Lewis Bond is a writer and film theorist who is behind YouTube's Channel Criswell. His objective is to create content that examines the art of cinema. I was drawn to Bond's 15 minute piece on Andrei Tarkovsky - Poetic Harmony, in part because I'm an admirer of Tarkovsky's films and also because of the connection between photography and poetry.
Poetic Harmony is well worth a look as in my view many of the elements and themes that drove Tarkovsky in his film making are equally important and influential in still photography.
In fact Bond comments that Tarkovsky's approach to cinematography may well have been influenced by his background as a photographer.
Tarkovsky's films are characterized by metaphysical themes, extremely long takes, and images of exceptional beauty. Recurring motifs are dreams, memory, childhood, running water accompanied by fire, rain indoors, reflections, levitation, and characters re-appearing in the foreground of long panning movements of the camera. He once said, "Juxtaposing a person with an environment that is boundless, collating him with a countless number of people passing by close to him and far away, relating a person to the whole world, that is the meaning of cinema.” Water, clouds, and reflections were used by him for their surreal beauty and photogenic value, as well as their symbolism, such as waves or the forms of brooks or running water. Bells and candles are also frequent symbols.
You can watch Andrei Tarkovsky - Poetic Harmony HERE. And go to the Channel Criswell site HERE.
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