Part 2 Figure Ground EXERCISES Looking Paul Strand's 1916 photograph Abstractions, Porch Shadows, Twin Lakes, Connecticut is an interesting pattern of linear and curved shapes. It is also a study in the changing figure­ground and black-and-white rectangular shapes. His earlier photograph The White Fence, Port Kent, New York, 1915 is another example of figure­ground at work. One first sees the white contoured boards as figure, but can shift attention to the black spaces in between, which have similar contours to its surroundings. The effect is like the figure­ground photograph by Irving Pobboravsky seen at the beginning of this section.