Abstract photography is a departure from reality, from the recognition of objects, when all attention is paid to details, features, texture, color. There are no established rules, no plot, but there is always an idea, a meaning, and a mystery. You can shoot anything, using different techniques, using the simplest camera, and get interesting, original photographs.
Because the abstract photography includes many techniques and directions, then in principle there cannot be a detailed guide for practicing this type of photography. Eat general recommendations, which may be useful at first.
What to shoot when shooting abstractly?
That’s why it’s interesting that absolutely anything can be an object for shooting – objects, shadows, texture, color. Use your imagination. Find things around you that other people don’t pay attention to, look for something special in ordinary objects, be attentive to details. Did something interest you, make you stop and take a closer look? Perhaps - this is the future photograph - in abstract photography the principle of “felt - shot” predominates. Unusual patterns can be seen everywhere– in the pattern of sand on the beach, the bark of a tree, in a flower petal, leaves. If you are on the coast, look for places where the water has collected leaves and stones, take pictures of wet pebbles, footprints in the sand, patterns of ebb and flow, and reflections on the water. The city is also a great place for abstract photography. Modern buildings often have unusual shape, strange angles, curves, color spots, a lot of glass. Try shooting from low and high points, photograph streets, lace of forged fences, patterns of dilapidated walls. And of course macro photography! There are a lot of interesting objects that are easy to recognize in photographs taken from a distance. But if you shoot the same subject in macro or shoot only a certain area, you will get an unusual abstract photo.
Color and light.
In abstract photography, color is the most powerful way impact on the viewer and the easiest way to make a photo attractive. When shooting abstractions, you are not limited by anything. Whether the colors are harmonious or the emphasis is on contrast, the photo can be bright, colorful or monochrome to highlight the texture of the objects. One creative technique is highlighting color. For example, shoot a tree on which the leaves have not yet blossomed against the background blue sky. Or a bright object on a white background.
How to remove abstraction?
The starting point for a good abstract image should be a good photograph, properly focused, exposed, cropped. You should not rely on graphics programs - if the picture is initially bad, then no effects can make it good. Look through the viewfinder, not the camera display. If you shoot in macro mode, the viewfinder must be completely filled with the subject - otherwise there will be gaps in the photo. When shooting landscapes with a wide-angle lens (if you're shooting in front of you from a close distance), don't forget to look around the viewfinder - at a wide angle, your feet may also be in the frame. As for the rules of exposure and composition, abstract photography can follow established canons or violate them. Work in manual mode, shoot at different shutter speeds and apertures. Experiment!
What to shoot with?
You don't have to have a macro lens in your arsenal. An abstract photo can be made using any optics. When photographing urban architecture, a telephoto lens will make it possible to compress the perspective and bring color spots and objects closer to each other. With a wide angle, you can shoot up close and against a blue sky. The fixed 50 mm is very convenient to use. The lens has a wide aperture, the pictures will be colorful and artistic.
Is abstract photography worth your time?
Not everyone can see the unusual in the simple, and not every viewer is interested in photographs in which little is clear. If you decide to try your hand at this type of photography, be prepared for the fact that not everyone will understand or appreciate your masterpiece. Everyone's imagination works differently, and only a few people will see what you want to show in the photo.
Abstract photography seems to be something elusive and difficult to describe with a specific term. Perhaps this was due to the abstract nature of the idea of “abstraction” and the ingrained misconceptions about this type of photography.
Many have described this topic from their subjective point of view, and in this article I will try to present my structure of working with abstract photography. It will be neither right nor wrong, but it can be applied to your work, thought process, and creative ideas.
What is abstraction? A whole discussion can be started based on this question. Photographers are forever tied to the subjects they photograph. The inextricable connection with “reality” creates the illusion that we always see a photograph in front of us anything and this sometimes sets the tone of the photo, or completely ruins it. This way of looking at photography relies on seeing the subject in the world around them, relying on their connection together.
IN general outline, abstraction is a process during which information is carefully removed, leaving only outlines and weakening the object-photo connection. For example, take a piece of paper and a pen, place your hand with your fingers apart and trace it.
Now you only have an outline, a model of the hand without skin texture, color, depth of shape, etc. She doesn't even have fingerprints! This is roughly how abstraction works, we discard some of the information and leave only what we need. The outline shown in the screenshot above is not necessarily my hand. Thus, the connection between subject and image is lost.
Abstract ideas are more generalized than their original subjects. For example, the concept of “food” is more abstract than “fruit,” but “apple” is already specific. There may be an even more detailed option - “ green apple" In this way, a transition is made from abstraction to a precise concept.
You may say: “But the drawing clearly shows that this is a hand. How can this be an abstract image? This is a trap of misunderstanding that many fall into. Images become abstract not because they are no longer recognizable. This happens due to the fact that they convey not the object itself, but its other qualities - lines, textures, color, shape, patterns, rhythm, etc.
