Abstract photography is based on the photographer's eye. We are looking to capture something in a way that it would not usually be seen. Looking for the details, the patterns, the lines, the form, shape and colours that complete a subject and utilising those key features to make an engaging image.
Photography is an art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.
-- Elliott Erwitt
MORE OR LESS ABSTRACT
This task was based on how we interpret abstraction. We were given 6 different images and we were asked to place them in order of most abstract to least abstract. These photographs are all very different, and each one is either more or less abstract than the others. I placed the images I was given in the order because I felt as if this was the best order at the time but if I was to do this task again I would change it. I would alter it because looking back today I view these pictures in a much different way than how I did when I did this task and made this order. I thought the image of the woman with rotating mirror portraits was the most abstract because there can be so many questions that you can ask also it is quite strange and obscure. I thought the photograph of the person carrying a red umbrella in the snow was the least abstract because its pretty self explanatory there is a person caring a red umbrella in the snow and just walking across the page. The reason I would change it now is because I can see why the image I put last can be someones most abstract picture, so many questions can be asked. For example, why is the umbrella red? Were are they heading to? Are they walking fast or slow? Many more questions can be asked about this image.
I tried to copy the image on the left by Paul Strand, noticing where the light and shadow falls. I think the artist called this image "abstraction" because it's open to interpretation. It looks like a photograph of a table but the light creates other shapes on its surface and these also fall on other surfaces behind the table at odd angles. If I was to give this photograph a title, I would call it 'Angular Light'.
the formal elements
Focus:
Light: Line: Repetition: Shape: Space: Texture: Value/Tone: |
Which areas appear clearest or sharpest in the photograph? Which do not?
Which areas of the photograph are brightest? Are there any shadows? Does the photograph allow you to guess the time of day? Is the light natural or artificial? Harsh or soft? Reflected or direct? Are there objects in the photograph that act as lines? Are they straight, curvy, thin, thick? Do the lines create direction in the photograph? Do they outline? Do the lines show movement or energy? Are there any objects, shapes or lines which repeat and create a pattern? Do you see geometric (straight edged) or organic (curvy) shapes? Which are they? Is there depth to the photograph or does it seem shallow? What creates this appearance? Are there important negative (empty) spaces in addition to positive (solid) spaces? Is there depth created by spatial illusions i.e. perspective? If you could touch the surface of the photograph how would it feel? How do the objects in the picture look like they would feel? Is there a range of tones from dark to light? Where is the darkest value? Where is the lightest? |
photogram collage
In this lesson we were asked to create an abstract piece of art using photograms that were not getting used, this is the begining of my creation.
I chose to do my piece like this because I thought it was the most abstract and odd way to possibly place everything.
contact print
Once I had completed my collage made of old photograms, I photocopied it to reduce the size and then took it into the darkroom to make a contact print. See below:
formal element photoshoot
This photoshoot was a focus around lines.
When I took these pictures my focus was lines also shape . when I thought about taking the pictures I tried to make them as simetrical as possible.
Abstraction in the world.
Dafna talmor reseach.
“Dafna Talmor is an artist and lecturer based in London whose practice encompasses photography, video, curation and collaborations. Her photographs are included in public collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Deutsche Bank, Hiscox and in private collections internationally. Talmor's work is included in Post-Photography:The Artist with a Camera by Robert Shore (Laurence King Publishing 2014) and Alternative Photographic Processes:Crafting Handmade Images by Brady Wilks (Focal Press 2015) and has been featured in publications such as 1000 Words, Elephant Magazine, Camera Austria, ArtReview, IMA, BJP, Hotshoe, GUP, Photomonitor, Artra and BLOW. In 2020, her first book, Constructed Landscapes, will be published by Fw:Books”
On Monday the 9th of December we participated in a work shop with Dafna Talmor and these are some of the things I created. When projected on the wall my images came out like this:
window abstracts
In this lesson we had the chance to create abstracts collages and stick them to the window glass and capture different pictures of our collages.This is how wad what I came up with...
Photogram MONTAGE board
puzzled em...
