I was listening to an interview with engraver and portrait artist Bernard Moser speaking about a new book that had been published recently featuring one hundred of his portraits.
The interviewer commented on the fact that the subjects were often pictured in poses that did not reveal the entire face of the sitter. Moser admitted as much and when on to explain that leaving out some details made for a stronger, more memorable likeness. "I find the more ambiguity there is in a work, the more expressive it can be."
As a photographer I found this especially interesting, since we are, for the most part, limited to the reality before the lens. But I've also found, as I've noted before, that sometimes it is the smallest portion of a landscape that can be the most revealing.
I realized the same quality of ambiguity that Moser observes can make a portrait more expressive may be applied equally well to the creation of an expressive landscape. Ambiguity yields expressiveness.
