Composition as an Expression of Meaning

f/5.6 at 1/60 sec ISO 800 using my Nikkor 55-200mm at 200mm

Before I took up photography my training was focused on representative painting & drawing. Creating objectively recognizable and realistic depictions of people and objects takes practice and planning. The most fundamental step in the planning stage is establishing a good composition. 

Composition is more than the balance of objects, the relative weight of certain elements and the overall flow of the piece. It is literally the immediate & subconscious internalization of your artwork as a whole. Because composition reaches deeply into the non-verbal parts of our minds it has enormous emotive power. When I took the photo above I was wandering around a riverside park looking for something interesting. I found children playing together in a fountain, couples holding hands walking past the boat slips & families tossing bread crumbs at gulls. But several yards from the crowds near the water sat this elderly man with a walking stick and a couple burlap bags.


The power of his isolation contrasting with the fellowship of everyone around them gripped me. I began asking myself questions. Where was his family? Had he outlived all of his friends? Is this kind of loneliness the reward for longevity? 


In framing the shot I placed the heaviest foreground element--the man on his bench--far to the left. The open space to his right enhances his enisle while the tree branches hovering above him almost menace the man allegorically, and mock him in their youthful blooming bounty.


Had I made a beginner's blunder and put my subject dead center I would have taken a photograph with a lot less interest and allowed other objects in the frame that may have weakened the moment I found this man and felt for him.

Additionally the composition does what all good compositions should do--it works well in several orientations. Simplifying the image to a very few basic elements reveals an underlying architecture that could be turned around--even hung upside-down--and still contains movement but keeps the eye within the piece.