2 days of networking events and workshops, to meet fellow musicians and music lovers and discuss about contemporary music making, techniques and innovations.
Through the workshop’s framework participants will have the opportunity to share, discover and discuss some of the most important 20th and 21st century contemporary music innovations.
Jelena Makarova has established a busy career as a concert pianist, chamber musician, accompanist and educator. She frequently appears in recitals and festivals in the UK, Sweden, USA and Russia. Her recent performances include Carnegie Hall and also recitals for the prestigious ‘Pianists of the World’ series at the St.
Rick is composer, conductor and producer. He is Manager and A&R for RMN Music and RMN Classical. He was winner and finalist in various international competitions always receiving mention for the quality of the scores submitted.
Elif is a talented composer and pianist based in London. She studied Composition at the Izmir Dokuz Eylul University State Conservatory under Prof. Istemihan Taviloglu graduating in only 3 years with an average mark of 90.35/100 being the first in the department to do so.
As always before we begin, here is a quick reminder on what the assignment was all about. The “ Open and Closed Composition ” article explained two main types of composition – open composition and closed composition (both of which have many varieties). Each type also had a few sample images to highlight the differences and make the theory easier to understand. At the end of the article I listed five different photographs and asked you to try and determine which of the two main types of composition was used for each specific image.
Determining which type of composition is used in a particular image is not an easy task even with all the theory explained. Photography, painting, or any sort of art for that matter, is not science and it is often difficult to categorize it in any way confidently. There is just too much interpretation involved in how one sees the work. Suffice to say, there were a lot of replies in the comments section with differing opinions. One could hardly expect anything else, but whilst some of the provided images were indeed dual in their composition and posed a real task to define, others were much more definite, because, more often than not, characteristics typical to one of the types are more prominent than those of another in a single photograph. Now, let’s see what is what.
As you can see, some of the provided images are quite difficult to “classify” as either open or closed composition. I’ve read plenty of well-supported opinions under the original article, so there is a good chance you will disagree with some of my choices. The thing is, it is very difficult to enclose art in a set of rules and definitions. A photograph can have characteristics found in both types of composition, meaning it can be both open and closed at the same time. It all depends on the creativity, idea and skill of the photographer himself, as well as the way the viewer chooses to see the image. Thus, you are more than welcome to discuss my choices in the comments section below!