darwin wiggett

Beyond the Rectangle

When we think of a photograph, we envision a rectangular image. We capture our photographic vision constrained in rectangular frames with an aspect ratio of 3:2 (DSLRs) or 4:3 (point- ‘n’-shoots). It’s a rare photographer who strays from the rectangle. Even photographers who use square-format cameras most often crop their images after the fact to present the final work as a rectangle.

Scientists have determined that humans’ natural view of the world is a horizontal oval and, as such, a horizontal rectangular frame best approximates our worldview. No wonder the vast majority of images are composed in horizontal format — this is naturally the way we see the world.

The point of this article is simple: if you want to shake things up with your photographs, one of the easiest things to do is stay away from the everyday horizontal rectangle....

Story and photography by
Darwin Wiggett

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