Your favorite photo that has the least content

<p>I'd like to see examples of photographs that you really like that have almost nothing in them -- with explanation for why you like them, if you care to say so. If not, just a link will do. Pictures may be by others or may be your own. If the latter, please feel free to post them in the thread.</p>

<p>For example, here [ <strong><a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/steinmetz_catspaws.jpg">LINK</a></strong> ] is one of my favorites, by Mark Steinmetz. First of all, he gets big bonus points for succeeding (IMO) in making a fine-art cat photograph. But besides that, for me this picture totally evokes, not so much cat essence as what cats in turn evoke when I'm watching them. A whiff of the supernatural ...</p>

<p>That from a tiny bit of anatomy on top of a (perfectly composed) innocuous background -- that actually makes no sense (what is that crack? If it's a door, it seems to be nailed shut).</p>

<p>I'd love to see your examples with or without comment. The less content, the better -- but you have to claim/believe that your choice is really good photo.</p>

<p>Great suggestion Julie. That's my concepts of photography.<br>

Whatever you believe to see, it is sure not to be the subject, intended by the photographer. Photos without "stories to tell" and yet photos, that, as I see them, are way more filled with content that makes your mind fly.<br>

Most of my favorites are obviously abstract with no clearly identifiable connection to the world as we see it. Others are indeed figurative, showing items of reality, if you look carefully, but which are presented in such a way that the seen reality is of little importance - something else is happening like in this one: "<a href="/photo/15100755">house of cards"</a> or in the one below</p><div></div>

<p>I'm kind of a minimalist and am drawn to photos like this one by <a href="http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/lange/dor12-101.htm">Dorothea Lange</a>. <br /><br /> This is one my own favorites:</p><div></div>

<p>Not sure what influence I derived from this shot of my local park's sink lit by 10 AM sun light but it just captivated me by its surreal clarity and simplicity that I nearly got exhausted and sunburned rattling off quite a few shots taken at different angles.</p>

<p>I know I've seen this before in some long forgotten coffee table book of illustrations and photographs back in the early '80's but this is the sort of minimalist design in nature I'm drawn to.</p><div></div>

<p>I've always enjoyed this one but never found anyone else that cared one way or the other. Perhaps it's because I was actually there. Looking at it takes me back to that warm, damp morning, alone, days from home, living out of my van with just my dog for company. I can still hear the silence and smell the damp. </p><div></div>

I think all photos have roughly the same amount of content but I think I know what you mean<div></div>

<p>I enjoy photos with a minimal number of compositional elements, as opposed to minimal content. Distilling a composition down to a few essential elements is often more difficult than successfully arranging a plethora of elements within the frame. This is one of my current favorites.</p><div></div>

<p>While I was sitting at a red light, I saw this shot of raindrops across the parking lot of an auto parts store. I cropped it a bit to include a part of only one vehicle and a fire plug beside a metal post--as well as the rain drops which had originally caught my eye.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p><div></div>

<p> </p>

<p>These are wonderful! More! More!</p>

<p>Ellis wrote: "I think all photos have roughly the same amount of content but I think I know what you mean."</p>

<p>: ) Kind of like the Avedon quote about surfaces that gets trotted out every ten minutes online ("My photographs don’t go below the surface. They don’t go below anything ... "). As if the camera ever did anything else.</p>

<p>Tim, your picture reminds me of this picture [ <strong><a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/evans_washbowl.jpg">LINK</a></strong> ] of Walker Evans's wash basin. The note that you can see in the picture reads: "Please do not disturb the arrangement of the beer caps in the wash bowl."</p>

<p>Attached is a minimalist image I entered in the annual Nikon Photo Contest & Nikon published the image for the month of December in their Nikon Photo Contest International Calendar. The squiggly red line is a light on a boat traversing the Barbour in Charleston, SC. Nikon FM2 and 105 f2.5 lens steadied on a battery post.</p><div></div>

