Less Is More: 50+ Examples of Minimalist Photography
Minimalism is indeed the art of less. As a life philosophy, minimalists focus on a few essential elements of life and cast unnecessary things aside. In today’s showcase, we have collected 50 examples of minimalist photography, where the focus is one one small key element and the rest of the composition is completely clutter free. You’ll be surprised at how powerful these images can be!
Mimimilist
Minimalist Photography
CinemaWorker
Minimalist Photography
Orange View
Minimalist Photography
Minimalist street lamp
Suburban Minimalism
Jetty
Simply..
Minimalist Photography
Kafka
France minimal.
Minimalist Photography
The trail….
Minimalist Photography
alex_shadow
Minimalist
Icy blow in White sands
"tomorrow’s clouds"
Minimal
Yellow
Nothing Can Happen to Us
No One Else
Horizon
Autumn
Into the void
Cavernous
Minimalist Manzaralar
A tale of 5 trees
Car park in snow
Straw bales on the horizon line
"It’s the Real Thing"
Deco Wall
Last One Chosen
Green | Yellow | Red
Luzerne
Simple & Blue
Red Hydrant
landmark II
flight to Europe…
Fisherman’s Dream
Lonely finshing snow
I Am
chairs
ShoppingCart
dust storm
What time is love?
Across the Field
Salt Flats
Simply, Quiet Life
Minimalism
speedboat
Why Should You Try This?
Touting the benefits of minimalism is all well and good, but why is this a technique that you should try at home? Here are three persuasive reasons to give it a go:
- It draws the viewer’s attention – If you’d like to emphasise one small part of an image, this is a fantastic way to do it. Although a very shallow depth of field can work well, there’s no substitute for eliminating every other distraction from the frame.
- These photos are commercial gold – If you have any interest in selling your photography work – either through a stock image site, or elsewhere – this type of minimal image is in very high demand. One of the main things that publishers look for is a place to add their own advertising copy (text). Minimal photography lends itself well to this, providing plenty of space for publishers to work around the main focal point of the photo.
- It’s more of a challenge – Anyone can grab a camera and start snapping away. Approaching a scene with the intention of taking a minimal-style photo is far more difficult. It requires the right location, extra planning, and – often – perfect timing to ensure your focal point is positioned just right. It’s a challenge for even the most seasoned photographer!
Share Your Images!
Have you shot any photos that follow this style and pattern? Be sure to share a link in the comments so we can all take a look!
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By Prakash Ghodke
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Here are some of my minimalistic photos:
Blue Window / Blue Door
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38524442@N05/4898522841/in/set-72157624710300602/
Stairway To Heaven
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38524442@N05/4898996116/in/set-72157624710300602/
WWII memorial in Maribor
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38524442@N05/4313504647/in/set-72157622928471476/
Sergels Torg in Stockholm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38524442@N05/4353946806/in/set-72157623426441368/
Nice photos maik. Cool shot of the dragon from my hometown :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38524442@N05/4314245420/in/set-72157622928471476/
Love it! “ShoppingCart”, “Lonely finshing snow” and “Green | Yellow | Red” are my favourites.
Thank you Andris!
I quite like this type of photo. But it can be quite hard to achieve! Here’s one I managed to get.
http://www.lokipowers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/IMG_3466.jpg
Just want to say I love reading these articles! I’ve learn’t so much from you guys!!! :D
I really like this stuff. I’ve always been drawn to the idea of how the simplest things can be so striking. Here are a few that I’ve done.
http://bit.ly/b4Hz63
http://bit.ly/aaaGGp
http://bit.ly/cFwahS
The links in my last post no longer work. Sorry. I had to get a new flickr account. You can see my photos here: http://bit.ly/bmtbef
Beautiful !!
“Horizon” is my favourite. No doubt about it.