Ways to Create an Abstract Photograph
If abstraction moves away from certain and concrete things, how do we direct its movement? Let me say that all photographs are abstract to some extent! Every time you take a photo, you point your lens at a three-dimensional world and what comes out is a two-dimensional, flat image. You have just left one dimension behind. This is one level of abstraction, despite the fact that we are already accustomed to it.
Also, if you take a color photo and convert it to black and white, you throw away the color information. However, the true meaning of abstract photography goes much deeper than the examples mentioned above.
Abstraction by isolation or exclusion
When looking at a subject, you may see an opportunity to create an abstract photograph, as some areas may contain contrasting lines, textures, colors, shapes or forms that are separate from the subject itself. This can be done either during shooting or by cropping in post-production to isolate areas of interest.
The shot above is one of the types of abstraction in which the underlying object, whatever it may be, is cut away. In the end we are left with two strong lines with sharp edges and an interesting shiny texture. This is no longer a photograph of “something”, but something presented as independent part, separated from the main subject and relying entirely on lines, shapes, patterns, texture, color, rhythm and structure.
Abstractions by increasing distance
As we move away from the subject, information is lost. This may become especially noticeable on long distances, for example, in aerial photography, where visibility decreases as altitude increases.
The photo above is one of the works in my series Infrared landscapes(Infrared Earthscape). I took them from an airplane window while flying from Providence to Salt Lake City, using a camera capable of shooting in infrared light. The texture-like features consist of huge hills, mountains and valleys. Everything looks tiny, like skin texture under a microscope. Of course, the thick snow cover also played a role in the abstraction process, removing some details.
Abstraction by reducing the distance
When we get very close to certain subjects, things that are usually subtle can appear as isolated abstract details. The photo above has thick lines coming from an arch-like stripe and a black outline. The object itself becomes intangible. The bright solid orange color further emphasizes the abstractness.
Abstraction in motion
Another way to discard information, thereby creating an abstract photograph, is movement. The subject himself, the photographer, the camera, or all together can move. This can be achieved, for example, by moving the camera upward while shooting trees. While this may eliminate some information, the trees are still a major element, albeit in a more impressionistic manner. I'm talking about a movement that dissolves information to a greater extent, leaving behind some colors, patterns and lines.
The photo above was taken from a moving train late in the evening, somewhere between Providence and Washington. The lines and colors came from the movement of the train and my deliberate rotation of the camera.
Abstraction using random patterns
You may or may not recognize what this photograph represents - it doesn't matter. The key is that I had no control over the creation of this pattern. The only solution was the moment I pressed the shutter button. I was not basing this on what I saw, but on my expectations that the camera should capture the pattern within 5-6 seconds, no matter what shape it was. During the shooting process, I rejected many frames because the result was not interesting to me for certain reasons.
Abstraction by the method of change
Color and shades - important elements photos. We expect to get a certain connection between different parts of the image and their colors. This expected structure can be changed either in post-processing or during shooting, creating a completely different look for abstract photography.
The photo above is another work from my series Infrared landscapes. It was made using a camera sensitive to infrared light. These photos typically have different colors depending on how they interact with the infrared light and the camera sensor. I also changed the colors myself, adding surrealism. The result is a snapshot of an unnamed area, filled with difficult-to-recognize details. Texture, patterns, lines and new color became structural elements rather than a specific location on the map. Even simple inversion can create interesting abstract images from some photographs.
conclusions
Subject recognition has nothing to do with abstract photography. I believe the fundamental difference is whether the artist is presenting an object or another graphic structure. Look at the work of Aaron Siskind, where you can see peeling paint or a pile of rocks. As this recognition quickly fades, you are left with the photograph's surface and its contents separated from the subject. Another example is a photograph of a house wall by André Kertész, which clearly shows that there is a building in front of us, but there is no point in concentrating on this, because the frame is full of different geometric shapes, creating a strong structure. The photograph may well have abstract qualities or be read in many different ways.
I've outlined my views on creating abstract photographs, giving you something to think about. I use the same structure when looking at other photographers' abstract work. This approach may be useful to you for working or understanding abstract photography, or it may be useless. In any case, I'll be ready to hear your opinions in the comments.
At the beginning of the 20th century, abstract art became an opportunity for photography to penetrate the territory of painting. Although here, too, a certain duality arose: on the one hand, photography helped Western painting put an end to the obsessive desire for realism and, perhaps, provoked the emergence of non-objective painting, and on the other hand, it gradually began to rush towards abstraction. A comprehensive definition of this direction in art, quite suitable for photography, was given by Herbert Read in the work “Modern Art” of 1948: “We call abstract all those works of art that, even if they are based on the artist’s idea of any object outside world, subsequently acquire an independent and self-sufficient aesthetic value, not based on any objective reality.”
