Last Updated on 09/28/2018 by Mark Beckenbach
All images by Phil Buerer. Used with Creative Commons permission.
By its name alone, it’s easy to assume that minimalist photography is an easy style to crack. But as it often goes, it’s the seemingly simple and easy things that are difficult to perfect. I mean, just look at those powerful one-liner ad copies or that “no make-up” make-up look.
Minimalist photography is not just a matter of putting a few objects in the frame and clicking the shutter. It takes a really good eye and a mastery of techniques to execute flawlessly. Perhaps a dash of good luck too, if you’re into finding and capturing the photographable in everyday scenes.
Phil Buerer, an architectural visualizer from Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, put up a series aptly titled Light – Shadow – Color. It’s a fusion of minimalist and architectural photography, all well-composed and featuring hidden nooks and corners inside different buildings and structures.
In these pictures, you’ll see slivers of light seeping through cracks to form shapes and shadows and create shades of color painted on walls and floors. It’s the kind of things you probably pass by every day and not even spare a glance, say, as you walk through the hallways of your office, school, or apartment.
Many other photographers have done bodies of work featuring minimalist photography, a number of them we have featured here previously. Most recently, we put the spotlight on Birgit Schlosser and her beautiful photos of Lanzarote’s famous white buildings in Levity of White. There’s also Daniel Tjongari’s striking black and white photos of lone mangroves in the series, Harmony in Nature. Singularity by Florian Mueller is a series of photos highlighting the beauty of skyscrapers set against the backdrop of the blue sky. Lastly, Helena Georgiou combines minimalist street photos with digital art techniques to turn the mundane into the surreal in her series of images.
Don’t forget to visit Phil Buerer’s Behance portfolio to see more of his work!