Gestalt's Principles include the law of similarity, proximity, pragnanz, continuity, and closure. The law that sticks out to me the most in this image is the law of continuity. The dancer's legs are separated, but the eye flows smoothly from the top of her right foot clear down to her supporting foot. Instead of two separate lines, you see one.
The next one that caught my eye was the law of pragnanz. This dancer's body is making several different shapes between her arched back and arms stretched behind her, but the simplicity of it is the line of her legs. That's what sticks out. She makes it look simple to the eye.
The next is the law of closure. You can tell that she is in a performance hall of some sort on a stage. Even though you cannot see the whole hall or even a big portion of the stage, we as observers can put the pieces together without seeing the whole venue.
One that might be a little more difficult to find is the law of proximity. If you look closely you see empty seats in the theater. The seats are all the same size and shape and are horizontally placed together. They are near each other, therefore grouped together.
The last one is the law of similarity. This one and proximity are very similar in this photo. The law states that similar things are grouped together. As I stated before the chairs are all made identical and placed next to each other equidistant apart. If you look more closely at the top you also have two lights that take the shape of squares that are grouped together and evenly spaced. There are also what look like smaller lights even above that that are rectangles evenly spaced out in a horizontal line. The last thing that draws my eye is similarity are the entrance doors to the theater. They are rectangular and grouped together. As I look closely at the background of the image I begin to notice all these shapes grouped together by similarity.
The focus of the piece is obviously the dancer, but as I begin to really analyze every piece of it I have noticed other phenomenal aspects of this photo. The photographer did an amazing job capturing this photo and establishing an intriguing background.
