SHELF COMPOSITION Take a photograph of a shelf with objects. Manipulate the composition to achieve separation and ambiguity in positive/negative aspects of figure-ground relationship. The idea is to abstract the photograph somewhat in relation to pushing and pulling the aspects of positive/negative relationships to achieve separation and ambiguity - what aspects of the composition come forward and what portions recede. 

Definition

Figure-ground perception is defined as a human's ability to visually differentiate between an object and its background. The target object becomes the observer's main visual and mental focus. In psychology, the object being perceived is known as the figure while everything else is referred to as the background or ground. Thus, a simpler figure-ground definition would be a person's ability to differentiate between figure and ground. https://study.com/learn/lesson/figure-ground-perception-relationship-examples.html