| In our mind a vision of heavy,
baroque monstrosity may immediately appear, carved and gold leaved, thicker
than the picture width. Or how about the opposite: a sure self negation, a scissor
cut photograph? Regardless of what we envision when saying the word, frame
is of a primary significance. Not only as one of the first steps in transforming
the reality, but, moreover, a first element of the composition itself,
its beginning and end. Just as it is hard to claim the existence of a composition
without some kind of frame - even an imaginary one – it is, on the other
side, somewhat curiously possible to talk about a composition consisting
of the frame alone. If there is anything "divine" about the frame, it is
surely not some transcendent quality, but rather a simple fact that it
fundamentally defines a function of everything within its bounds. There
are two basic conceptions of the frame in viewing of an image. The first
in evolution, which somewhat rejects the glorification I just wrote above, happens
in the time of first contacts with the medium - when the only recognizable
and trustworthy element remains the reality. This is frame as a WINDOW
INTO THE WORLD. Belonging to a phase of not yet fully absorbed/understood medium it generally
focuses towards the illusion of reality. This tendency is mostly caused by the content
of the rational and practical in approach (the idea of a "window" is easier to be noticed
in adults than in children or with primitive cultures), and, on the other
side, by the degree of illusionistic perfection the medium is capable of
- the believability of the reality that it can recreate. From this
stems the extraordinary ability of self - concealment the film has (and
even some forms of the theater!). One may argue that by removing the attention
from the medium itself we eliminate many of its inherent expressive traits
- mostly those higher up the abstraction ladder. To sum it up, perception
of the frame as a window assumes that the image is a part of the larger
whole, a part limited by necessity – imperfection – of a frame. Looking
for some examples, the painting has gone a long way in this view, but as
a more obvious, purer example, we may take the film, photography – any
framed piece of what we know was larger – most likely, the reality. The frame perceived as an END OF THE WORLD is the second viewing approach. Seemingly higher in the evolutionary order, it is indicatively also found in the very beginnings of development, human race and individual alike. The later lack of this approach we can therefore attribute to some development, most likely towards the importance of real and rational. The "all containing frame" approach happens in the state of an introvert intuition, when we measure everything by the model of our own psyche. An image for itself is an idea, an "inside" – not an objective reality "outside". An image is world as a whole, and its borders are the borders of the world: behind, only nothingness exists. The connection of the image with its frame is unbreakable; metaphysically, the idea as a world itself includes the existence of borders - in infinity. That may serve as a best definition of frame in this conception. Whatever touches the frame, touches infinity; if something crosses over, it crosses into nothingness. The second cause of perceiving the frame as the end is an understanding and awareness of the medium - attention towards the medium itself. This does not necessarily mean the loss of experience supplied by illusion. It rather means an absorption, anticipation of the medium, end of that stubborn ignorance which looks through it just to clench onto reality. This particular awareness of the frame makes the foundation for the many elements of composition - directly, the felling of every point within the image in an active, dynamic mutual relation with the frame. The indivisible unity of frame with the image is a precondition for a health and strength of all the forces within the composition. As for the examples of frame being the end of the world - image, we can find them in the child drawings, most of the 20 century painting, pure photography, and even sometimes in film, in the advanced use of static camera (Alain Tanner). |
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