Pattern

Humans are fascinated by pattern. When we look at anything, the receptor cells in the retina react specifically to certain lines, angles, colour and movement under the organizing control of the visual cortex inour brains. The appeal of visual puzzles and the eye-catching quality of interlocking patterns demonstrates this. Our brains are ‘programmed’ to compare the elements of pattern and to look for differences.

Pictures containing patterns must feature something more than simple repetition. It can be easily over-done and becomes a compositional cliché. The challenge for the photographer is to capture the rhythms and variations of alternating pattern in an image, while also saying something about the subject being photographed. Perversely, what grabs the viewer’s attention is when expectations are not confirmed – when the pattern breaks, for example.

Pattern can even be used to reveal form. Light coming through repeating structures, such as fences or windowpanes, creates fascinating shapes as each repeated block of the pattern falls onto and wraps around the solid form. A very fine repeating pattern will look like a texture, while patterns that reduce in size appear to recede in space.

The urban landscape is full of geometric, repeating patterns, while nature offers a more random arrangement of quite complex patterns that can be harder to interpret.

ISO 100214 (above)Rogge’s human patterns combine repetition with individuality, posing deeper questions about identity, the crowd and the person.Photographer: Claudia Rogge.

Technical summary: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, with Bowens flash. Single photos are combined on the

computer to create the final image.

69 68Formal elements

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