could go into, but this post is already quite long, so I'll leave it there. Subject, composition, color, and lighting all have a part to play in making a good photo; one that evokes emotion and showcases the human experience. As always, feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, or questions. Until next week!
