another element from which we can imagine the line straight through to modern art is the 'outside the box' phenomenon.











by this i mean literally going outside the lines.

frames are made deliberately too small to fit the people in them.

as in the cases we've seen before, these are sometimes

framing strategies, or perhaps for emphasis' or design's sake.






perhaps hiroshige (or utamaro) was just sitting there one day and had a creative inspiration: why must this always look like that???

and found it didn't.

elongated, vertical art was also not seen in the west until japanese scrolls were encount- ered. it is no accident that steichen used this form for his self-portrait (and the poster he made for the whole movement), or stieglitz for one of his most iconic images. (i couldn't find a moon photo, surprisingly! in this particular shape.)


and another important element of the design of the time, learned, again, from the japanese, that i more or less left out yesterday, is asymmetry. (there are numerous other things too, but they more have to do with other arts.)




see for yourself the near- ly ubiquitous occurrence of all of these traits at a wonderful site here. not stieglitz or steichen, or even coburn alone, but an entire era of photography was deeply, and beautifully, grounded across the sea.