Att skapa friktion i komposition– en formalestetisk studie av Ralph Nykvists vardagsskildringar

Abstract

This study consists of two analyses of four photos by the Swedish street photographer Ralph Nykvist. The purpose is to analyse and interpret how various aspects of formal aesthetical compositions in the photos make asymmetries or frictions visible which affect the overall interpretations of the pictures. By using strict linear and painterly characteristics, the result reveals the impossible equation, a variety of both categories in all pictures. Applying the concepts of anti-theatricality and “to-be-looked-atness” manifest how the pictures withdraw from the beholder to create distance and absorption. Combined with a second analysis based on non-categorised formal aesthetical word pairs broaden the artistic interpretations of the pictures, without losing their sense of reality.