The Schizophrenia Of Vertical And Horizontal

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I have a bone to pick with the photography industry as a whole. In fact, let me expand that: anyone anywhere, including YouTube pundits, who are forever referring to the vertical and horizontal orientation of images, phones, screens, basically anything we are viewing as being in either “portrait” or “landscape” orientation.

Words matter, and what you call a thing matters. it feels like when someone uses the term “portrait” to denote a vertical orientation, or the term “landscape” for a horizontal orientation they are simply being lazy in their wording. 
 

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It’s as if they are implying that a portrait has to be in a vertical orientation and never a horizontal orientation. The words are NOT interchangeable. In fact I (as well as many great photographers) have photographed portrait subjects in a horizontal orientation. 
 

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And by the same token, using the word “landscape” to denote a horizontal orientation is just as lazy, as if you cannot photograph a landscape scene in anything other than a horizontal orientation, lest it not be called a proper landscape:

Phenomena
 

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It makes no genuine sense, and yet I bet everybody, and I mean everybody from photography industry folks who should know better to folks talking about the latest tech gadget refer to the viewing orientation as either being in “portrait mode” or in “landscape mode.” We all know what they are referring to, but the wrong words are being used, and it’s become like a collective psychosis. And sadly, even influential people have gotten lazy in their use of words. For me, as one who has been steeped in visual language for close to half a century, it has always been proper to say “vertical” and “horizontal.” Whether photographing a portrait or a landscape, it has always been the aesthetics of composition which has determined the orientation of the camera and therefore your image. With the use of the wrong words for viewing orientation, it seems that many people feel compelled to photograph a landscape in the horizontal orientation exclusively, or a portrait in a vertical orientation exclusively and never explore the alternative angle or the creativity of a different composition. We are creatures of habit, and when the wrong words are used to describe something it can haves a schizophrenic like effect on people. 
 

Now while I do love composing my images to an aesthetic devoid of the  popular terms for orientation, there is one solution that is neither vertical nor horizontal, neither “portrait” nor “landscape” in orientation: the square format. If you’ve ever photographed with a classic Hasselblad 500c square format film camera or equivalent, then you know the square orientation has an aesthetic all its own, and to my mind says “fine art” like no other format. There are some mobile phone photography apps that limit your shooting to a square format. 
 

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It can be  both fun and educational to photograph in a format that has limitations, even if you choose to only use a square crop orientation in your post-processing for a while. It can help you hone your compositional skills, which will in turn train your eye to better see compositional possibilities and help you decide which orientation, vertical or horizontal to choose when out photographing, no matter your subject.