Who knew choreography and dance could be a new lens for framing photographs?! Katherine Liepe-Levison presented “All in the Framing (and the cropping…)” to Photographers East at this September’s meeting.

Calling on her career experience from the stage, she introduced the term ‘Proscenium’ (from proscenium arch, or the opening in the wall which stands between stage and auditorium in some theaters; the picture frame through which the audience sees the play.)  How would a director or choreographer place and move actor(s) or dancer(s) through the proscenium? The same concepts and designs apply directly to composition within the frame in photography – thirds, diagonals, simple frames, multiple frames, and overlapped scenes.

Kathy spoke at the end of her presentation about another framing technique, hyper-cropping, using a small portion of a capture as the final image.  To demonstrate, she presented various hyper-cropped treatments of the same original capture.

Thank you, Kathy, for allowing us to see photography through a directors lens!

You can see more at her website: Tour de Force Photography by Katherine Liepe-Levinson: Fine Art images from the edgy to the sublime.

Mark your calendar! Monday, September 10th, Katherine Liepe-Levison will present her thoughts and images. Her topic will be “All in the Framing (and the cropping…)”

As usual, the meeting will be held at 7pm in the Community Room of the the Bridgehampton National Bank in Bridgehampton. Optionally, all members are invited to bring one or two of their own prints where they were very pleased by their framing of their subject to augment the discussion.

As photographers, paying more attention to framing devices can draw our viewers more deeply and intimately into our work.

Artists, educators, and philosophers including Bertolt Brecht, Herb Gardner, and Viktor Shklovsky have discussed the concept of “art” itself as a framing device. The frame can make ordinary objects in the world both strange and special by prolonging and intensifying our perceptual experiences.

Katherine’s presentation will review a few traditional framing techniques such as using multiple natural frames within a single shot and block printing or mosaic techniques that turn a single shot into multiple frames. The balance of the presentation then focuses on “hyper-framing and cropping” ideas that both reframe and transform the original shot through “extreme close up cropping” for some unusual effects. (The best results using “hyper-framing/cropping” are produced by high megapixel cameras 20mg and above).

Katherine Liepe-Levinson’s Tour de Force photographs and artwork have graced the covers of journals/Magazines, such as THE DRAMA REVIEW and ETC., and have been included in books on dance and education. Her clients have included museums, corporations, actors, pet-lovers, home magazines, proud parents, and special event organizers. Her Fine Art Land and Urbanscapes have been exhibited in New York City.

In addition to photography, Katherine Liepe-Levinson has performed as a professional dancer, actor, and writer on and off Broadway, as well as in film and television. She has a Phd in Theatre from New York City’s CUNY Graduate Center and has taught full-time in academic settings such as Colgate University and Hunter College. Her performing arts experience has given her a unique sense of timing and the ability to stage or to discover the most effective “scene” at hand. She is both a consummate director and a collaborator.