Minimalist Photography with Judy Hancock Holland

hi and welcome to this presentation on minimalist photography I'm Judy Hancock Holland and I am a photographer living on Vancouver Island in British Columbia Canada I am a retired teacher and do a lot of presentations for different camera clubs on minimalist photography and thought I would try doing this as a webinar so welcome and let's get started minimalism can be a very powerful approach in photography and I will share a number of examples from my own work and talk about how you can get started exploring minimalism even if it turns out not to be your thing I believe that experimenting with minimalism will help you to become a better photographer because it will improve how you see and learning to see better is always a good thing so what is minimalism well according to Wikipedia the term minimalist refers to anything that is spare or stripped to its essentials it emerged in the visual arts in the 1960s in minimalist photography then our goal is to capture the essence or soul of our subject it means that we strip away everything that doesn't contribute to this essence in the frame the subject might not even be an object or a scene it might be a feeling in this image West Coast blues the feeling of peace and calm is really the subject I was a poet before I was a photographer and to me they're very similar the most powerful expressions in poetry are often found in the fewest words and minimalism is similarly powerful in photography getting rid of distractions in the frame can be thought of like the Marie Kondo approach to decluttering a home if it doesn't spark joy or serve a function get rid of it that's always a good idea in photography but in minimalism we carry this to an extreme sometimes we break some rules to do that like here where I have disembodied hands that's something you normally don't do in a photograph but in this instance I think it works this image gives me a feeling of calm expectation when I see it it feels warm and inviting to me this is what I want to control communicate to my viewer now we can't control how our viewer responds because they bring their own experience to the viewing of the image if they had a traumatic experience in a coffee shop with orange walls like this they will a very different response to the image than what I intended this is true in any type of photography but it's up to us to communicate as clearly as we possibly can with our visual images the world is a very bustling busy stimulating place in fact it's very over stimulating a lot of the time those of us who embrace minimalism and photography often find a sense of peace and respite in both creating and viewing minimalist images that's part of the appeal the practice is quite meditative as we seek to see and capture simple elegance amidst are visually busy world it provides a place for the eye and the spirit to rest you can do it anywhere with any kind of camera even your phone and it will help you to see better and translate into better photography generally done well it can evoke emotion so pay attention to that David do Chi Minh has said the photograph is the very expression of that inner thing bursting to get out and that's true in many forms of photography but particularly in minimalism how do you go about trying out minimalism well first of all think about your intention look very closely at your subject identify specifically what you're drawn to in the scene or the subject and the essence of what you're trying to say or capture what caught your attention specifically narrow it down as much as you can subtract until you have the essence when my son was growing up I would take him outside at the first strawberry of the season when it was ripe and ready to pick and I would exclude everything from his experience that wasn't strawberry to get to the full essence I would have him close his eyes feel the strawberry in his hand sniff it and get that and then when he was totally focused on the experience pop it into his mouth to get that burst of strawberry by working with minimalism in our images we're training ourselves to be visually sensitive just as I was helping him learn to be sensitive to his own senses so here is a scene that is in Victoria BC it's Fisherman's Wharf a very popular spot and I'm not suggesting there's anything particularly wrong with this kind of image but it's certainly not minimalism if you want to portray the busyness of a scene this type of shop in it shot is fine but there are hundreds literally hundreds of minimalist images hiding in plain sight in a scene like this so as I wandered around I had my eyes open for that the minimalism of this shot gives a totally different feeling from the full scene in the previous shot when you're in a busy place should the big picture if you're drawn to do so but also search for the minimalist images within it in fact wandering along the docks is a great place to shoot minimalism Leonardo da Vinci said simplicity is the ultimate sophistication we can see this not only in visual arts but also in fashion and home decor for example negative space can be a very effective tool in minimalism to add to the emotional impact of the image so have a look at this image and then we'll go on to what happens if we eliminate the negative space you can see that it feels very different without the negative space so think about not only the subject but also the space around your subject this shot is too cluttered to be considered minimalist it's kind of interesting but they do it but there are too many extraneous things in the frame taking your eye away from it by cropping in closer we can see much more of the essence of the subject this is what I was going for this is minimalist this says summer to me it makes me think of summers my teens at the lake composition becomes very important in minimalism you want visual balance between different parts of the frame here the larger space on the