“By its very nature, space is the most nonconceptual photographic intention we can work with because it is difficult to solidify or overlay ideas or associations.”
The stereotypical concept of space is sky, the vastness of the desert, the rolling breadth of oceans, the inky expanse of “outer” space. There are of course other kinds of space: that tiny gap between my car and the parking deck wall, the space between a child’s front teeth, the space between words. There’s even a space bar on the keyboard.
A Google search reveals the following:
“Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction.”
This is space as viewed from the greatest possible distance, the ether in which floats all of observable reality. How does one photograph this kind of space? In doing this exercise, the authors recommend loosening the gaze so that one begins to see forms as anchors, boundaries, or frames of space. As in photographing color, contrast is required. Space without form cannot rightly be depicted; neither form without space; “space intensifies the clarity of form, and form creates boundaries that bring out visual space.”
I read this chapter just before leaving for Japan for my father-in-law’s funeral and the curious thing is that while I didn’t have many opportunities to shoot while in Japan, I was continuously scanning the environment with the intention of seeing space. What I found were curious manifestations such as a fenced in piece of property no larger than 1.5 meters square wedged between the sidewalk, a parking lot, and a house, or the rusted frame of a commercial building, mimicked in wood as a park picnic shelter.
When I finally took time to wander, I noticed more curiosities. Photographing horizontal space is difficult without some elevation.
Shooting from the corner of a square or rectangular space may give the illusion of more depth.
Except in this case, where the shape of the land makes the image taken from perpendicular appear more expansive, though the one from an angle gives a better indication of height.
A tiny anchor may be all that is required to depict space.
In this set, the image made from the greatest distance gives greater context. The least interesting of the three is the vertical, perhaps because of the lack of detail in the walls, opposed to the litter in the landscape image.
In the pair below, while the image taken from greater distance provides more context, it’s also less interesting as attention is held but the colored fence. Move a little closer and shoot over the fence and there is a feeling of being in that space.
Here I was interested in the space created by the barriers below the sign, but by including the entire sign, which takes up 2/3 of the image, I've effectively made the sign the subject. A crop of the same image is disappointing because of the car in the background. A better image made have been made by searching for alternative angles.
Finally, a few additional images about which I have nothing to say.
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