Decay

I've been thinking on a lot of things lately, especially as the stress of the holiday season sets in. Two of the themes that keep coming into my head in intersecting fashion are the complex systems that underlay our society and the general concept of decay. There is nothing that gives me more Reevesian “Whoa” moments, than thinking for any length on the increasingly complex, increasingly specialized, and increasingly decaying web of mechanical and electrical systems that we rely on to keep bright the light of civilization.

One of my favorite blogs is written by a photographer and writer with a fantastic talent for capturing sense of place and also the subtle decay and facades of our built environment. So with a nod to the good folks over at Are There Any More Cookies?, I'm going to swing this potentially dense and pretentious discussion toward another installment of the themed photo sets that I've indulged in lately. Here is my own take on decay. I'll tackle sense of place in another installment.

Negative Space

Wikipedia defines negative space as:

"Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject(s) of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real" subject of an image."

This is a bit more high brow than my usual take on negative space, or perhaps more technical. A lot of my photography is pretty subject oriented, especially wildlife shots. I may show it off centered in its habitat, but the subject usually fills as much of the shot as my paltry 300mm lens can make it. That being said, there are times when the subject just really doesn't make sense out of the context of its greater surroundings. See? Now they have me doing it...in less technical terms, and more true to what's going through my head, I'd simply say, "sometimes you have to see the whole picture to appreciate a piece of it.".

So here's a few of my favorite shots that make a little use of negative space.

From top: Top of the World (Houston Skyline), Half Dome Sunrise, Reeds in Still Water, Hula Abstract, Evolution, Flatlands