However, that’s not quite true, at least not in most photographs. This is what the term “negative” suggests, that things are absent and there’s nothing there. This simple definition, as well as the examples I just described, might lead us to believe that negative space is empty space. For the shot on the right of the people in the setting sun, the same principle holds true for the shadows, which we would recognize as people even if the woman was not in the shot. Nevertheless, the clear sky around the body and between the arms and legs guides the mind into seeing the silhouetted shape and recognizing it as a human form. Because the subject is dark and maybe even totally black, we can’t see any details of his body. This example of a silhouetted body with arms and legs stretched out is particularly good for understanding how negative space serves the function of defining the subject. Your mind focuses on the silhouetted person and doesn’t consciously notice the space around it. In that case the person becomes a dark silhouette, but the positive space is still the person and the negative space is still the surrounding sky. Or say you correctly expose the sky rather than the person. So if you imagine a shot of a person standing against a bright clear sky with his arms and legs stretched out, the positive space is the area where you see the person, while the negative space is the sky around him which has probably blown out to pure white, assuming the person is properly exposed. It’s the figure or form that your mind focuses on, while the rest is “background.” Positive space is the area occupied by the subject, which is basically the same thing as saying that it IS the subject. As we’ll see, it plays a very good role in composition. In Gestalt psychology, they would say that the subject is the “figure” and the negative space is the “ground.” Unfortunately, the term is misleading because space isn’t negative in a bad sense. What exactly is negative space? And if there’s negative space, then what is positive space?ĭefined simply, negative space is the area around and between the subject of an image. It is the space within that makes it useful.īut maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. It is the center hole that makes it useful. The Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu also stressed the importance of the emptiness that gives purpose to things, as he illustrates in this passage from his Tao Te Ching: For example, Japanese Zen Buddhism considers “ma” – which can be roughly translated as “empty,” “gap,” or “space” – to be the critical compositional element of all art forms. In these philosophies the “void” acquires a mystically powerful role in the process of creation. I find negative space to be one of the most fascinating aspects of composition, which is probably due to my interest in eastern philosophy, which has always emphasized the dynamic relationship between objects and emptiness, form and formlessness.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |