The fascinating thing about negative and positive space, figure and ground, subject and background—whatever terms you might use—is that they depend on each other. In Taoist fashion, they create each other. Space is defined when you place an object into it, and the object is defined by the space around it.

visual elements within a person’s visual field are either attracted to each other (grouped) or repelled (not grouped). The Gestalt laws of proximity (nearness), similarity, continuity, and closure describe how grouping occurs within a context or field.

Or it might establish a figure–ground “reversal” in which the space and the subject alternate as the focus of the eye, resulting in a sensation of movement, competition, and tension between figure and ground, or even the feeling that the eye is being tricked. When

what you experience when you look at a picture is quite different from what you would experience were you to look at each item in the picture separately.

Distracting Space: Try to avoid using space as a ploy that draws too much attention to itself.

Units which resemble each other in shape, size, direction, color, brightness, or location will be seen together.

Similarity is a prerequisite for noticing difference.

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. Dorothea Lange

Proximity Similarity Continuity Closure