by Editor Lourens Durand
Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the 2^nd of May 2025

'calmness' by Damijan Sedevic

The idea of simplicity in the composition of a photograph.
It can be compared to showing your home with the intention of selling it. In the case of the show house, it takes a lot of preparation to not only present a clean house, but to strip it of everything that personifies you. The idea is for potential buyers to see the bare bones and use their own imagination to fill the space with their own personality and history before deciding whether they can see themselves fitting into the space.

The same idea applies to Poetry.

Photographer Oriana Ivy wrote “I think it’s safe to say that the greatest poetry uses the simplest words, the simplest syntax, a child-like parallel construction. To be or not to be? And if not that, then: Can I make it more simple? It is one of the most important questions a poet needs to ask during revision. Paradoxically, depth resides in simplicity.” Atticus Review, a literary online journal.

Her thoughts are reflected in this poem by Una Hynum:

ORIGAM

Yesterday I laundered a mouse —
wash, rinse, spin cycled.
She came out a little damp,

lying on her side as if asleep,
tiny whiskers, claws folded,
thin tail, exquisite ears, so complete

 as if sculpted from Japanese Kami paper.
If there were children in the house
there would have been a funeral —

match box coffin, bouquet of weeds,
Boy Scout version of taps.
But they are gone and I am old —

I scooped her into the trash. 

~ Una Hynum

But how can this be achieved in photography, you may ask?
The short answer is by simplifying the composition down to its bare bones, allowing viewers to use their own imagination and life experience to fill in the story.

* Use a simple background to isolate - homogenous, neutral, black, white, out of focus, sky, lightly textured, anything that focusses the viewer    onto the subject and removes distractions.
* Fill the frame with the subject, isolating it.
* Go really close up, even to extent of cutting off edges of the subject, forcing the viewers’ eyes to look where you want them to.
* Take out any clutter that has nothing to do with the story.
* Use lighting to isolate the subject or to force the viewers’ eye to a focal point.
* Remember the rule of thirds and leading lines, as well as perspective tricks to lead the eye to where you want it to look.

The story itself

This is the difficult part. You need to decide what the story is that you want to tell with your photo; is it the beauty of a landscape, a tale of poverty, a beautiful person, a still life depicting loneliness, ……..

Only you can decide

Take the picture, then cut out the clutter, write the poem in your head, reshoot and let your masterpiece tell your story.

Lourens Durand

'Kung Fu Master' by Lina Gunawan

'Bonding with god' by Carmit Rozenzvig

untitled by Mikhail Potapov

'Le contrebassiste' by Strugala Didier

untitled by Antonio Grambone

'The Floating Island' by Albena Markova

'Kseniya' by Sergey Khalemsky  

'wishful' by Hari Sulistiawan

'something to grab onto' by Antonio Bonnin Sebastià

'Water conversation' by Phillip Chang

'Red Tailed Shrike!' by Sina Pezeshki

'Prunis Avium N°3' by Christophe Verot

'Simplicity' by Stephen Clough

light and darkness' by Gilbert Claes

… by Shihya Kowatari

'Out of the fog' by Bor

'Lily Grace' by Annie Whitehead

'The Name of The Rose (Umberto Ecco)' by Heike Willers

'Symphony unfinished...' by Thierry Dufour

'Little secret' by Wil Mijer

'Lost' by Jimmy Hoffman

'Asian elephants' by Pedro Jarque Krebs

'My New Baby' by Kim Lennert Simonsen

'Like a Family' by Louie Luo

'Focussed' by G. KIRAN KUMAR REDDY

'Bokehlicious Parakeet' by Abhisek Bagaria