Not Even a Stranger

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Photo By © Prakash Ghai 
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When you are on a journey for Art, you will mostly find a clear passage ahead(emptiness) of you, as shown in the photo above. It is hard to make your presence felt in this material world. If you are an artist and you choose to make a career in art, hardly anyone bothers. Everyone, wants you to be a part of the rat race they are running. The moment they spot you doing something different, they pull away. Although, some people do support art, but they are very few in numbers. You may find "Not even a stranger" in your journey in the early years. People may start to trickle in and offer support, once you start making some money via art. Otherwise, it is a lonely world out there. But my question is, Does art needs to be validated via money? Any why, despite it being such divine in nature, it is not supported by most people? 

Leave your views in the comments. I look forward to hearing them.

Back to the photo. The camera is in a vertical position and most lines are kept close to 90 degrees. This is something I always stress on and take care of. The horizontal lines may not follow a similar rule and be 180 degrees always. But they still somehow manage to look OK. But, the vertical ones must be 90 degrees(with room for exceptions of course). This is a Multi-layer shot, taken at a high aperture. Always try and avoid shorter depth of fields in Minimalist Photos, as a fully sharp shot enhances the visual appeal in a much better way, and look more relate-able. Sometimes, shorter depth of field photos also work especially if the elements are kept to a minimum, in macro photography.

Omnipresent Geometry

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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Opposite to the Jharkhand Mahadev Temple in Vaishali Nagar, there are a few bright colored houses. These houses are inhabited by the workers working in the temple. There is an area right opposite the front gate of the temple, where pigeons are fed. Usually, one would find at least 200-300 pigeons there. The visual arrangement that you see in the picture below, is right above that pigeon area. I visually connected the front wall, added the metal diagonal coming in from the right and placed the pink house in the background, along with its unfinished brick wall neighbor. It is a very tricky composition and I had to crop out a lot from the original photo. Like for example on the bottom right, there was face of a girl painted in black, that was a spoiler and hence I removed it. All that you now see in the frame with focus is Simple Geometry. It is everywhere. So many lines and simple geometric shapes. I also wanted to keep the colors to a minimum and I think the photo would even looked better without the vertical blue line, right under the metal diagonal coming in from the right. 

What do you think? Should the blue line be there?

Sensuous Lips

Minimalism as Parts of the Whole

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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I recently got a chance to shoot Ayushi. She is a stylist and a model herself. I wanted to try something new, so I decided to move really close to her. That closeness, gave me this face crop idea.

To begin with, I decided to focus on her lips and tried to make it my only subject/element in the frame. I cropped out everything else. But that appeared too boring and mundane to me when I reviewed the shot on the camera screen. Therefore, I decided to include some extra elements in the frame. Those elements were a) the line of her nose and b) the curve of her chin. 

Once I got the shot, I knew, this would be heading straight into the "Parts of the Whole Minimalism" category on my blog. While editing the photo, I added some de-focus on the nose and chin area. This helped me put a stronger emphasis on the lips. The sensuality part, i.e. the expressions, was well taken care of by Ayushi, as she has had decent modelling exposure in the past.

The composition is relatively simple. I cropped Ayushi's face to about 1/3rd of the whole and added lots of negative space to the left. Extreme close-up shots do require some bit of skin touch-up. That some bit of skin-fixing took me about half an hour. 

Hope you enjoyed the shot. Please leave your feedback. Thank You.

Must Read:

• Types of Minimalism
  
  
• What is Minimalist Photography?
  
  
• 5 Minimalist Photos that Depict Less is More
  
  
• Exhibitions

Criss Cross

Minimalism as Simple Geometry 

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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Light Shadow Minimalist Photography with Fabric Rolls in Jaipur

This shot was taken on a Sunday afternoon, at Jawahar Kala Kendra yet again, as it is one of my favorite hangouts in Jaipur city. I am usually there for Coffee and to meet the umpteen talented and creative individuals. One would usually find theater artists, visual arts students, photographers, videographers, painters, writers, poets, fashion designers, product designers, philosophers, some enlightened beings and  minimalists like me there. 

We all inter-mingle and exchange thoughts over coffee or lemon tea. The vibes are so creative and the experience is one of its kind. I particularly like talking to this one friend of mine, Astha Sharma, who is like my spiritual guide. We discuss a lot of philosophy and spiritualism and I am always surprised by her knowledge. She also likes minimalist dressing, and her general sense of fashion is very good.

Many a times I find myself discussing Minimalism in fashion with her & that really helps in understanding the genre as a whole. This particular arrangement of the cushions and the lines in the background, was done by Aman Bhaiya(also a photographer), Astha Sharma and Ayushi for a casual photo-shoot of theirs. I picked upon the arrangement once they were done.

I knew I had my Minimal shot waiting for me. Simple Geometry is always way more appealing than other forms of Minimalism. especially when it is more about lines. Well, something about geometry you see. Also, I always jump quickly onto anything that involves light and shadow. The composition has been kept simple and a touch of intricacy has been added by making the lines criss cross. 

The other notable detail is that the out of focus lines i.e the cushion lines, are coming in from the left and the in-focus lines come in from the right or opposite directions, and that is the highlight of the photo.

Must Read:

• Types of Minimalism
  
  
• What is Minimalist Photography?
  
  
• 5 Minimalist Photos that Depict Less is More

Future Plans

Minimalism as Less Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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There is a popular theory doing the rounds these days. "Living in the Now". 

It says, that one should neither think of (or be in) the past nor he/she should ponder or bother too much about the future. One should just live in the present moment. Like for example, while I am writing this post, my focus should entirely be on the post and nowhere else. One should stay with a single thought at a time or a single activity. I did try this approach out and it helped me bring down my stress levels. 

But, there is a problem with this approach. What about the future? I mean, is it still possible to plan for a future and work towards the achievement of that goal despite "living in the now"? A plan is something via which, you try and force an outcome sometime in the future. The results, may or may not be as expected. Expectations, generally cause insecurity and therefore produce way too many thoughts in the mind. 

My question is this, if one chooses to live moment to moment or in the now, can he still plan for the future? If yes, the then how does this theory integrate the planning/goal setting aspect?.

Lets get back to the photo. It reminds me of the conversation I had with my uncle from US, on future plans. He asked me this, "Where do you see yourself 5 years from now. What is your plan?" and my answer to him was a question in return, "Can you say for sure, that you will wake up tomorrow morning, forget about the future.?" He was surprised by my answer and I further added in response, "I can only work hard, and that is all. I have not seen the future, nor it is under my control. If I start believing, that I have some control over it, that is as good as having an illusion. The unexpected always happens and that's what life is all about. If, it can be predicted or steered the way you want to, it cant be termed Life." 
Note: to some extent you do play a part in affecting your life, but that is very minuscule. 

So these posters are like those future plans, that mostly never work out and therefore are torn.
The shot as you see, has been composed from a side angle, that I usually prefer. The blue back of the green poster made me choose this poster from the many available, as it gave me an interesting color palette. Also, everything is kept pretty sharp in the frame. It is very tempting to use a shallow depth of field on such angles but in Minimalist Photography, keeping everything sharp is most ideal. And next time, I will try and choose a neutral language on the poster( like English) rather than a regional one.


Note: Do check my sales website prakash-ghai.pixels.com
I sell my photos via the Pixels.com USA tie-up. Photos are printed in the US and they ship worldwide.