space to breathe

It’s all about leaving space. Empty space, but that makes it sound worthless and it isn’t. We need space in our lives, time to stand and stare, time to ponder. It can look like empty space from the outside but from the inside it’s rich with possibilities. It’s too easy to cram our lives with too many activities, too much to do, leaving no space to renew ourselves, and creativity only really happens in the empty spaces.

We need that space to allow us to breathe easily; it’s the space that makes the rest of our lives satisfying instead of an endless, tiring, round of busy-ness. A bowl is only useful because of the empty space inside it, and music can only be made because of the space inside the instrument.  And of course, music is only music because of the spaces between the notes – otherwise it would just be a jumble of sounds.

Negative space in photographs also gives room to breathe, to appreciate the subject of the picture, to avoid being distracted by other things. And just as having that space in our lives helps to enhance the rest of what we do, having that space in our photos – the space we call negative - can positively add something, as it definitely does in this beautiful image by lwsantos.

gilly of the camera points both ways 

img_5343-1 copy by lwsantos