Book Bytes Special Report – Interview With Professor Harald Mante

The Photograph – Composition and Color Design
by Harald Mante
RockyNook Inc.
ISBN 978-1-933952-26-0, 192 pages hard cover large size
$49.95 US, $54.95 CN

Serious photographers! Immediately purchase and immerse yourselves in this extraordinary volume of instruction and inspiration. Of all the hundreds of photo and image texts we’ve reviewed at MyMac Magazine, The Photograph – Composition and Color Design is the most important one for helping intermediate to advanced photographers grasp the precision and acuity necessary to achieve the finest images. Those are strong words, matched by author Harald Mante’s strong content.

He is an acclaimed German professor of photography who has been teaching and publishing photo textbooks for over 45 years, with numerous exhibits in many countries. Such a resumé is mere fluff if his photos and tutorials aren’t impressive, which they certainly are.

Over 600 of Professor Mante’s powerful photographs illustrate his lessons, each of which is accompanied by detailed descriptions, plus charts and graphs of his own creation. Photo presentation is world class, as are all production values within The Photograph. My heart was racing as I turned page over page, both from Professor Mante’s sensational photos and with enthusiasm for his methods.

You must understand image design (composition) and color design to be a top notch photographer. If you consider yourself already to be at your peak, the mountain will rise by the application of Mante’s methods. Beginning with “The Point,” and progressing through line, shape, and contrast, concluding with “Using the Tools,” this book is its own reward. Your photos improve as you marvel at the author’s.

Now stop reading, and order The Photograph – Composition and Color Design. Then send us a thank you note.

MyMac rating: Perfect 5 out of 5!

Here’s our interview.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

MYMAC: Do students and serious photographers need to have expensive equipment to make images as good as yours and to explore your lessons, or will ordinary digital still cameras be adequate?

PROFESSOR MANTE: I have been using a standard Minolta SLR (single lens reflex camera) film for decades. I have always used Kodachrome and later Ektachrome film. My students frequently had better and more expensive film cameras, but not better pictures! Every year I have about 200-300 participants in my seminars and workshops. Today most participants use digital cameras. Depending on their financial standing they will be using either SLR cameras (few), fixed lens bridge cameras (most), or simple digital cameras (few). No matter the camera used, once students have attended my »Sehen und Erkennen« (“See and Recognize”) seminar they all get good results. Workshop participants have explained it this way: “For us in terms of photography there is now a time before Mante and a time after Mante!”

MYMAC: Is there a web site where readers can see full size versions of the hundreds of amazing but small photos in your book?

PROFESSOR MANTE: The many pictures form the book are unfortunately not found on a single website. Artistically interesting photography can be found here and on my own website. The link to my portfolio page in BFF is often overlooked. This is where you can find another 30 pictures.

MYMAC: If people want to work on series or sequential images, do they need to become proficient with your other techniques first, or can they jump to the final chapter in this book?

PROFESSOR MANTE: Series and sequences are always made up of several of many pictures. The old saying “a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link” can be applied to serial work. Every individual’s pictures should be carefully composed to improve the quality of the entire work. A knowledge of the means of composition and coloring is worthwhile.

MYMAC: How difficult is it for beginners to become comfortable with your charts and diagrams, to assist them with composition and design?

PROFESSOR MANTE: Whether someone can “grasp” the essence of a problem better by working with text or a graphic is not something I will be able to evaluate for each individual case. I have however been assured that a look at the graphic and comparing it with the appropriate image is usually enough to make it “click” in one’s head. If readers indeed should find it difficult to handle the black and white and color graphics, there is only one bit of advice to give: attend one of my courses and experience me personally!

MYMAC: How did you decide which pictures to include in color, and which ones in black and white? Is there any difference with respect to your methods?

PROFESSOR MANTE: The inherent abstraction of black and white photography offers only light and dark for perceptions; that is the form. Next to recognizing the contents of a picture, the main focus therefore is on composition. Color photographs need to be composed as well, of course; however they add to the rather rational emphasis of the formal image structure the substantially more complex field of somewhat emotionally accentuated color.

MYMAC: Most of your tutorial images are without people. Should readers stop taking people pictures until they can acquaint themselves with your techniques?

PROFESSOR MANTE: This book should be timeless, as should be all my other educational books. Humans are dressed in the fashion of the time and can therefore easily be dated. Through a good foundation, pictures with people will become better photographs.

MYMAC: Why do you begin with discussing “the point,” and why is it so basic to design?

PROFESSOR MANTE: The problem of composition didn’t arise with photography, but has existed for hundreds of years in more traditional artistic media. I myself have a background in painting. While photographers have to deal with a wholistic subject (theme) and “only” need to determine the detail, painters have always been faced with empty space. Even the most tentative contact with this space with a tool resulted in a point – the foundation of formal composition. 

MYMAC: Thank you, Professor Harald Mante!

email – MyMac Magazine – Twitter – Advertise – Reviews Archive – Podcast