The positives of negative space

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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This is a Look-up shot, taken on the streets from a side angle. The cut in the wall got highlighted in bold due to its shadow during the afternoon, thanks to the bright hot Sun. I zoomed right in from about a distance of 50 feet odd and placed to cut on the extreme left, leaving negative space on the right. Negative space Minimalism with singular subjects is the best example of Minimalism as Less Elements. Tough to edit but I think I managed it pretty well. The wall was yellow to begin with but when I tried it in monochrome, it looked much better.

The image here is used to convey an important message, and the is message is "Less clutter = Less Stress" and thus a more peaceful and calm state of mind. I have titled it "The positives of Negative Space" where negative space is the space created by doing away with the unused, unwanted or the unnecessary and the focus stays therefore, solely on what is important. For example, you have 30 mobile applications on your cellphone but you only use 5 of them actively. The ideal thing to do then is to remove the unwanted 25 apps from your phone or in other words de-clutter. You would hence get less irritated and would use your phone in some limits. This is just one example.

Similarly, you can do away with the unwanted clothes that you have in your wardrobe. You can also remove furniture that is used rarely from your room as well. So that way you can create some negative or empty space visually and get accustomed to it. This could well be a precursor for actual meditation of the mind. Some people are just not used to "No Thoughts". They think a lot and therefore they are never able to meditate. Once they get used to some open empty space in real life they would feel a bit more comfortable with lesser thoughts in their minds to begin with and eventually None. Meditation has huge benefits and they are very well known to everyone.

Behind the Door of Jealousy

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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Last Sunday I was out with a few of my friends to Gaurav Towers, a big shopping complex in Jaipur to roam around and have some food. I was there a little early. I parked my bike and hung the camera on my neck. I spotted some big posters on the walls and my eyes just lit up. I thought, today was the day to try that "connecting expressions in posters or text written on posters to people on the street" kind of photography. I walked around and found that the posters that were available were either too high or they did not have anything interesting written them. My excitement just nosedived and I put the lens cap back on my camera.

Suddenly a food truck arrived. It was painted with bright orange and green colors. The colors were so vibrant that I could not stop myself from clicking a few Minimalist shots. This knob was placed right at the center of the big green exit door at the back of the food truck. The shot was simple, I just placed the metal knob on the left and left a lot of negative to the right and at the bottom. I captured this using the 50mm 1.8 prime lens. Prime lenses retain a lot of color and are usually sharp. The message what I want to convey through this picture is that "Behind the Door of Jealousy lies Truth & Opportunity". Yes, I really mean "Truth". What happens is that when you are jealous, you tend to stay away from or ignore the person you are jealous with. Not wanting to find out how he/she really is, and what is your real reason for jealousy. Are you only imagining things? Have you made any effort to find out the truth? And why I mean "Opportunity", is that when you are jealous of someone rich and more successful, rather than ignoring that person, one should talk to him/her and try of find out and learn from them as to how they achieved their success.