Theoline is the name of
the schooner that Abbott found unloading potatoes at Pier 11 on the Hudson
River side of Manhattan. Standing on the ships deck, she tried several
lenses and finally settled on a wide-angle lens to create this complicated
composition. The ships masts, rigging and sails in front of the
upright rectangles of the New York city skyline produces a tangled scene.
In the lower half of the picture big solid lines of the edge of the boat
and the flat area of the deck reach out into the confusion and help resolve
the composition. Both the buildings in the background and the diagonal
lines of the ships rigging are in sharp focus, made possible by
Abbots ability to photograph with great depth of field.
As Abbott described it, making this photograph was as complicated as
it looks: "This boat was rising and lowering, and I had a tremendous
depth of field to cope with here. All these lines which I wanted very
clear. When the boat was up, the buildings would go down, so it was all
very carefully and slowly arranged." (Kay Weaver and Martha Wheelock,
Berenice Abbott, A View of the 20th Century, Ishtar Films, 1992)
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Depth of Field
Depth of field
is the area in sharp focus between the object that is farthest away
from the camera (the background) and the object that is closest
to the camera (the foreground). While many variables such as available
light, film speed and shutter speed contribute to depth of field,
the setting of the camera's aperture has the most impact when everything
else remains constant. Some photographs may call for the greatest
depth of field possible, where there is sharp detail in the foreground
and background. Other photographs may call for soft focus backgrounds
or foregrounds when too many details may be distracting.
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