Mexico is a great place for minimalist photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preciousroy/100861294/in/set-72057594064048042/
Then again, so is Montana
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preciousroy/69509690/in/set-72157594317469474/
And Idaho, too
http://www.flickr.com/photos/preciousroy/4933246713/in/set-72157605597158424/
Love the photography…
I really love the first one, the colours are amazing!
here is one of mine:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlad_l/5034307202/
Beautiful! i love minimalistic photos taken in a light box
some of my minimal photos:
http://365photosgotchance.tumblr.com/post/1086985553/39-365-8-9-2010-perspective-we-often-forget-a
http://365photosgotchance.tumblr.com/post/1025405375/27-365-27-8-2010-there-are-so-many-places-to
http://365photosgotchance.tumblr.com/post/977892370/19-365-19-8-2010-national-day-has-long-gone-but
do check out my 365 project…
THESE are so amazing photos
I remember reading somewhere that good photos leave the viewer with more questions than answers. I think minimalism does a good job of this…
Beautiful !!!
I like this photos
http://www.robertomarzola.it/index.asp?categoria=Minimal&galleria=1
What do you think?
My humble effort
nice photographs! took some minimalistic pictures yesterday. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiboine/
Beautiful shots the challenge is to make minimalism interesting. The most successful images here are the ones that have bright colors and interesting shapes.
Here is my contribution from Lake Placid. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gbrophy/4250264394/in/set-72157622991223459/
Some very good photos here!
A couple of my own attempts:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eivind84/4847388698/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eivind84/4346324829/
Nice pictures!
One minimalistic pic I took sometime back:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nirajalok/497807235
These photos are amazing; LOVE minimalist photography! But perhaps I’m biased. I’m a minimalist myself. :)
I notice many of the images are either copyrighted or made available through CC license. The way they are presented here is not according to these licenses.
Hi Pascal – We always link back to the original image, and obtain permission before publishing images that are copyright rather than CC. Thanks.
Simply brilliant… love em all
Great. I will try one.
okay first sorry! My English is bad
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9q05aMS5H1qdkj5so1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1286206006&Signature=EGFUYzOYdJ4llLOAhUUacg8jEQE%3D
I see this today and i remember a Photo from this Article so i take a Photo, and what can i say its my best Picture today ;)
WOW, learned a bunch from this. Some really fantastic examples, and they made me review some of my photos. Now I have to go look for more since I have never intentionally taken a photo for this purpose.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25860753@N07/5051131340/
“a tale of five trees”?
What happened to the fifth (or is that part of the tale?)
Awesome pics. Great for working on composition and such.
Great vision…………………beautiful images.
Thankyou for sharing
thanks so much for including my photo (the shopping cart about half way down!)
excellent collection! it’s quite a challenge as a photographer to arrange only 2-4 elements in a scene in such a way to really say something. particularly in our cluttered modern world, it also seems difficult to find these moments of empty tranquility so they become ever-important reminders.
I didn’t think that I would like any of these photographs, however I now like most of them.
I love minimalism in pictures, and enjoy a lot of the images shown above. I have noticed that I have to pay attention to look for these shots the first 10 minutes, after that they seem to be everywhere.
Here’s my contribution:
Blue: http://www.flickr.com/photos/illogical42/111016609/
Blue ][: http://www.flickr.com/photos/illogical42/111016609/
Facing West: http://www.flickr.com/photos/illogical42/110250541/
Buscemi: http://www.flickr.com/photos/illogical42/110250843/
Hey,
Never knew that minimalistic could be so interesting. Really great actually, perhaps I should go for the challenge.
Amazing!
Nedewe….
My minimalist image: http://ranklord.deviantart.com/gallery/26568904#/d2pflie
What camera did you use? Canon, Nikon?
These pictures are awesome and refreshing. thanks
wow, Beautiful, great, fantastic, excellent
can’t anything else :)
Love this type of photography I didn’t know about the impact of this type of photo. Here my contribution
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellerandi/5548449631/
I am not sure is this one qualify as minimalist
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellerandi/5427212820/
Great collection! I am a big fan of minimalistic photography!
my minimalist photos
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2774542605222.2156930.1307787963&type=1&l=22db819941