Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography • Hacker News Board

Re: Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography

#11

Post by msutherl » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 9:52 PM UTC

lsdafjklsd wrote: post #8

Minimalism != Simple This is a highly stylistic aesthetic, and the 'technique' seems gimicky. For better photographs, learn the basics of compositions and how color / size influence weight in a picture. Two hours with this book and you will be most of the way there! http://www.amazon.com/Design-Basics-Index-Jim-Krause/dp/1581...

Indeed these photos and the techniques are gimmicky – basically amateur/advertising-level work, or a kind of soulless copy of mid-20th century minimalism. If you want to take good photographs, study actual fine artists, not blogs. Stay away from Flickr. Follow actual contemporary artists on Instagram. However, if you want to make backdrops for hipster startup home pages, then by all means.

Some resources:

- any 'History of Western Art' book

- any 'History of Photography' book

- http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/category/exhibitions/

- http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/photography/

- http://www.art21.org/artists

- http://www.vvork.com/

Re: Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography

#12

Post by wtracy » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 10:11 PM UTC

The very second photo--the one of the stairs--I instantly wanted to re-crop. I want to crop it in a portrait format with the side walls almost if not completely removed.

I agree with the other commentors who question the decision to call these images "minimalist".

Re: Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography

#13

Post by aaronbrethorst » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 10:15 PM UTC

The headline made me think I was going to read something about cell phone photography, or maybe carrying around a 35mm film camera loaded with a roll of black and white film. But, instead, the word "minimalist" is being used to describe considerations you should have with every photograph you make. And the photos are not what I'd select to demonstrate the concepts described.

Re: Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography

#14

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 10:28 PM UTC

msutherl wrote: post #11

lsdafjklsd wrote: post #8

Minimalism != Simple This is a highly stylistic aesthetic, and the 'technique' seems gimicky. For better photographs, learn the basics of compositions and how color / size influence weight in a picture. Two hours with this book and you will be most of the way there! http://www.amazon.com/Design-Basics-Index-Jim-Krause/dp/1581...

Indeed these photos and the techniques are gimmicky – basically amateur/advertising-level work, or a kind of soulless copy of mid-20th century minimalism. If you want to take good photographs, study actual fine artists, not blogs. Stay away from Flickr. Follow actual contemporary artists on Instagram. However, if you want to make backdrops for hipster startup home pages, then by all means. Some resources: - any 'Hist…

Do you have some Instagram usernames of good photographers?

Re: Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography

#15

Post by jchrome » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 10:39 PM UTC

msutherl wrote: post #11

lsdafjklsd wrote: post #8

Minimalism != Simple This is a highly stylistic aesthetic, and the 'technique' seems gimicky. For better photographs, learn the basics of compositions and how color / size influence weight in a picture. Two hours with this book and you will be most of the way there! http://www.amazon.com/Design-Basics-Index-Jim-Krause/dp/1581...

Indeed these photos and the techniques are gimmicky – basically amateur/advertising-level work, or a kind of soulless copy of mid-20th century minimalism. If you want to take good photographs, study actual fine artists, not blogs. Stay away from Flickr. Follow actual contemporary artists on Instagram. However, if you want to make backdrops for hipster startup home pages, then by all means. Some resources: - any 'Hist…

If I seriously wanted to learn about photography, I wouldn't look at instagram (over-saturation, higher contrast... in other words, a lack of subtlety). That sounds much more akin to backdrops for hipster startup home pages and blogs.

If I wanted to take good photographs, I would practice photography a whole lot. Then read a little bit. Then practice a whole lot. Then read a little bit.

Reading about photography can never match the practice of photography (but it can help... a little bit). I would also shoot film (many in photography school talk about the "film mindset"). You need to believe that your photos are a limited resource and therefore save each shot for the best moments. "Spraying and praying" with digital rarely comes out with anything good.

And now for some shameless self promotion: www.stillthrill.com

Re: Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography

#16

Post by jchrome » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 10:41 PM UTC

keithpeter wrote: post #5

Nice pictures, but these are highly constructed. Have a look at William Christenberry's Box Brownie photographs [1] (and his subsequent models of the buildings). Also Tartovksy's [2] and Evans' [3] Polaroid photos. Not Tartovsky's portraits but the building details. I imagine it is a question of definitions. Meta: trying to pass on a Google Image search string results in epic URLs. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q…

I agree. I was disappointed that they emphasized minimalism with light, shadow, composition etc but then made these photos to look heavily post-processed. Much too much contrast here.

Re: Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography

#17

Post by jayvanguard » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 10:53 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #14

msutherl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed these photos and the techniques are gimmicky – basically amateur/advertising-level work, or a kind of soulless copy of mid-20th century minimalism. If you want to take good photographs, study actual fine artists, not blogs. Stay away from Flickr. Follow actual contemporary artists on Instagram. However, if you want to make backdrops for hipster startup home pages, then by all means. Some resources: - any 'Hist…

Do you have some Instagram usernames of good photographers?

http://instagram.com/joemcnallyphoto/

I assume that is just where he posts some fun throw-away pics.

Re: Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography

#18

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 10:57 PM UTC

jayvanguard wrote: post #17

StavrosK wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have some Instagram usernames of good photographers?

http://instagram.com/joemcnallyphoto/ I assume that is just where he posts some fun throw-away pics.

Thanks!

Re: Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography

#19

Post by neumann » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:05 PM UTC

Most of these seem like classic stock photos. They are certainly technically competent, but the collection (and the instructions) are more about style than the art of minimalism.

Then again, a blog would be hard pressed to teach the art.

For inspiration and a guide, I prefer to browse through collections of great photographers than from random flickr users. For this I love sites like http://triangletriangle.com, which often features photographers that are excellent at minimalist composition.

Re: Keep it Simple – A Guide to Minimalist Photography

#20

Post by localhost » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 11:09 PM UTC

A photographer friend of mine once told me that "photography is the art of subtraction". Some on this thread may argue that the reference to minimalism in the title of the blog post is not accurate. However, when compared to the vast majority of photos that you see "real people" create, they could almost always benefit from some of the ideas shown in this post.

Edit: some really great ideas about photography can be found in Galen Rowell's excellent Inner Game of Outdoor Photography collection of essays.