The Photographer's Eye: Graphic Guide

OFFSTAGE

When you frame a shot, you leave out more than you include. That’s the idea, of course—establishing the photographer’s view of what is going on, and no one else’s. Sometimes, however, the suggestion of what might be happening out of frame can be intriguing. The conventional idea in photography—and in painting, for that matter—is to gather into the frame what we want to show. This thoroughly accepted way of doing things gives a special value to the occasional image that makes some reference to events that are deliberately off-stage. The word to stress here is occasional, because of the risk of being simply annoying. Here, we’re on the summit of Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka, where worshippers wait during the night for—the sunrise! Nothing ...