<p>Like many photographers who live in San Francisco, I have tons of photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge. These photos, and the ones that appear in books, postcards, on the web, in advertisements for the city, and tour guides give a complete misrepresentation of what The Bridge (as we call it locally, nobody will confuse The Bridge with that other bridge here) looks like much of the time. This is a photo, one of my favorites, of The Bridge as I have seen it on many days.</p>

<center><img src="http://spirer.com/images/ggfog.jpg" alt="" width="645" height="474" /></center>

<p>Socked in. Very nice, Jeff.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

<p><img src="http://graphic-fusion.com/phsnowytrees1sm.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Two dogwoods on the Yorktown battlefield one winter.</p>

<center>

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<img src= "http://www.citysnaps.net/2014%20Photos/Alcatraz%20Bound.jpg"><BR>

<i>

Alcatraz Bound • San Francisco • ©Brad Evans 2014

</i>

<P>

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</center>

<p>My favourite is Eva Rubintein's 'Bed in Mirror' (1972).</p>

<p> </p>

<p>If you take a print of Jeff Spirer's photo, fold it horizontally in two, crease it sharply, then unfold it, you get a Sugimoto seascape. © Julie H <<< <em>conceptual art</em></p>

<p>The above posted examples are wonderful (I know, I already said that ...). I love this kind of photography.</p>

<p>More examples from Famous Photographers. I'm leaving aside the abstract/minimal kind of picture that works mainly as a visual exercise/puzzle, even though I <em>love</em> that kind of thing. I have reason to believe that many people ... don't. With that in mind, here are two from Roy DeCarava. [ <strong><a href="https://d1ycxz9plii3tb.cloudfront.net/auction_lots/51cfefc1d0c2ebe3ff000b9f/2/original.jpg">LINK</a></strong> ] and [ <strong><a href="http://www2.gwu.edu/~art/Temporary_SL/ah197/ah197_htmls/chap15/images/15p_decarva_jpg.jpg">LINK></a></strong> ] DeCarava is just an amazing photographer. If you're not familiar with his work, (good lord!) you are in for a treat!</p>

<p>Next, two from Aaron Siskind. He seems to be sinking rapidly out of sight in photo history, though in his day, he was considered a giant. First, here [ <strong><a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/siskind_badlands.jpg">LINK</a></strong> ] is his <em>Badlands</em> (South Dakota) which really suffers in reproduction since you don't get the necessary grassiness of the grass counterpoint.</p>

<p>Second example from Siskind is <em>Villahermosa (Olmec)</em> [ <strong><a href="http://unrealnature.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/siskind_olmec.jpg">LINK</a></strong> ]. When you first look at this one, you'll probably think 'I've seen zillions just like that' but look at it more carefully and notice how carefully this one is composed; how expressive it manages to be. Every little detail is an intentional player in a Siskind picture. (And yes, the dead-black is supposed to be dead-black. Dead-black was his favorite color -- and it's one of mine. I wish more people would get over the detail-at-all-costs aversion to velvety, committed, full-bodied black.)</p>

<p>Niagara Falls simplified.</p>

<p><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8368/8599817224_8550a162e8_z.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" /></p>

<p> </p>

<p>One of mine from years ago on B&W film. The hedge marks the horizon.</p><div></div>

<p>I've hovered my finger over the delete button more than once on this one...</p><div></div>

<p><br /> New moon over the Palouse. Fall harvest and smoke from nearby forest fires make for lousy visibility, but good shooting.</p>

<p>Let's try for the picture this time!<br>

New moon over the Palouse. Fall harvest and smoke from nearby forest fires make for lousy visibility, but good shooting.</p><div></div>

<p>Empty Breezeway 2006</p>

<p>--Lannie</p><div></div>

<p>Nick, your sunset shot reminded me of this one of mine...</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks Lannie. I love minimalism. I even perform John Cage's 4'33' while shooting outdoors to enhance the experience.</p>