This latest series began with an exercise to create more space in his photographs than Needham typically feels comfortable with. An art teacher of Needham’s once quoted Robert Capa, “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” This lesson stuck with him at first, but then he came to disagree with it and had to set about unlearning.

Previously hinting at a world outside the frame, Needham began adding negative space, eliminating distraction and rendering the important elements more impressive. Traveling to new locations in New Mexico and California, and more familiar ones in New York and Spain, Needham compelled himself to stand back from a world we are increasingly being told to lean in to.