Monkey business: Point of view

As a second submission to the photo assignment "sequences" by Ted Forbes, I made this series. The idea is to combine all the previous assignments: variations, low angle, eye level, high angle and red.

www.youtube.com/results?q=forbes+photo+assignments

I often like to play with perspective illusions. Here the surprising element hopefully becomes clear on the last shot where it is showed the soft toys are different at their size, and are fridge magnets. And the high angle on the last shot also depends on the point of view.

When taking this series I decided I want to use some typical cinema aspect ratio, for two reasons. First of all the somewhat natural alignment of sequences then would be a vertical collage. It then forces to see them linearly even more than vertical alignment would. The second reason was to force myself to think of the limitations of horizontal composition.

In cinematography we are used to horizontal images and compositions. It means we are forced to think how to fill the space sideways, and not much vertical space to use. For example, if we wish to represent a tall tree, and underline how tall it is, we then also have to decide what we do with all the horizontal space.

On the last image on my sequence I would have liked to include my own feet in the picture. But because the idea of showing the drawing on the fridge door would have not become clear, I decided to go with rather unnoticeable reflections of my feet.