When we began this section of our course we were asked to take good look at different abstract pictures and identify what they were.
The puzzled em project is about the creation of a game made up of 10 cards showing unidentifiable objects that are seen every day. The aim is to identify the objects shown on each of the cards by holding the card up one by one and guessing what the image is.
involuntary sculptures by brassai.
Brassaï's photographs of Involuntary Sculptures in number 3-4 of Minotaure from December 1933 emblematize the journal's focus on ethnographic modernism. His magnification of everyday Western ephemera transforms them into mysterious aesthetic objects comparable in their strangeness to the exotic tribal art brought back from ethnographic expeditions and presented in the pages of the same luxurious journal. Through this implicit comparison, Brassaï problematizes the Western primitivist notion of the tribal fetish and concurrently asks whether there might not be something sacred buried in our most ordinary and familiar everyday objects.
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a seiries of disappointments by stephen gill.
These betting slips were discarded in and around many betting shops (71 at the time of publication) in the borough of Hackney in north-east London. The average number of betting shops in other London boroughs is 23.
Each of these papers began as hope, were shaped by loss or defeat, then cast aside. These new forms perhaps now possess a state of mind, shaped by nervous tension and grief. After these images were made, little autopsies were performed on the papers to reveal the failed bets held within. If betting shops move into places previously occupied by banks or solicitors, they are classed as financial services and dont have to apply for any special permit. In such numbers, they are beginning to feel like a burden around a borough that is trying to improve itself and the lives of its residents, and to shake off its bad reputation. To exhibit this book, remove the book block from the outer cover, expand the pages and hang from nails or small hooks using the holes provided.
Each of these papers began as hope, were shaped by loss or defeat, then cast aside. These new forms perhaps now possess a state of mind, shaped by nervous tension and grief. After these images were made, little autopsies were performed on the papers to reveal the failed bets held within. If betting shops move into places previously occupied by banks or solicitors, they are classed as financial services and dont have to apply for any special permit. In such numbers, they are beginning to feel like a burden around a borough that is trying to improve itself and the lives of its residents, and to shake off its bad reputation. To exhibit this book, remove the book block from the outer cover, expand the pages and hang from nails or small hooks using the holes provided.
material by peter fraser.
PhotographyFraser has said that 'The idea that there is no hierarchical relationship between large and small, as everything in the Universe is made of small things, has influenced much of his work and came directly from seeing this film'.[citation needed] Fraser was an early adopter of colour photography in the UK, along with Paul Graham and Martin Parr. He began exhibiting colour photographs in 1982.
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In 1984, Fraser travelled to Memphis, USA to spend two months with William Eggleston, after meeting him at Eggleston's first UK exhibition opening at the Victoria and Albert Museum the previous year. This experience gave Fraser the confidence to commit to working with colour photography with reference to notions of 'Poetic Truth' rather than notions of 'documentary truth' which prevailed at the time. Therefore, despite the historical pressure of the documentary tradition in British photography at this time Fraser was drawn to making photographs which were in each successive series preoccupied with philosophic and metaphysical questions, alluded to by Ian Jeffrey who said:
"...see Peter Fraser, probably the best colourist anywhere now, and as capable with metaphors as any major poet. Fraser’s work is complete, full, in its resonances and layered meanings, rich with the sort of richness you might find in Chardin or Vermeer."
"...see Peter Fraser, probably the best colourist anywhere now, and as capable with metaphors as any major poet. Fraser’s work is complete, full, in its resonances and layered meanings, rich with the sort of richness you might find in Chardin or Vermeer."
Photo Shoot #1
PHOTO SHOOT #2
saul leiter.
Saul Leiter is an American photographer that created pictures in the 1940s. the type of images he created were abstract this means that we are not sure of the subject as soon as we see the pictures. When creating Saul focuses on lines and the contrast between bright and dark colours. Saul was based in New York, at the time he was a painter. He also had close friends that were painters as well.
Saul Leiter Paintings
This was my painting that I created when looking at souls photography.
I realised when painting that in the images Saul doesn't have a main subject and usually has something blocking the focus.