Your favorite photo that has the least content

<p><a href="http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/see-the-curious-score-for-john-cages-silent-zen-composition-433.html">http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/see-the-curious-score-for-john-cages-silent-zen-composition-433.html</a></p>

<p>I like simplicity in photos very much and minimalism (though i have to admit i don't fully understand the term sometimes) is a favorite theme when i'm looking at others work. Here's one of mine that I think could be 'minimalist' and also quite like.<br>

<a title="level_5 by chris thompson, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/outwithmycamera13/8328486772"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8353/8328486772_3921d9e2d0_z.jpg" alt="level_5" width="429" height="640" /></a></p>

<p>Indeed it does, William. Nice colors.</p>

<p>.</p><div></div>

<p>Christopher, I have to agree with Nick. It's the colors that make that one.</p>

<p>Another one I like is the <a href="/photo/10466190"><em><strong>"eyes wide shut"</strong></em></a> of Marta Eva Llamera. There's a kind of vacuous look there that might qualify as "empty."</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

<p>Interesting thread. One from photo.net member,<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/8867884</p>

<p>Julie, I love Suskind's<em> Villahermosa.</em> That is an absolutely astonishing image.</p>

<p>What a wonderful thread!</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

<p>Wonderful thread, Julie. Here's mine:<br /><a href="/photo/17767915&size=lg">photo</a></p>

<p>Great thread Julie. Here's my example.</p><div></div>

<p>one more time with feeling.</p><div></div>

<p>Clifford Ross did a series he called <a href="http://www.cliffordross.com/photography/hurricanes/grain/index.php"><em>Grain</em></a>. <br>

I saw these prints at an exhibition. Despite their size, there was surprisingly little grain, which was odd, given the titles. I liked them for the things they made me think about.</p>

<p>Here is another one:</p>

<div></div>

<p>Gordon, very good (I prefer the second version).</p>

<p>...and my second version....</p><div></div>

<p>The closest I got to a bird during the outing. I didn't want to go home empty handed.</p><div></div>

<p>God, these are good. Just wonderful ... ( <<< <em>again</em>!)</p>

<p>Here is one from Uta Barth [ <strong><a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/utabarth_leaves.jpg">LINK</a></strong> ] that, for me, is visual perfume. Which is what many of the posted photos are, for me. Visual perfume; lovely, stirring, disturbing, luscious ... <em>wonderful</em> ... :)</p>

<p>But not all minimal content photographs work on me in just that way. Here is one from Diane Arbus [ <strong><a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/arbus_blowingpaper.jpg">LINK</a></strong> ]. If you know her work (people, people, close, personal, engaged) and her death (suicide), this is kind of a shocking picture ... from her. The picture is titled <em>Blowing newspaper at a crossroads, N.Y.C.</em>, 1956.</p>

<p>Finally, this one [ <strong><a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/meyerowitz_rakingfield.jpg">LINK</a></strong> ] is from Joel Meyerowitz's book <em>Aftermath</em>, which is about the clean-up after 9/11. Yes, it needs the back story (is illustrative as opposed to stand-alone) but notice how a minimal content picture can be powerfully evocative of what is not there; what is gone precisely because the minimal content calls to/for what's missing. Here is Meyerowitz's story of the shot:</p>

<p>.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>The bulldozer had finished spreading a thin layer of rubble over the raking field just as the shift changed at the o'clock. The field lay undisturbed. I stood at its southern end and just took it in -- nondescript bits of concrete and dirt, sticks and metal shards. Could I make a photograph of this? Would it mean anything? As I looked at the upside-down image on the ground-glass back of my view camera, I saw a pair of feet enter the top of the frame and steadily grow into the full figure of a man who stopped to pick up a fallen rake lying there. Then he crossed the field, dragging the rake over the rubble. I watched him as he made his way out of the frame. When I left the camera and caught up with him, he introduced himself as Toolie O'Toole and told me he was on his way home, having raked all day. I asked him why he'd stopped to pick up the rake when his day was over, but he just gave an easy shrug in reply, as if to say: "Just a rake," or "Can't help myself." I mentioned to him how affecting I now found it to observe the act of raking -- how that simple, seemingly ancient and eternal gesture, performed by so many people for so many months had become emblematic of the work on the site for me. He nodded as I spoke. "That's it," he said, "We're gardeners in the garden of the dead."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>.</p>

 

<p><a title="we have all the time in the world von georgsfoto bei Flickr" href=" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7367/9482828164_4dd2b066cb_c.jpg" alt="we have all the time in the world" width="800" height="541" /></a><br>

Probably my personal "least-content"-favorite from last year. Usually I shoot much too tightly framed.</p>

Julie, I had never seen that one of Arbus's; and the towers/Meyerowitz photo and accompanying narration are very

moving. I, too, will say it again: great thread!

 

Laura, I'd say you had a successful day. That one is stunning.

<p>Amy, thank-you. It's a personal favorite.<br>

Gordon, Colin, those are wonderful.</p>

<p>Georg, after many years at sea, that shot really resonates.<br>

Julie, like Nick's shot, the Ada Barth photo tweaked my memory again...</p><div></div>

<p>I don't know if it's my favorite, but I do like it.</p>

<center><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/40/129475451_aeee6d4902_o.jpg" alt="" /></center>

<p>Undulations. Not really minimalist, but it is all the same object at least.</p><div></div>

<p>. . . .</p><div></div>

<p>Here's my top minimalist photograph:</p><div></div>

<p>Another one:</p><div></div>