Chiostro degli Aranci, Badia Fiorentina, Florence

Photograph Copyright ©2013 Loo Yen Yeo. All Rights Reserved.

Concept: Rhythm (continuing); Dividing the frame (golden section)

Description: The compressed steep diagonal of the Cloister the Orange Trees' left side sharply directs the eye to the contrasting wooden doors framed in the upper central arch of the opposite side. From there the eye moves to the orange tree and moss-covered entabulature over the cloister's well, before being drawn to the left side once again establishing a subtle continuous path. The presence of the wide archways along the direction of eye movement creates a sedate contemplative rhythm entirely in keeping with the visual feel of the abbey's cloister.

Title: Quiet Contemplation

02.06 Rhythm

When an image gives the viewer a persistent, enduring sense of recurrence, it is said to be possessed of rhythm. Rhythm has direction; the eye is led along a particular course and is therefore, by definition, dynamic.

Rhythm is achieved compositionally,

• through an ordered spatial arrangement of a sequence of visually similar elements;
• in a manner which compels continuous eye flow, through the use of dynamic lines like diagonals and the periodicity of elements synchronised to eye saccades;
• at a scale which allows time for visual momentum to be established and continue beyond the image frame by the Gestalt Principle of Continuity.
   

The last criterion usually necessitates the framing of the image in landscape orientation, based on the eye's preference for horizontal movement.

Rhythm has momentum. A further compositional decision to be made is whether it should be allowed to:

1. continue - giving the image a sense of suspension; or
2. stop (through the placement of a dissimilar element the end of the sequence) - giving the image dynamic contrast.