Book Review by Brian Rope
Reading
Frames: explorations in what makes a photograph work | W. Scott Olsen
The
University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City ©2026. All rights reserved.
Copyright
for photographs remains with the individual photographers.
ISBN:
9781647692810 paperback | 9781647692827 epub
In 2020, I received an email from Tomash Trzebiatowski, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of FRAMES magazine asking if we could connect via Zoom. We did so nine days later. Six years on Tomasz and FRAMES have achieved extraordinary things. As I write the FRAMES Magazine Facebook group has 25,200 members.
I have read many of W. Scott Olsen’s monthly essays for FRAMES magazine. This book is some Olsen essays from the digital pages of FRAMES. Trzebiatowski correctly suggests Olsen’s writing is mentorship.
Using “plain language” for “people deeply involved in making photographs”, Olsen explains how images combine artistic elements and, thus, reach levels of sophistication and insight. Each essay starts Let’s begin with, and stay with, the image.
The first image I want to share here is by an Australian, Lyndall Gerlach. The Contemporary Lifestyle is a triptych I have seen before; once accompanied by these words:
It is 2021, 2 years into a pandemic that has so far killed 4,692,850 from 228,413,499 infected people. We are accepting there will be more deaths, as our society tries to find ‘normal’. My triptych illustrates life for some vulnerable ‘high risk’ people. It’s about their contemporary lifestyle choice, staying alive. Time and relationships irrelevant, days merge, contained, among written memories of other times, a far-seeing telescope, a couch to sleep on. Curtains shade reminders of life, alcohol dulls the pain and encourages sleep. Time passes. Painful aloneness, living it is a contemporary lifestyle for some.
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| The Contemporary Lifestyle by Lyndall Gerlach |
In this book, Olsen writes beautifully describing the three parts of the triptych as the equivalent of a musical chord which has at least three notes played together, creating a richer, more nuanced combination. He suggests the three panels form an intellectual narrative.
Next, an image by Monica Riveiro from Spain. On her website she says photography inhabits a space between dreams and reality. Her image here is of two boys jumping into the sea from a pier. It is one of numerous street photography images she took in an urban space, Punta de Liquerique.
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| From Tales of Liquerique by Monica Riveiro |
Olsen writes about the frozen moments that become photographs. He says at first glance the situation shown here was completely familiar, but that a deeper look revealed an inviting mystery. He suggests the somewhat ominous sky and city appearance in this black and white image would instead have a mood of summertime joy if it was in colour.
My third chosen image portrays a ballerina, photographed whilst the photographer was visiting Cuba. Cathy Cakebread, from the USA, uses photography as a way to slow down and, here, she has sought to capture the movement by doing just that – slowing it down.
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| Cuban Ballerina by Cathy Swain Cakebread |
Olsen discusses how to make a ballet image fresh and original and says Cakebread has done it wonderfully. He explores shapes in the setting, elements of art, the ballerina’s pose, our privileged point of view, and the defining blur. He tells us what he saw.
My fourth selection is a view from a hotel window in Scotland. We’ve all taken such shots. This is by Ross Duncan, another Australian. It shows some old, inhabited buildings. The central home here is deliciously lit becoming a feature we are drawn to.
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| View from a hotel window by Ross Duncan |
Olsen talks about the title identifying the point of view - the photographer is in a temporary residence looking at someone else’s permanent home. He sees a sadness created in the disconnect between hotel and home and suggests the twilight image is mesmerising because that is a time of change.
Finally, I share an Italian renaissance. Photographer Giuseppe Gradella from Mantua in Italy believes in memories and dreams, and this fine-artwork has a beautiful dream-like feeling.
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| Italian Renaissance by Giuseppe Gradella |
Olsen comments about the frosted glass both revealing and obscuring the woman holding it. He draws our attention to squares and right angles, to the direction of cascading light, to the visual and narrative motion in the still-life image. He sees a specific real woman, a specific real place – and a moment where one woman becomes every woman.
Exploring
this book has made me think more about images that stop me - on webpages, in books,
at exhibitions. I encourage you to do likewise.
This review is also available on the author's blog.
