Figure 1 – Linear, Natick, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2017.

Lines are the simplest of geometric shapes. Because of the instinctive behavior of human perception, they come with expectations. We are so programmed. In classic painting these expectations define perspective. In photography these can easily become distorted and the perspective thrown out of whack. Figure 1 is a perfect case in point. It is an IPhone image that I took of a store window. I was enjoying the contrasts, the ambiquity of what the lines were psychologically saying, the shadows, and the highlights. I intentionally didn’t aling the lines perfectly with the edges of the frame, nor did I correct for camera tilt. The result, I believe, is a very dynamic statement to the eye, which tries to figure out not only what is going on, but how the brain should interpret the perspective. The very confined space of the windows corner becomes infinite. What is really surprising here is the optical illusion of the right hand edge of the frame, which while perfectly perpendicular to the top and bottom appears narrower at the top than at the bottom. “Things are not always as they seem.“