Together Yet Apart

Minimalism as Simple Geometry 

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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Some relationships are strange, difficult, stagnant and not easy to manage. You are both in and out of love at the same time. Together, but miles apart. It is a strange feeling and you just cant do anything about it. You are helpless. You can only sit at the shore and admire the beauty of the sea and its waves from far away, but you can not walk-in for a dip like you used to do before. 

Of course the relationship began with a big bang, loads of love and care but now there is a "constant gap" in the relationship. You both came to know how different you are from each other and that you have very different habits, friends, and views on life. You've just stumbled upon the "compatible yet incompatible" stage of the relationship.

Neither of you have created the distance in the relationship but it is there and is a constant one. You have "not fought" but you don't talk much either. You've realized that the feel and charm of the relationship is over. You neither want to end it, nor do you want to let it continue. You are still friends but "only friends on paper", you are more of an acquaintance now.

Such a relationship is being depicted here by two parallel lines(that never meet) created by the traditional Indian plastic clotheslines(ropes) used to dry clothes out in the open here in India.  

Composition

The photo uses "Simple Geometry" as a base. i.e Lines and the Black Triangle. The lines would have been boring to look at, if I would have kept them at 180 degrees. Keeping them at a slight upward tilt adds some sense of motion to the shot. The viewers eyes are almost lead out of the frame to the right by the parallel lines but are brought right back into it by the masculine shadow of the triangle going just the opposite way. 

Other Minimalist Photos using Clothesline as a Subject:

 

• Knot in a Relationship

• The Lucky Shirt

• Loose Ends

• Middle Class

The Lucky Shirt

Minimalism as Less Elements

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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Green shirt hanging on a clothesline against a weathered orange wall in Jaipur, minimalist color photography by Prakash Ghai

I was walking along a busy street in Jaipur with my camera when I spotted this shirt drying on a clothesline on the footpath. A group of nomads lived right there, just a plastic tent over their heads and life on the busy street rushing past them. I almost walked past the subejct at first but then the color palette was too good to ignore. The green against that orange wall was a perfect minimalist frame and palette that would add some novelty to my portfolio.

I have been shooting minimalist photos for years and these accidental stops are still the ones I remember the most. The planned walks to Jawahar Kala Kendra or Jantar Mantar, those hit different than these unplanned ones.

I moved in a bit closer to the green shirt and got rid of everything else around it. Fewer elements in the frame means more weight on the primary subject. That is the core logic of minimalism and which is why it works every single time.

How I Composed This Minimalist Photo

The weathered orange wall behind the shirt was doing half the work already. I did not need to manufacture a striking background for contrast. The texture was already there, along with the warmth. I let the metal clothesline enter the frame diagonally from the top left and allowed the shirt to take place on the right side. 

The shirt was still partially wet and that made the color from a darker green at the top of the sleeve to a lighter shade toward its bottom. That gradation gave the frame depth without adding extra elements. Less is more, even in the way a fabric dries.

I kept the shirt as the sole isolated subject with the wall filling everything behind it. Negative space was not the main goal here, I wanted to highligh the shirt. Sometimes in minimalist photography you fill the frame and still keep it minimal. This time I did it by being close to the subject but not too close.

Other Minimalist Photos using Clothesline as a Subject: 

• Middle Class

• Knot in a Relationship

• Loose Ends

• Together Yet Apart