HEY, LOOKA ME

By MICHAEL PERKINS

ONE OF THE MOST PREDICTABLE PHOTOGRAPHIC CLICHES OF CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION consists of the “establishing shot” used in many drama shows, depicting a particularly important locale wherein the action of the show will take place, be it a corporate HQ, a cop station, a courtroom. The site, whatever its purpose to the story, is shot in the widest angle possible, drastically distorting all sight lines and perspectives, as if to get the viewer’s attention in a visual shorthand that announces that something important is about to happen here. And, consistently, the first scene inside these places, shown immediately after, is shot with a much narrower, or, if you will, “normal” focal length. It’s a one-two  combination that has become part of the visual grammar of storytelling.

Drama, as it’s artificially created by visual camera optics, can certainly be an effective narrative tool, but it can also become an effect for effect’s sake, a crutch used to juice up a subject that doesn’t deliver enough impact without it. And of course, the use of tech to dress up an essentially weak image is always a temptation, especially since more and more shortcuts than ever before afford the chance to enhance and tweak. And like many giddy sensations, it can evolve into an addiction.

I have been trying to get “THE shot” of this classic biplane for years, trying to tie into its history and mystery by switching lenses, taking different angles and approaches, shooting in both full natural and completely unnatural light, the works. In this image, I’ve resorted, like many TV directors, to photography’s big go-to for instant drama….an ultra wide. Just as in courtroom and cop shows, the distortion, the unreality of this 12mm fisheye is used to give the subject more power than it might have in standard perspective. The nearly 180-degree coverage of the lens also allows me to get the entire plane in one shot, something that’s proved difficult because of the tight glass “hangar” in which it’s displayed. Here, I have tried to render the plane itself in nearly normal aspect, choosing instead to distort the showroom it’s encased in. As always with wide-angles, it’s not totally about getting everything into the middle of the shot, but getting yourself deeper into the middle of everything that you frame. If that sounds like double-talk, well, welcome to the wonderful world of counter-intuitive photography.

I might have fallen in love with distortion at an early age since I was raised on comic books, where cartoonists freely violated perspectives in the service of a story. Comics are by nature gross exaggerations of reality that pass themselves off as plausible substitutes for it. My camera eye may still want to linger in that playland. Sometimes we just want our pictures to shout, hey looka me, and we’re fairly shameless at going for those eyeballs.