Quoted By:
Roy Arden, "Development," 1993 (shot on 4x5)
Roy Arden is like a realer version of Jeff Wall. This photo ticks all the boxes for being considered good, here's why.
The light and colour is optimum: it was shot in the evening so there is a strong, direct illumination of the scene from a low angle that retains the density and texture in the sky, and the large format film does a good job of reproduces the rich areas of colour without transforming them into an artificial over-saturated mess. The scene selection was either very judicious or insanely serendipitous--the photographer probably returned to this site several times during the course of its construction in order to capture the appearance of the building in a semi-completed state that simultaneously exhibited an array of different levels of completion. The composition is simple, but in a complex or subtle way (in other words, it reveals of a lot of thinking about how to refine the presentation of the key elements down to their barest necessary presence--a simplicity that results from the photographer's thorough understanding and visual processing of the scene in front of the camera in a way that accesses a lucid image of what is significant for them therein). Finally, the photo is stimulating to the imagination and intellect because of the skillful way it self-evidently presents an otherwise abstract content (development, construction, etc.), it rewards individual contemplation and relates thoroughly to the rest of Arden's photographs from the series.
