Edgar Degas and Photography

Edgar Degas

According to Kit White, "The camera, with its viewfinder that samples a portion of the world, changed our relationship to the frame...Painters, such as Degas, allowed the frame to cut into figures and objects, implying that part of the subject lay outside of the view of the image.  This was a radical change from the centered image of traditional painting where the space inside the frame was a metaphor for the world.  Now, we see the edges of pictures as being vital and compositionally active, not dormant and arbitrary."  I once heard an art teacher tell a student that you don't want the image touching the border of the picture, in his words it created "confusion."  If cutting the image off at the border is good enough for Degas, it's good enough for me.  Enjoy!