Creative52 book coverTo help spur some creativity, I have purchased a book on Amazon called, “Creative 52: Weekly Projects to Invigorate Your Photography Portfolio” by Lindsay Adler. This book provides a new project each week. It is written by a fashion photographer, so I expect to start shooting more portraits than I have in the past. This alone is a departure from my regular subjects of landscapes and still life.


WEEK FOUR: NEGATIVE SPACE

Santa Fe VigasI first heard about ‘negative space’ while working in a sign shop.  We made signs for slot machines.  As I started out on some basic designs, one of the artists told me to “be aware of negative space”.  In everyday talk, negative space is blank or empty space around or in between objects in a design or photo.

To the left is a photo I took a few years ago in Santa Fe.  Here I used negative space to separate the old western building with its vigas and the European style cathedral.  The negative space takes up a large amount of the image.  It’s a technique that I’ve used before and enjoy using, so this assignment care more naturally than the others.

I cheated a little on this assignment as I didn’t shoot specifically for the book’s lesson.  Instead I’m using photos from a shoot I did last week for a collaborative project with Cindy Chinn.  My goal with these photos was to shoot over 20 different objects within a common theme.  I chose a theme of ‘kitchen’ (and not just because it was freezing outside).  I’ll add some photos to this post of the finished artwork next week.

What I have below is a gallery of 26 images of kitchen objects.  Some are obvious, others are a little more abstract.  Your assignment this week is to figure out which images make the best use of negative space.

<< Last week: Tell A Story

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5 thoughts on “WEEKLY PROJECTS #4 – NEGATIVE SPACE”

  1. For me number six offers a play between negative and positive space. I get a little of the same feeling for number 22.

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