Layered triangles
Layering triangles carefully in frame can bring order to chaos
Avariation on multiple triangles is when they actually overlap, one on top of another, like layers. This isn’t as rare you might imagine because the layers can be made from different qualities, like light, shadow and shape. The scene here is an example. This is Koya-san, an ancient Buddhist mountain in Japan with a history going back more than 1200 years. This image was taken in a large area of Buddhist grave markers set in the forest surrounding one of the temples. The scene is highly atmospheric, not least because of the unique shape of these stones, which are five-tiered (the different shapes from bottom to top represent earth, water, fire, wind and space).
Unfortunately it is visually messy… The hard sunlight and shadows create an interesting chiaroscuro effect, but without care over viewpoint and framing just adds to the confusion. Here, the solution was in layers of triangles, first suggested by the attractive sunbeams filtering through the tall forest. The next step was to walk around and find a position that would have a row or two of stones aligned with the sunbeams; this was the one I settled on. There are three layers of implied triangles superimposed, and this subtle layering brings an organization to the forest scene that isn’t forced, but reduces the chaos.
The basic layer is of shape, and here the distinctive outline of the markers makes their shapes prominent – more noticeable than the thick tree trunks. The second triangle is of the hard shadows cast by the stones – it works visually in a different way from the shapes. Finally the light in the form of the radiating sunbeams. Being bright and definite, these act as a trigger to bring the other two triangles into play.
Classical art photography
Triangles have a long history reaching back into classical art, for the same reasons that they work in photography: they’re easy to suggest and also they don’t have to be very obvious to work. In fact, like many things that are suggested, they are all the more effective for not being blindingly obvious, like in this shot. This is probably a good time to mention that, while photography and painting share many ideas in composition, there’s a major difference in the way painters and photographers go about creating their images, as you might expect. With just a few exceptions, such as abstract expressionism, painting is deliberate and constructed over a period of time. Photography (again, with a very few exceptions, like studio still life) relies much more on serendipity – on the unfolding of events and scenes that are independent of you the photographer.
When you manage to organize the composition of a photograph so that there are implied shapes to give it structure, it definitely counts for something. It shows you ‘saw’ the possibility and exercised skill to make it happen. For this reason, it’s a fantastic idea not to work too obviously hard and too literally at finding shapes in scenes. The schematic illustrations that I make to accompany photographs in this whole series simply do the job of explaining; don’t assume from them that the same analytical method goes into the making of a photograph. Henri, one of the
In fact, like many things that are suggested, they are all the more effective for not being blindingly obvious
few notable photographers to comment meaningfully about composition (and certainly one of the best at it) had many useful things to say on the topic, and I’ll leave you with the following two: “Photography is not like painting,” he said in 1957. “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are capturing a picture. Your eye must identify a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.” In the street out in the world, there’s usually little time to plan, so working intuitively is the only option. He also wrote, “Composition must be one of our constant preoccupations. But at the moment of shooting it can stem only from our intuition, for we are out to capture the fugitive moment; all the interrelationships involved are on the move.”