Negative Space

Bob Carnie · Jan 23, 2010

I am going to be visiting a University Photography program to judge a students project on Negative Space in a couple of weeks.
I think of Avedon's use of negative space in his fashion portraits.
He seemed to surround his subjects wonderfully with bold whites surrounding luscious clothing and garmets and to me a good example of using the background indoors and outdoors.

Any other photographers work that you can think of that use negative space to create a wonderful image.??

***I do remember someone posting on this site a cloud formation that resembled an object, but to me it looked altered and not a natural composition, I would like to be proven wrong as it would then be incredible.***

any help would be appreciated

Jan Pietrzak · Jan 23, 2010

Bob,

NO TAN by, Dorr Bothwell the best $10.00 or $12.00 you will spend

Dorr was an instructor at Ansels workshops in the 70's

Jan Pietrzak

David William White · Jan 23, 2010

ralph gibson

keithwms · Jan 23, 2010

Steichen comes to mind. Minor White. Newman maybe. Let's see.. more recently, I was introduced to Sarah Moon and there is one photogrpah in particular which I find extremely effective in this regard, The Juggler, Circus (2002). She uses very stark black spaces in many mages, which set off the colours and subjects very well.

I am really big on negative space myself, and though I doubt I am the person you refer to with the cloud, I have gotten various inquiries about this shot and how I "did" it. (Some people see a downwards facing horse...) Anyway I won't argue about the effectiveness of the negative space, it's what I wanted and that's that I use lots of negative space sometimes... a lot of people do. 'Nothing' can add balance.

Toffle · Jan 23, 2010

Not to be fishing too close to home, but our own Bill Schwab came to mind the second I read your question. He has a great knack for surrounding his subjects with a whole lot of useful "nothing".

Bob Carnie · Jan 23, 2010

I must be daft.
I have three of Bills on display in our gallery right now..

Keith , great images, but not the ones, I think Ralph L was looking at these and asking who the artist was.

Keep all the stuff coming

Toffle said:
Not to be fishing too close to home, but our own Bill Schwab came to mind the second I read your question. He has a great knack for surrounding his subjects with a whole lot of useful "nothing".

Vaughn · Jan 23, 2010

Brett Weston comes first to my mind -- I have always appreciated his use of black areas (negative space) as part of his composition.

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jp80874 · Jan 25, 2010

Bob,

Interesting thread.

Bill Brandt. Most of the pictures in this Limited Editions group.

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John Powers

SuzanneR · Jan 25, 2010

Along the same lines as Avedon, Irving Penn was a master at it. And agree, Arnold Newman is one to look at. Edward Weston, Paul Strand, and Robert Mapplethorpe are three more I think used negative space very well.

John Koehrer · Jan 25, 2010

Edw. Weston, especially in his non-commercial portrait work. and ManRay.

el wacho · Jan 25, 2010

regarding the cloud photo, shomei tomatsu's photo comes to mind...

Tony Egan · Jan 25, 2010

Michael Kenna who was influenced by Brandt and many of those in turn influenced by Kenna. No names come immediately to mind but I recall looking at the work of Japanese photographers over the years who used negative space very powerfully.
Also in terms of a very well known image, I've always thought Moonrise, Hernandez was a great example of using negative space to create a strong sense of scale in the landscape.

Negative Space

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