Hi All,

In all aspects of art, bringing many elements of a piece together into one creation is called composition. And so composition is a skill which each artist needs to acquire. Composition for me is about the narrative - what is it this piece of music, or drawing, or film is trying to say. What is the beginning, the middle, the end? Who are the actors? What is happening?

Once the narrative is set in the mind of the artist, their skills at composition help them get to the final creation.

I started my journey with photography and watching lots of film. I was therefore influenced by visual artists. Two influences I have felt the most are the Akira Kurosawa the Japanese director and Henri Cartier Bresson the French photographer.

Akira Kurosawa

Let’s first talk about Kurosawa, who was extensively involved in every aspect of filmmaking. He had a sense of the film as the final composition and delved in detail in everything that it was made of. You could pause his films at any point in time, and find that the picture on the screen was a well-balanced composition - each frame well designed. There is an entire wiki page dedicated to his filmmaking style - Filmmaking technique of Akira Kurosawa - Wikipedia.

If you’ve never watched a Kurosawa, then you’re missing out on great films. Next time you take a break to watch a movie - try Seven Samurai or Rashomon.

And on Satyajit Ray, Kurosawa had once said…

"Never having seen a Satyajit Ray film is like never having seen the sun or the moon." - Akira Kurosawa

And with that quote, I want to pause in this longish post and continue in another post on this topic.

Happy arting,

Abhishek (art noob)