January 2016 Assignment: “Beauty of Simplicity”

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This month’s topic was found while reading through David duChemin’s book “The Visual Toolbox”; I’ll let his words set the scene:

“Find a scene that pulls at you and make a photograph the way you normally might. Don’t think too much about it. Now find the “photographs within a photograph” and make six simpler photographs.
They don’t have to tell the whole story. In fact, that’s the point. It doesn’t have to be a large scene either. Pick a vase of flowers, make a photograph of that vase of flowers, and then simplify — find six photographs within that scene that are less busy, more about line and color and pattern. Make the simplest photographs you can. Exclude everything unnecessary. Can you make one photograph of only a stem, or an abstract of defocused petals, eliminating even the need for sharp focus? Can you reduce the color palette to only different shades of red or green? Can you find a way to remove the color entirely? How much can you remove before you no longer have a photograph?” ~David duChemin, “The Visual Toolbox”, pg. 237

There were many interpretations on this. Some chose to only show the simplified photos, while others shared the steps to get there. Some presented disparate subjects, while others chose one…once again showing that it’s not about the tools, but the vision inside each of us. Enjoy!

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