Southern Utah Photograph

It is a common misperception that kakejiku or wall scrolls are only used for Asian art styles such as Shodo, Japanese or Chinese calligraphy or Sumie. However, one can see that this framing style can beautifully transform a photograph by utilizing cloth colors which both complement and enhance the artists vision. Now the concepts used to frame the photograph will be detailed.

This photograph was taken by David J. West.

As always there are three primary ideals to think about as the Hyousoushi, or framer, when constructing the frame in your mind. These are 1. Where the work will hang; 2. The contents of the work to be framed; 3. The artist and his style, vision or work studio.

1. Place

There was no preset place to which this work would hang, as this was not a commissioned work. Primarily, concept two dominated the reasoning of how this was framed. However, applying the principles of Feng Shui, the green frame and the reddish brown would work well to hang in the East or Southeast areas of a home. These compass points correlate with health/family and money/abundance respectively.

2. Work Contents

There is a spattering of green from the flora of the area within this photograph, and so to bring out that desert plant feel the green solid cloth was used. To provide a soft transition, a dull gold with a very pale green for the Ichimonji, (or cloth with Gold Filament) was used to provide a continuous transition between the stark Red/Brown and the green of the cloth.

3. The Artist

To my untrained eye, David's works tend to use rich textures without using light to overpower the end result. In other words, I felt his works were a little darker than most Southern Utah landscape photographers. Therefore I chose a shade of green that was not as dark as the flora of the picture to complement with a little light, without taking away from the artists original intention.