Left balances the color and light and center of interest in her legs and the doorway frames the subject here's another people example this is such a cluttered image shot under very bad conditions I had no option to move or to move my subject I wanted to capture something that really communicates who this is the cross on the wall helped but that's what there's way too much going on in this shot so I took another shot this shot to me says something about this person it's an image her family resonates with and will take comfort in for years flowers are one of my favorite subjects this is a nice enough image of an amaryllis and I'd minimize distractions to a fairly great extent but this seems much more powerful to me this draws my attention so much more we respond not only to what we see but to what we feel when we look at an image when I look at this I feel much more than I do when I look at the previous image and I like how I feel that's a sign that at least for me this is a strong image I love to go over into the Gulf Islands to shoot and there are lots of things to keep us happy there as photographers while this is an uncluttered image and someone engaging with the bike to suggest a story it's not minimalism watch for the minimalist shots look for light shadow form curves this is fairly minimalist but I worked with it even more how close you crop in preferably in-camera has to do with your personal aesthetic ask what drew you to take the image in the first place and get specific about that it approaches an abstract look when you eliminate more of the context curves light shadow form scale those all come into it here there's no scale this could be an aerial photograph taken from a plane it's actually not it's simply some rocks on a beach minimalism can often lead us into the realm of the abstract this image is pretty much pure lines curved light and form it's very abstract it has a powerful simplicity this image is very similar in capturing just a very simple set of lines and curves and light I love to shoot ballroom dance competitions and that can get quite challenging there are lots of people on the floor and in the background there's motion there's variable lighting it can be a challenge this would not be a minimalist photograph and not even a photograph I'm particularly happy with my approach when I go to one of these competitions is to shoot minimalism to capture the essence and the emotion this is getting a little closer because there are fewer distractions but by going to a minimalist approach I've captured the motion and the passion more of the spirit of the dance in this case less really is more and an additional advantage to this kind of shooting is you don't need a model release Ansel Adams said a great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels in the deepest sense about what is being photographed I find that minimalism often helps me capture the feeling I had in the moment I took the image you want to show not just what did it look like you want to show what did it feel like this one I call demure it has a different feeling to it here we see the graceful interaction of male and female here there's more of the passion and the movement involved and here different emotions again I call this one Fred and Ginger revisited here's a similar shot with a different kind of activity here I've been able to capture some of the dynamic and the feeling of the action and again I don't need a model release for this kind of because the person isn't recognizable another place I like to shoot his car shows and museums and they're very difficult to shoot in because of all the distracting elements there are other people around other cars so I look for the minimalist image that captures the essence I loved Duesenberg cars but this photo doesn't do it for me so I looked around a little more and did a more minimalist approach taken to the extreme like here you also end up with that abstract or semi abstract kind of image similarly this was shot at a car show and this says t-bird or Thunderbird to me more than a shot of the whole car for you t-bird fans here's another one very much says t-bird to me I took this portrait of a cellist several years ago when I first got started with photography and it's okay I know I shouldn't have cut her foot off but I was learning but several years later I had a chance to shoot the same cellist again and this one has much more power to me the previous image is an image of a cellist and this one is more an image about a cellist aim for images that are about the subject and for the essence of your subject similarly here's an image of an eagle not a bad image but this one is much more about an eagle and I got that feeling that essence by reducing what was in the frame and simplifying my composition here's an image about a rainy day it conveys a feeling here's an image of a hummingbird not a particularly great one but it's an image of a hummingbird but where's the essence the essence of a hummingbird to me is delicacy so capture the delicacy here's a a rusty old truck I love these kinds of things there are many many potential minimalist images here in this truck and the scene around it this one is more about the rusty old truck I can feel the texture and I have a sense of a calloused hand reaching for that door handle similarly here I remember on old farm trucks how they would scrape the side of the of the truck as they went by and that that's captured here because of the minimalism because of what I didn't put in the frame here's an image that is not mentalist although I have tried to eliminate distractions it shows the lighthouse in context and there's nothing wrong with that but here's a minimalist image with no context but the essence is there the solidity of the structure and the loneliness of a lighthouse keeper's life suggested by that soul window the texture is there the form is there the light is there and the feeling is there this is a