Composition in Photography is a Political Decision

Bangalore. October, 2013
Bangalore. October, 2013. © Nishant Ratnakar
Bangalore. October, 2013. © Nishant Ratnakar

I’d like to share an important point with respect to composition in photography. This is from the learning and real life experiences, that I have had as a photojournalist and as a Visual Story-teller.

What I share below,  is based on the concept that as photographers we have a message or an idea to communicate in our photographs to a target audience . We are part of a Visual Communication process.

For most of us, when we embark on a self-learning curve in photography or attending the initial photography workshops, we are always taught of composition with an emphasis on Rule-of-Thirds. But composition is much more than any particular rule-of-thirds. The rule is one of the many guidelines for photography.

When we tell a story in a photograph or in make a statement through images, then the message is the heart and soul of  composition.

Composition is a political decision. What we decide to include in a rectangular frame is as important as what we decide to leave out(or crop). When we are composing/framing an image, we make that political decision of leaving behind many elements in a scene. We photograph a small sub-set of the world in front of us, and leave the rest of the universe behind. The sub-set should include those story-telling elements that effectively and unambiguously communicate your message to your target audience.

In the photograph that I shared above, I have isolated portions of two different quotes attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. And while I composed the shot, I waited till an important and anonymous element walked into my frame, and then I pressed the trigger.

I do not want to explicitly state my message in text here. I think it is obvious from the photograph above. I hope you got my message :).

FYI, the photograph was made on a Fujifilm x100s camera. I must say that it is quiet a stealthy camera to allow a street photographer to make images on the streets without getting noticed. I had recently used x100s to make travel photographs in Sri Lanka too.

If you liked this post, then share the love around. Feel free to share the link to this post using the sharing buttons below.

 

 

 

Nishant Ratnakar
Follow me
Latest posts by Nishant Ratnakar (see all)

By Nishant Ratnakar

Nishant is a Bangalore, India based Wedding, Portrait & Editorial Photographer. He is available for assignments across India. He also conducts photography workshops and offers personal photography mentorship.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x