Composition Studies of Impressionist Paintings at the National Gallery’s New 1874 Exhibit With Art Historian Dr. Hollis Clayson!

You cook a wonderful meal and your friends say: “WOW!  That was GREAT!  Delicious!  What kind of OVEN did you use?  You must have a great OVEN!”

You would be miffed, right?  Because you know it’s not the oven, it’s the COOK who prepares a great meal. Great soufflés were prepared by Julia Child, not by her pots and pans. And the same is true in photography: it’s not the camera, it’s the photographer who makes the image. Here at Washington Photo Safari, we firmly believe you can take a good or bad picture with ANY camera!

Photography, like painting, is all about composition:  the symmetry, the balance, the leading lines, the framing, the perspective, the use of light,  and  the points of interest in the image that draw the viewer’s eye. So this safari is all about training you to see and capture good composition in your own photographs.

Here in Washington DC  we are blessed to have magnificent works of art displayed before us at no cost by our National Gallery of Art,  and the latest blockbuster exhibit there is entitled: Paris 1874: the Impressionists Moment.

The exhibit features 130 works of art by such famous artists as Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, and Camille Pissarro, celebrating the year of 1874 when Impressionism first broke free from traditional constraints to create a new modern style of painting.

Gathering together in the West Building of the National Gallery, we will look at a selection of  paintings and study each of them from the point of view of artistic composition looking at such elements as the rule of thirds, foreground elements, leading lines, use of color, the use of light, and the position of the artist. Registered clients will receive an  attachment that identifies all the primary principles of good artistic composition and will be trained during the safari on  the best techniques for photographing works of art in museums.

Here are samples of the images you will get on this Safari:

1874 Impressionist Exhibit at the NGA

The safari is led by architectural photographer and Washington Photo Safari director  E. David Luria who studied photography in Paris with a protégé of the  French photographer, Henri Cartier Bresson,  famous for capturing “the decisive moment” in his classic photographs.

And we are honored to announce that we will also be guided by one of the foremost art historians in the country, Dr. Hollis S Clayson, retired professor of art history and Bergen Evans Professor of the Humanities at  Northwestern University, who will be joining us  to give her perspective on each painting’s compositional elements and its meaning.

 Looking at these images, we will study them carefully from the point of view of composition: where does your eye go when first look at the photograph? Where are the leading lines?  What is the subject.?  How is it lit? Check out the use of doorways, archways, trees and flowers used to frame the subject. Check out the placement of people as bookends to make the composition more interesting.

The safari will then conclude with a question and answer discussion about composition, how to make your picture INTERESTING so that other people will want to look at them!

To avoid heavy crowds, this new safari is scheduled for Friday afternoon, January 3  2025, 1-3:30 pm