Point of View

For this Photography I assignment, students were challenged to change the way they see before changing what they photograph. Instead of shooting from the most obvious standing position, students explored unusual viewpoints such as bird’s eye view, bug’s eye view, worm’s eye view, extreme close up and intentionally tilted angles. The goal was to understand how a simple shift in camera position can dramatically change the mood, meaning and visual impact of an image.

Students were encouraged to move beyond the expected angle and consider how perspective can make a subject feel larger, smaller, stranger, more powerful, more abstract or more personal. A low angle might make an everyday object feel monumental, while a high angle might flatten a scene into pattern and shape. A close up view might turn a familiar subject into something mysterious, while a tilted camera can create tension, movement or chaos.

The assignment was inspired by the idea that one of the quickest ways to improve a photograph is not necessarily to buy better equipment, but to make a more interesting visual decision. As Rick Berk writes for Digital Photography School, getting away from normal eye level can make an ordinary image much more exciting.

Each student submitted one final processed photograph along with a contact sheet showing twenty attempts. The contact sheet was an important part of the project because this assignment is built around experimentation. Students had to physically move, test different angles, make creative choices and push past the first obvious shot. The strongest images show not only an unusual point of view, but a clear idea behind that point of view.