18

Do the Elements Repeat?

PHOTOGRAPHY HAS MUCH IN COMMON with graphic design. In fact, photography is graphic design—the arrangement of graphic or visual elements to say a certain thing. That we do not learn more from that discipline continues to baffle me, though I wonder if it’s because in popular photography culture we tend to rely on the quality of our cameras for the quality of our images, whereas graphic designers have never had the luxury of believing their tools had much to do with the arrangement of elements on the page. That’s a whole other sermon, but it highlights an opportunity for the photographer who is willing to study how graphic designers use basic design principles like contrast, alignment, balance, and repetition.

Repetition of elements can be as useful a tool to the photographer as it is to the graphic designer, though it should be acknowledged that the latter has more ability to move elements around, duplicate them, or remove them, while the photographer is often limited to recognizing the presence of repeated elements and then maximizing or minimizing them with their choices. First, however, it’s important to know what repeated elements bring to the photograph.

When you look at a scene and see lines, shapes, gestures, or colours repeating, there is an opportunity to create a visual echo in the image. Just as contrast allows us to point to something and call it out by comparing it to what it is not (a small child made to look even smaller in the presence of something much larger, for example), repeated elements allow us to point to certain things by putting them in the same frame as other things that are similar. The more similar they are, the more we notice them and find them interesting. A red ball is echoed by a red hat and a red sign on a nearby building. Those repeated elements draw us through the frame and give the eye shapes and paths to follow in the same way certain lines do. They naturally provide a point of interest.

When repeated elements are observed and placed creatively within the frame, they can tie an image together, pulling the disparate elements into a unified whole. When there are enough of these elements that they create a perceivable pattern, they can also provide another means of creating contrast when that pattern is broken. When there are many circular shapes in the frame but only one prominent triangle, we notice that triangle all the more. When there are many red elements in the frame but only one blue one, it is the blue element we notice because it’s different. Questions to consider:

• Are there elements in this scene that echo each other in shape or colour?
• What choices can I make to maximize or minimize these repetitions according to my intent for the photograph? Could I include or exclude more of them, for example?
• Are there enough of these repetitions to make a pattern, and can I find a way to break that pattern to create contrast and stronger visual interest?
• Can I use these repeated elements to create a unity in my frame that might not otherwise exist?
• Can I move my point of view or use a different lens to make a clearer path for the eye with those repeating elements?

What you do with the repeated elements in the scene depends on what you’re trying to accomplish, but it always begins with seeing them and the possibilities they present.

I’m often asked how we can learn to see better—how to more easily recognize repeating elements or any other photographic element—and my answer is always this: to see something is not a function of the eye but of the mind. The eye sees it all, but the mind is what gives a thing meaning.

We don’t need to see better; we need to recognize elements and possibilities for what they are. The word recognize means “to know again.” To do that, we have to know that particular thing to begin with. As with other topics and elements we’ve covered, if you begin to consciously look for and recognize repeated elements in strong photographs, you’ll begin to do so when making photographs.

Jodhpur, India, 2017

Jodhpur, India, 2017

Jodhpur, India, 2017