November Monthly Special: Squares

"Mailboxes" Paris, 2010

This month's theme is in part inspired by my desire to revisit my very first monthly special: "the grid." I am fascinated by grids and how they influence everything from notebook paper to architecture. A grid creates order out of chaos, as in the above photo of mailboxes outside an apartment building in Paris. The tension between order and disorder immediately caught my eye. I have tried to figure out why this image pleases me so much (I realize it may not be the case for most people) and I think it may have something to do with my paradoxical love of chaos (artistic abandon, anarchy, call it what you will...) and my drive to organize it. In fact, you may recall a quote from a past post about how unlike the painter, who starts with a blank canvas and chooses what to add, the photographer starts with the chaos of the world and chooses how to frame it. Maybe that's why I'm a photographer and not a painter—that, and the fact that I can't draw to save my life.

Rather than repeat the "grid" theme, I want to focus on the square—how we compose within it and with it. This will include square composition, a graffiti-inspired tutorial, and even cards and home décor. Hopefully, I'll get back to more frequent posting this month. I encourage you to try a squares-inspired photo or photo project. If you post one on your blog or on any kind of photo site, post the URL in a comment (or email it to me) in any post during the month and I'll add the link to this post.

For now, start looking for squares around your house, your city, in the magazines you read and the products you buy. This might be an activity you haven't done since preschool, but I think revisiting it will bring artistic inspiration.

readers with posts for this month:

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