relatively uncluttered image of a bridge but this is a much more minimalist image about that same bridge I like the feeling of reverence and peace and awe inside a church particularly an empty church that hush that you get and that's the essence I'm going for in this shoot this in the next two images we're all shot in the same Chapel this one has some of that feeling but it's not quite there for me I think those feelings are captured better here in this more minimalist shot or even here I debated about taking that scratch out on the Pew but to me it has something to say about the fact that people go there all the time and things do get used and beaten up a little bit each one of these images feels a little different to me ask yourself how well does my image capture the feeling I experienced with the subject the blue-nose - in Lunenburg Nova Scotia is crawling with tourists most of the time and even without them the ship itself is so big and it has a lot of detail I've had the experience of standing on the dock on the deck of a tall wooden ship as the fail sails fill with air and the ship comes alive under my feet that's a wonderful feeling this shot of the sail for me gets at the essence and something of the feeling of a big wooden ship ready for adventure at sea in contrast this minimalist image gives me the feeling of safe peaceful harbor and rest this is a decent portrait of this lady but it doesn't evoke much feeling in me as someone who doesn't know her well to me this one same lady has much more feeling and essence to it it's a photo about her rather than of her while this is not a photo of a couple it is about couple 'no sand solidarity there's so much in this photo emotionally it could be considered a minimalist portrait of a working man's life i call it working boots this conveys the subject the Orcas off the coast of Vancouver Island in its context and there's nothing wrong with that I quite like this photo and I've sold several prints of it however if we want to get more to the essence this one is pared down just to the essentials this has a different feeling for me it also tends to make nice business cards posters etc when you need to have text if you have something like this that is minimalist and has some negative space in it so here's the business card that I made using that particular image here I used depth of field as well as negative space to draw attention to the petals the feeling is a gentle kind of brokenness the inevitability of impermanence comes through in a minimalist image like this this our niche I called some stay some go it's a minimalist image and it conveys a message but you can play with them in minimalist image even when you've got it down to what you think is the essence so here is one look and one feeling and here's another look from the same image this is even more minimalist I think this one has much more of a lonely feeling on aloneness feeling here's a minimalist image that conveys connection and intergenerational connection a woman and her great-granddaughter we see lots of images of fall leaves come autumn and I quite like this but do we really look at belief minimalism captures the subject in such a way that we can't miss what the photographer was captured by I have a real sense of wonder and awe when I look at fall leaves and minimalism is a way that I can communicate that to a viewer so just looking at the subject in detail and getting rid of everything else that is not subject this is a relatively uncluttered image depth of field has been used to throw a somewhat busy background out of focus but this really doesn't do a thing for me I kept working with those poppies this one to me pairs away what is not the essence it has a very different feeling similarly this poppy caught after the rain we've got rid of everything that is not subject my image making process starts when I get excited about something I see I actually feel my heart beat faster I can catch my breath and this image started when my sister held up a picture or held up a a dried anthurium blossom when we were on skype one day and I just asked when I saw it and I said oh my goodness I need to shoot that so she kindly gave me a bag full of dead flowers which is Joe in my circle of friends cuz I'm the dead flower lady and I want to share that beauty with my viewers because many people don't see these kinds of things I want them to see what I saw and to feel what I felt with minimalism there's no question about what I want you to notice in this image you'll see here that the light and the shadow and the textures and the shape drew me in because there's nothing else to draw your attention away from them sometimes the simplest images have the most Grace and such images give us a much-needed break from the over stimulation of our world when you have images like this on the walls in your home they provide a refuge a place for your eye to rest and your spirit to come I can also use minimalism to draw your attention to things that you may have seen many many times but never really noticed one of the highest compliments I receive is when somebody says to me your images have changed the way I see the world the stem of a tulip that's not what we usually look at when we see a tulip but it's beautiful in its own way the curves of a calla lily leaf I can shoot an agave plant in the desert and it's pretty ho-hum or I can use minimalism for a much more dramatic shot that really makes you look here you start to see what drew me in what captivated me here's a fairly minimalist image and yet when I think about what really drew me in I can go even more minimalist this is what caught my eye sometimes it's not a peaceful image we're going for minimalism can also be very dramatic I've eliminated everything but the flower here and yet when I worked more with it I found even more drama this image I've actually turned into a shower curtain people walk into the bathroom and they gasp when see this