Seasick

Photos focusing on shape and form, without the inclusion of a human subject certainly are not new to the realm of photography. Often called abstract photos, a very broad term, photographs in this realm tend to showcase the beauty of line, form and shadow. This photograph, from an unknown New Zealand family's photo album, features lines flowing across multiple planes. The wires running up to the mast, the horizontal pipes, the vertical masses rising out of the deck and the diagonal stays cross a number of different axes. These lines, heading off in many different directions, gives this photograph a sense of depth and three dimensionality. It does not feel "flat."

The wide angle of view chosen by the photographer also adds more details to the image, giving our eyes a reason to keep looking at the photo. We are almost not satisfied with a quick glance at the image as our minds perceive there is more to explore in the image. The angle chosen, looking down from above, also contributes to the image's curiosity.

Yet what fascinated me most about this image was the inclusion of the giant waves beleaguering the ship. Talk about providing visual interest, I almost get seasick just looking at this picture! The dynamic nature of this image, combining an abstract view of a section of a ship with the action of ocean waves, makes this image enormously appealing. In addition, the photographer here combined these two contrasts by using what is commonly referred to as the "rule of thirds" in photography. While it should probably be treated more as a guideline than a rule, the "rule of thirds" suggests placing the focal point of an image or the joining point of two contrasts not in the middle, as most people tend to do, but a third from one of the edges of the composition.

Think about the rule in respect to this image by picturing what it would look like without it. In your mind crop the image such that it only includes the abstract view of the ship, without the waves. Now it is simply another abstraction, not nearly as interesting. Now crop the image such that it only includes the rolling waves. Although waves are inherently interesting, without a point of reference, such as the ship used here, they are just waves. Without the ship there is no way for us to tell how big and scary these waves actually are. 

While you may not find yourself on a giant ship with crazy waves to photograph anytime soon keep in mind the things that make this image beautiful: the combination of stagnation with action (the abstract ship with rolling waves) and the "rule of thirds."