Cinemagraph excerpts from 'Over The Water' - Stephanie Morris*
In Barthes’ Camera Lucida, he reflects upon the differences between the photograph and cinema in relation to pose. He says, “In the Photograph, something has posed in front of the tiny hole and has remained there forever; but in cinema, something has passed in front of this same tiny hole: the pose is swept away and denied by the continuous series of images.”1
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| Shave and a haircut... - Jamie Beck & Kevin Burg |
While this can usually be considered true, the lines become blurred when we enter the world of the cinemagraph. A fusion between the still and moving image, the cinemagraph offers us the best of both - the stillness of a single moment, perhaps the decisive moment, and the sensory enhancing narrative of movement.
Or perhaps Barthes’ quote is relevant to the cinemagraph. The nature of the cinemagraph is usually in the form of a GIF - a file type which allows the movement to repeat infinitely. One could them argue that the something does not then pass in front of the lens, rather the movement remains in the field-of-view for the lifetime of the cinemagraph, much the same as the photograph.
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| If you can make it here... - Jamie Beck & Kevin Burg |
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| Meet me at the bar - Jamie Beck & Kevin Burg |
The vanguards of the cinemagraph, Jamie Beck & Kevin Burg’s series ‘NYC’, strongly encapsulate the subtle scents and candid moments of an otherwise overstimulating city. By presenting the iconic elements of New York in this manor, the duo offer us a taste of the Big Apple, giving just enough away to entice us to want more.
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| Can you smell the? - Jamie Beck & Kevin Burg |
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| The Neverending commute - Jamie Beck & Kevin Burg |
1. Barthes, R 2010, Camera Lucida - Reflections on Photography, trans. R, Howard, Hill and Wang, New York. P78
Bibliography:
Barthes, R 2010, Camera Lucida - Reflections on Photography, trans. R, Howard, Hill and Wang, New York.
Beck, J & Burg, K 2012, Cinemagraphs - NYC, available from: <http://cinemagraphs.com/nyc/>. [23 March 2015].
* 'Click to view 'Over the Water'', a film by Stephanie Morris and Jake Reeder.
* 'Click to view 'Over the Water'', a film by Stephanie Morris and Jake Reeder.
I really like cinemagraphs, they are so mesmerizing. I think they are excellent at capturing the mood and atmosphere in pretty much any environment. However in my opinion, they work best with city scenes or something moody, involving smoke or rain - just like those NYC examples from your post. I've seen some fashion cinemagrpahs, but they are not quite as striking.
ReplyDeleteHopefully we'll be seeing more of those around, since internet is getting better adjusted for such traffic-consuming task :)
I feel exactly the same way Yana, I've always considered cinemagraphs to be rather magical.
ReplyDeleteWhen used in a landscape context they seem to have the ability to add a whole new dimension to an image; they draw the viewer in to the context and, I believe help the viewer to notice even more details though the subtle use of motion.
This cinemagraph of fog moving through the static Tokyo skyline is so hypnotic. I stared at it for a good couple of mintutes – which I think we can all agree that a static image would rarely hold the viewer's attention for that long!
http://i.imgur.com/jeCxUjZ.gif