it's got such punch and power simply because it's minimalist we don't need to see the whole Daisy to get the essence of Daisy we don't need to see the whole elephant there's emotion here I feel really sad when I see this photograph and we can look at another part of the elephant this says elephant in a different way very different feeling there's emotion in minimalist images if they're done well this isn't a great award-winning photograph but I love it it always makes me smile to me this is the essence of a farm dog that unkempt fur with twigs I can almost smell its paws here's a portrait of aged weariness experience peacefulness all these things can be found in a minimalist photograph done well this is one of my favorite shots I call it grace and grit I find this a very powerful image conveying strength resiliency gentleness elegance and practicality all in one I feel tender and inspired when I look at this for me the full-body portrait would not have the same effect here's a fairly minimalist image of a tulip and by going even more minimalist I think I emphasize the feeling and the drama sometimes I can't get the essence of a blossom when I'm shooting it in context in a garden very often I'll take flowers indoors to isolate the essence without the distractions vintage cameras can be a lot of fun to shoot with this is the original Olympus om one which I coveted terribly back in the 1970s it was one of the very first small lightweight professional cameras on the market way out of my budget this is a fairly minimalist image if I go to this view this evokes more of the feeling for me of using an old film camera with its shutter speed aperture and depth of field scale on the lens and the dial for a si remember a si that predated ISO or ISO this image is more effective in taking me back to what it was like to shoot with film way back when I was in my early 20s when you're doing travel photography sure take the bigger shots in the popular shots but make sure to include some minimalist shots along with the wider ones here I've put a plant into the frame for scale this is shot in the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico but then I experimented and did one without that very minimalist this could be any size this could be very small or very large this is the famous church at Rancho de Taos New Mexico which was photographed by Ansel Adams and painted by Georgia O'Keeffe this I think is a good image I'm very happy with this one but there's still quite a bit to look at and I think that diminishes its power it's a relatively clean image but it's not a minimalist one whereas this is more of a minimalist image and has far more impact this one took a gold medal at a photo salon recently I think because it's minimalist and evokes some feeling my favorite images of that building were not the big picture images but the bolder more minimalist shots light and form are the subjects here and curves very simple simple compositions but there's a feeling of power in them Adobe churches are wonderful things to shoot and and they have lots of very minimalist opportunities here's a different Church in Santa Fe New Mexico Adobe architecture is so attractive to me with its texture and its curves and the way it showcases light so knowing that what I'm really drawn to is texture and curves and light I shoot specifically for those things when I turn to minimalism so here's a more much more minimalist image this is part of the Georgia O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe New Mexico this is pretty minimalist and I do quite like it but I also found two other minimalist images hiding within this image here's one and here's another one this is about as minimalist as you can get I visualized this one long before I went on my latest trip to New Mexico because what a lot of what New Mexico means to me is incredibly intense blue skies and warm Adobe that's all you get in this image here's another one of a sunlit adobe wall with just some shadows on it very simple this style of travel photography doesn't get the full scene but I love how it captures something of the soul of the place and of course you don't need to travel to practice this you can do it anywhere ask yourself what the essence of a place is and then shoot that I try to do the same thing with flowers I love calla lilies and I shoot them a lot they're graceful forms and curves just really do it for me so I try to capture those characteristics I've identified that its forms and curves I love so that's what I focus on so this is a fairly minimalist image already but I realized that this is what really drew me in this is a good example of where minimalism becomes semi-abstract you don't necessarily know what the subject is the subject becomes pure line form texture and light again fairly minimalist image but when I really narrow it down to the essence what drew me to take the photo this is what I come to this is what emerges we always want to get it right in camera so shoot the first one and then keep refining and shooting to try to get the essence can you see how much more powerful this one is subtracting anything that doesn't convey the essence of what you're loving in the subject is what you want to do sometimes that means getting rid of color because color is like that kid in class that always was going after the attention when you take it away you notice things that you didn't notice before I love the delicate structure here and you didn't even notice it likely in the color version yet sometimes color is an intrinsic part of the essence of what you're trying to capture of what drew you in so in that case keep it this is another example of when minimalism becomes semi-abstract this is simply a parrot tulip shot very close-up and then having a paint effect applied to it when I take a photo of a rose I try to take a photo of the aspects that drew me in once again curves light and texture so how can you get started well one