Minimalism — Four Types

Minimalism breaks the rules on purpose

"Straight" photography says a good photo depicts reality, is pin-sharp, places the subject centrally or on thirds, and has a foreground, mid-ground and background. Minimalist photographs typically do none of those things — they rarely depict the world realistically, rarely centre the subject, and rarely have the three planes at all.

The four sources

Type	Shows
Formalism USA, 1960s	Only the formal elements — a single line, one or two colours, a plane, a simple shape or form. No objects, people or landscape. No story, no mood, no shadows, no bokeh. "What you see is what you see."
Constructivism Russia, 1917–24	The essential structure of a thing — the frame, shell or underlying forces of an object, building or the built world — and the qualities of materials (metal, fabric, ceramic, plastic).
Suprematism Russia, 1917–24	A pure feeling expressed through two- or three-dimensional geometry — circles, triangles, squares, cubes, spheres — in a limited colour range. Non-objective.
Japanese c. 10th century	An object or piece of nature in its simplicity, elegance and fragility, uncluttered and beautifully lit, often extremely asymmetric. Wabi-sabi: the beauty of imperfect things — rust, cracks, erosion, deadwood, bare branches, the passing of time.

Choosing your approach in the field

• Formalist — hunt a single line, one block of bright colour, one geometric shape or form.
• Constructivist — hunt the edge of a building rather than the building, the frame rather than the object, a material with a distinctive quality.
• Suprematist — hunt shapes and forms plus limited colour that carry a mood.
• Japanese — hunt one elegant natural or made object in clean surroundings. Bonus for beautiful imperfection or visible time.

Subject rule

Photograph anything — but only one detail, one small part of it. Photograph the essence: ask "what is the one word that describes my subject?" and photograph only that. Don't photograph the whole Opera House — photograph the tip of one sail and the sky behind it.

Test: if it's obvious what the thing is — a tree, a person, a building — try again.

Composition

• Asymmetry. Put the subject at the edge of the frame; the rest is negative space. Not centre, not on thirds.
• Change the camera angle so the rest of the frame fills with sky, water, sand, fog — anything uncluttered.
• Rotate the image 90° or 180°. Minimalist frames often read better when they're not upright.

Colour and tone

• Limited palette — one, two or three colours maximum.
• Mono options: high key (mostly white with limited blacks), low key (mostly black), graphic (pure blacks and whites, no greys), or all mid-greys with no pure black or white.

Technical

• Vivid colour: bright sun — but no shadows in frame.
• Pastel palette: cloud, fog, rain, early morning or evening; reduce shadows for a two-dimensional look.
• Lens: long lens to isolate and flatten — no foreground/mid/background separation, no bokeh.
• Long exposure to smooth water, cloud and foliage and remove people.
• Post: crop hard to the essence; saturate for bright palettes, desaturate for pastels; push to high key, low key or high-contrast mono.

Common mistakes

• Subject in the middle → move it to the very edge.
• Subject has a background → get rid of the background.
• Naturalistic composition → turn it upside down or sideways.
• Horizontal lines → break them up or put them on the diagonal.
• Too many colours → one to three, maximum.

Practice exercise

Thirty minutes, indoors, wherever you are. Ten minutes: two Formalist frames (single line, bright colour, geometric shape). Ten minutes: two Constructivist or Suprematist frames. Ten minutes: two Japanese-style frames — bonus for imperfection or time passing.

Source: Don Munro, Minimalism, NSW Federation of Camera Clubs Inc., First Edition July 2024 — educational resource for FCC member clubs. Summarised for personal field use.