Framing

The vibrant red headscarf acts as a natural frame, intensifying focus on her piercing eyes.

Steve McCurry's famous 1984 photograph, known simply as the "Afghan Girl" (featuring the subject Sharbat Gula), is less about elaborate framing devices and more renowned for its intense eye contact, vibrant use of color, and powerful composition focusing squarely on the subject's face. 

While it does use framing in a classical sense—filling the frame entirely with the subject's face and using her headscarf and the background colors to draw attention directly to her mesmerizing green eyes—it does not rely on environmental tunnel framing like the Wawona Tunnel View used by Ansel Adams.

"Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange: The placement of her children's heads forms a poignant frame, highlighting her worry and hardship.

Subject: The woman in the photograph was Florence Owens Thompson, who was 32 years old at the time. She is depicted with three of her children in a makeshift tent at a pea-pickers' camp.

The Shot: Lange was working for the federal government's Farm Security Administration (FSA) when she captured the image. She took a series of six (some sources say seven) photos, moving closer each time to create the famous tight composition.

Impact: Immediately after the photo was published in a San Francisco newspaper, the government rushed 20,000 pounds of food to the camp to prevent starvation.

Public Domain: As a government-commissioned work, the image is in the public domain and has been widely used on postage stamps, in advertisements, and in textbooks. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae1n1JQ0wKc

A man jumping over a puddle is framed by the reflection in the water, doorways, and the overall urban geometry.

"Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare," taken by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1932 in Paris, is one of the most famous and critically acclaimed photographs of all time. It is considered the quintessential example of his philosophy of the "Decisive Moment," the ability to capture a fleeting instant when all elements of a scene align perfectly. 

Key Facts About the Photograph

Subject and Setting: The image captures a man in mid-air, leaping across a large puddle in an area of ongoing repairs at the Place de l'Europe, behind the Saint-Lazare train station. His silhouette and reflection are perfectly mirrored in the water below.

Composition: The photograph is renowned for its complex and precise composition, which appears spontaneous but is geometrically balanced. Linear elements like the railings and a partially submerged ladder contrast with the man's fluid motion and guide the viewer's eye to the main action.

The "Decisive Moment": Cartier-Bresson used a compact Leica camera to unobtrusively capture this moment, freezing the man in the air just before his foot touches the water. A split second earlier or later, the "magic would have been lost".

Surrealist Echoes: A poster on the wall in the background advertising a circus/pianist named "Brailowsky" (or "Rowski") features a graphic of a dancer in a pose that eerily mirrors the man's leap, adding a surrealist dimension to the image. Cartier-Bresson later stated he had not noticed the poster until after taking the photograph.

Cropping: Despite his famous aversion to cropping, Cartier-Bresson did crop this image slightly on the left side because the space between the fence planks he was shooting through was not wide enough for his lens. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrAIZsQ8PCQ

 Often used car windows, reflections, and other foreground objects to frame distant scenes. 

America by Car is a significant series of black-and-white photographs by Lee Friedlander, published as a book in 2010, that documents the American social landscape from the unique perspective of a driver in a rental car

Themes and Style

Framing Devices: The defining conceit of the series is Friedlander's use of the car's interior architecture (windshields, side windows, rear-view, and side mirrors) as "picture frames within which to record reflections". This results in complex, layered images that create a "frame-within-a-frame" effect, often including the steering wheel, dashboard, and even his own reflection.

Juxtaposition and Irony: The method allows for compelling juxtapositions between the sterile, molded plastic of the car interior and the external environment, which ranges from "dilapidated Rust Belt factories" to "suburban homes in California". The images often employ a sly sense of humor, using roadside signs and monuments to add further layers of meaning.

The American Landscape: While road trips typically symbolize freedom, Friedlander's perspective from within the car also suggests a sense of isolation or a "buffer" from the external world. The resulting body of work offers a witty, sometimes gritty, portrayal of contemporary America, capturing its "eccentricities and obsessions" at the turn of the 21st century. 

Ansel Adams's famous photograph, often called "Valley View from Wawona Tunnel" (1936), exemplifies framing by using the dark, cave-like opening of the Wawona Tunnel as a natural frame, directing the viewer's eye to the majestic Yosemite Valley, El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Fall, creating a dramatic, iconic landscape composition. 

Photographer Ansel Adams is known for his black and white landscape photos of the American West. In his Wawona Tunnel View photograph, the celebrated artist used the edges of the cave to frame the lake and the mountains of Yosemite valley spanning in the background. This clever way of framing the objects created the dramatic effect and made the photo stand out among the numerous depictions of the same valley.

The Location: The viewpoint is located just outside the eastern end of the Wawona Tunnel on State Highway 41. It offers a stunning, framed panoramic view of several iconic Yosemite landmarks: El Capitan on the left, Bridalveil Fall on the right, and Half Dome visible in the center background.

Ansel Adams' Connection: Adams returned to this specific vantage point numerous times throughout his career, capturing the scene in different seasons and weather conditions. The resulting photographs became synonymous with the beauty of the American West and helped drive tourism and appreciation for the National Parks.

Famous Images: While many photographers have captured the view, two of Ansel Adams' most famous images associated with this general location are:

Valley View from Wawona Tunnel, Yosemite Valley, Summer (1936): One of his earlier photographs from this spot, focusing on the composition of the valley in the summer light.

Clearing Winter Storm (circa 1940-1944, though some sources link it to a 1930s exposure): This iconic image captures the valley draped in snow and mist, a dramatic and highly contrasted masterpiece that exemplified his "visualization" technique.

Framing and Composition: Adams expertly used the perspective of the tunnel entrance as a natural "frame" for the expansive valley landscape beyond, a clever compositional technique that added dramatic effect.

Legacy: The view became a cultural icon itself; a similar picture from the viewpoint was notably used as a default computer wallpaper for Apple's OS X El Capitan version. 

The workers are framed by the steel beam they sit on and the city below, emphasizing their precarious position.

"Lunch atop a Skyscraper" is a world-famous black-and-white photograph taken on September 20, 1932, during the construction of the RCA Building (now 30 Rockefeller Plaza) at Rockefeller Center in New York City. It depicts eleven ironworkers casually eating lunch on a steel beam suspended 850 feet (260 meters) above the ground. 

Key Facts About the Photograph

Staged Publicity Stunt: While the workers were real ironworkers, the photo was not a candid moment. It was a carefully arranged publicity stunt to promote the newly constructed skyscraper during the Great Depression.

Safety: The men are shown with no safety harnesses or nets. However, historical evidence suggests there was likely a completed floor just a few feet below the frame, making the risk slightly less extreme than it appears.

Authorship Mystery: For decades, the photographer was unknown or misattributed to Lewis Hine. In 2003, the Corbis agency credited Charles C. Ebbets based on family records and negatives. However, because at least two other photographers—Thomas Kelley and William Leftwich—were also present that day, some archivists now list the author as "unknown" to be technically accurate. 

The Subjects

Identification: Most of the eleven men remain unidentified. Only two have been definitively confirmed by archivists: Joseph Eckner (third from left) and Joe Curtis (third from right).

Immigrant Workforce: The men were largely immigrant laborers, including those of Irish, Italian, Swedish, and Slovak descent, as well as members of the Mohawk Nation. 

Legacy and Recreations

Modern Tribute: In late 2023, Rockefeller Center opened a new attraction called "The Beam" on the 69th-floor observation deck, allowing tourists to be strapped into a rotating girder to recreate the iconic photo's perspective.

Pop Culture: The image is the most reproduced in the Bettmann Archive and has been parodied or recreated by countless groups, from steelworkers 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QCYDzsQ_yM