of the things you can do is to set an intention to compose an image that is simple and powerful and captures the essence of your subject feel your way with this it'll take you a little while but have fun with it pay attention to the specifics of what speaks to you in any scene or subject ask yourself what specifically am i drawn to here don't wait until you have the camera in your hands they say it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery practice all the time when you don't have a camera we're often told to shoot every day but I think it's really much more important to really look and really see every day I don't shoot every day but I do try to pay attention to visuals to seeing and to identifying what I'm drawn to then when you do shoot keep practicing and see how you do because I know what moves me about calla lilies is their curves and form here I've used light too sculpt the curves and form and eliminated the color to distill the image down to the essence one way that you can get started is to try some extreme cropping on your existing work as a way to see differently just play with it they don't have to be usable images but go to some images that you have on your hard drive pull them up and see if you can do some extreme crops to identify what you could have shot and might shoot next time if you were going for more of a minimalist shot I cropped this quite severely in camera when I composed it and I would classify this as minimalism but afterwards when I was playing I cropped even more in post now I try to do more and more cropping in camera to eliminate everything that doesn't speak to the essence of the subject I still haven't decided which one of these two I prefer they both have strengths but now with my camera in hand I shoot closer and closer and closer and eliminate more and more in my frame to get what I want when I look back at this shot I see several other shots that I could have taken I had rented a cello for a month because I loved cellos and wanted to shoot it it turns out they're quite challenging to shoot because they're so glossy but there are several shots here that I wish I had taken and if I ever rent a cello again I'll be doing these so for example you can see I would take that I don't know whether you call it a fret board on a cello or not and I would take this part of the cello and this part each of those could stand alone as a very beautiful minimalist image this shot was taken from a bus that was stopped at a red light in Spokane Washington it's certainly not minimalist there's a lot going on here but as I look at this I can now identify a whole bunch of things that I could have shot so this is what I'm suggesting that you do with your images your old images go to them and identify and then next time you go to shoot look for these images within the image the scenes within the scene the more minimalist things that capture something engaging another advantage of a minimalist shot is that you can work it into something else quite easily it's a very minimalist high key portrait of a tulip this simple to look lent itself to some other treatments simply because it's simple so I was able to do this with it and this with it and even this because it was such a simple image to start with this is another mirrored shot but offset I love the chance to be creative like this using minimalist images as raw material for creative expression shooting simply like this enabled me to create an impactful image of an amaryllis bud I really like this shot but also to create a composite that makes a great print on canvas or metal just by putting a bunch of minimalist images together in a progression so have a look at this image which is certainly not minimalist what could you shoot in a minimalist style have a look around it do you see things that you could hone in on and make your subject that would be simple and powerful what about this one do you see things here that you could zoom in on walk up to and minimalize to make a more powerful statement what about a wedding a rodeo a fair a music festival a farmers market almost everywhere you go has opportunities for you to capture minimalism if you simply form the intention and pay attention practice seeing like this in everyday life even if you don't end up doing a lot of minimalist photography it will help you see better then get out your camera and start with your normal shot and then subtract feel your way have one with it start with this kind of shot if there if you're drawn to that when you see this shoot it but also shoot this and also this keep distilling things down it's not that less is always better but it is different and you might like it better especially if you compose with care to isolate the essence of your subject have you ever noticed how when you invite people to a photo exhibit they're not very excited my brother came to my first photo exhibit bless him out of the goodness of his heart yet when you show people something so simple so elegant so different from what they expect it really wakes them up my brother brought his son to that exhibit because he was so astonished that he had never seen things like this before and he's seen lots of poppies in his life but he hadn't seen them this way minimalism is one way that you can wake people up wake the viewer up get their attention not everybody is gonna like it and they're not gonna like any other approach either but if it speaks to you go for it you might surprise yourself and so I want to leave you with three rules of minimalism I urge you to keep these in mind and use them as you shoot here they are simplify simplify simplify thanks for joining me on my first webinar and I hope you'll join me on others in the future

Channel: Judy Hancock Holland

Views: 125,676

Rating: 4.9561982 out of 5

Keywords: photography, minimalism, minimalist, art

Id: cD0umiEO-0c

Length: 36min 55sec (2215 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2020