I’m a huge fan of minimalism, specifically photographic minimalism and abstraction through the use of urban shapes. I’ve never formally studied photography (or any form of art for that matter) but there is something in the simplicity of shapes and forms that is really appealing to me, probably because of the challenge of turning our technological environment into something beautiful.

If I were to try and explain what minimalism is, I’d have to say it’s summed up by the phrase “less is more“. If you want a more formal definition, minimalism is “an art movement in sculpture and painting that began in the 1950s and emphasized extreme simplification of form and colour”, but that sounds rather dull and boring. To try and pinpoint someone from this period that best illustrates minimalism, the artist Mark Rothko is probably the best example I can give.

At any rate, I spend a lot of time recently trying to take abstract or minimalist-style photos; I’m no real expert, but here are a few tips I’ve picked up from viewing a few Flickr forums, and my own ideas in trying to find that elusive ultra-minimal and ultra-cool shot.

1. Less really is more: I’ve said it once already, but it doesn’t hurt to say again. They don’t call it minimalism for nothing. The uncluttered beauty of the shot is what makes it so appealing.

2. The image is the subject: often I find that I’m not focusing on a particular object or subject in minimalism; instead, I’m concentrating on combining individual elements into a “whole”.

3. Use shadows: shadows can make the mundane seem a lot more interesting, and will often break monotony in what would otherwise be a boring image.

4. The three C’s: I find composition, colour and contours have far more significance in minimalist and abstract photos than they would otherwise have. Since there’s not always a “subject” to draw the viewer’s attention, the end product is what has to be appealing. Uniformity, patterns, shape and texture are also extremely important, but calling it “STUCCCUP” sounded daft at worst, and a business acronym at best.

5. Contrast: Okay, I could’ve called it the four C’s, but this deserved its own special mention. While texture can play a good role in creating great minimalist shots, it sometimes pays to really manipulate the contrast in order to smooth and flatten the image. This works extremely well with urban minimalism in particular.

6. Black & White: What’s more simple than black and white with shades of grey? This is a great way to get rid of colours you don’t like in an otherwise cool shot.

So, there are six ideas for people to borrow or throw away. I made most of them up as I went, so if you’ve got some suggestions, feel free to add your own, or tell me why these ideas suck.

The Institute for Ethics and Emerging technologies linked through to an interesting bit of research that looked at “Preferences for Psychological Enhancements”, and reluctance by test subjects to allow enhancements. Specifically, they point out that “Ad taglines that framed enhancements as enabling … the fundamental self increased people’s interest in a fundamental enhancement, and eliminated the preference for non-fundamental over fundamental enhancements.”

With that in mind, I came across an article in Wired discussing Darpa’s latest forays into human enhancement, and I couldn’t but help notice the wording of Tony Tether, head of Darpa, the US’s Advanced Research Projects Agency: “[The Defense Sciences Office] isn�??t trying to create posthuman troops, Tether says. �??You know the old Army saying, �??Be all that you can be�??? Well, that�??s really what we�??re doing.�?� In training, soldiers �??become extraordinary in strength and endurance. But it�??s not any better than their body can be. And what we try to do is come up with techniques that allow them to maintain that level.�?�

The Wired article also showed that, in order to avoid scrutiny and accusations “of funding a Frankenstein army”, the names of various programs “were changed to dull their mad-scientist edge”. For example, “Metabolic Dominance became Peak Soldier Performance”.

So there really is a lot in a name. Hey, it’s all in the branding.