In its broadest sense, Abstract Photography is a very diverse category of images created using various techniques and techniques, but general rule for which is a departure from symbolic representation. Abstract photography rejects the idea that something recognizable must be depicted, preferring instead to take as its subject the image itself and the process of its creation. Therefore, early examples of abstract photography include the photogenic drawings of Henry Fox Talbot, the chronographs of Etienne-Jules Marey, and the city landscapes of Alfred Stieglitz at the beginning of the 20th century.
As a movement, abstract art finally took shape in 1910–20, covering literally all types of art, from painting to photography. In its depths many movements and so-called “isms” were born: cubism, futurism, constructivism and others.
In 1913, Alvin Langton Coburn, several years after Wassily Kandinsky's abstract experiments in painting, included a series of five photographs entitled "New York from Above" in his solo exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in London. These were views of the city taken from high point and, in addition, with a distorted perspective, which created a truly abstract drawing of squares and buildings.
Among the authors are the avant-garde of photography of that time: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Erich Mendelsohn, Alexander Rodchenko and others. But the fame of the father of abstract photography went to Coburn, and his “vortographs” of 1917 received the title of the first software-abstract photographs. To create them, he directed the camera at various objects through a triangular prism of mirrors. A year later, Kritsian Schad completely abandoned the use of a camera when creating an image - this is how the method known today as the photogram was developed.
The author called his works “shadographs” and, following the abstract artists, he simply numbered the images instead of titles. Schad's invention was based on the principle used by Talbot in his first experiments in photogenic drawing: scraps of paper and flat objects are placed on exposed light-sensitive paper, resulting in silhouettes often reminiscent of the picturesque collages of the Cubists. The photographer remained faithful to his technique all his life, creating “shadography” both in 1917 and in 1977. Many artists, including Man Ray, El Lissitzky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Franz Roch, took up the emerging photogram as the most suitable and expressive technique for experimental searches in the field of abstract forms.
Solarization, “reiography,” multiple exposures, cliché-verre techniques, and photomontage became tools for creating “non-objective” images and a new understanding of the world. The resulting unpredictable abstract patterns, tending towards two-dimensionality, bore a superficial resemblance to the structured and thoughtful works of Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Max Weber. The second half of the 20th century continued the list with the luminogram of Kilian Breuer and the chemigram of Pierre Cordier.
The creation of abstract images, however, is not limited solely to light and chemical manipulations in a dark room. Another “offshoot” of abstract photography could well be called “abstract realism.” Its first representative is, perhaps, Paul Strand, the ideologist of the “pure” photography art movement. His work “Abstraction of a Chair” from 1916 seems to declare the basic techniques that realize the aspiration for abstraction and are characteristic of this “branch”: filming close-up, unusual angles, lighting effects and expressive natural properties of the photographed objects themselves. In similar ways it was possible to change the familiar appearance of objects. The model could be any objects from the surrounding reality - from a pattern on leaves to the wall of a house.
Abstract photo work is a type of photographic art that is based on the perception not of details and objects, as in a regular image, but of shape, color and lines. To learn to perceive color and shape, a photographer needs to abstract from the usual perception of reality, which is often difficult. This article describes methods for obtaining abstract photography.
What are abstract photos?
There is no generally accepted definition of abstract photography. It is difficult to define something abstract, so we will be guided by some general principles and assume that:
- Abstract photography does not represent the subject in its full form
- It is based not on objects, but on shape, color and lines.
A very important conclusion can be drawn from this definition: since the brain perceives shape and color, and not objects, logical thinking when perceiving such photographs, it is involved to a lesser extent. Thus, abstract photography allows the eye to better see the composition of the photograph, and if it is good, the photograph evokes positive emotions in a person. And emotions, as we know, influence human behavior more strongly than logic.
Thus, by emphasizing shape, color and lines, abstract photography evokes a mental reaction that is connected, among other things, to the human nervous system. For example, it is well known that the human nervous system reacts in one way or another to objects of a certain color and contrast.
It should be noted that abstract photography is not always something unrecognizable. Very often this is part of an object or place that is familiar to the viewer.
Why is abstract photography needed?
There are many other directions in photography that are no less attractive than abstract photography. And yet, in addition to the beauty of shapes and lines, abstract photographs are very convenient for a thinking photographer. For beautiful landscapes and exotic places you need to travel and have the means to do so, but an abstract shot can be shot on the corner of your own house.
Basic principles
Since abstract photography is based on form, line and color, it requires the photographer to have a deep understanding of these aspects.
Form
Any objects in the reality surrounding the photographer can have an interesting shape. The form can serve as the basis for the composition. In general, it is the form that creates the composition of the image, and the lines and color complement it. So good abstract photography must start with good form. You can find it in objects that are dynamic, pleasant, or simply interesting shape. There are no criteria for choosing a form. However, if a form evokes an emotion in the photographer and is compositionally balanced in the photograph, then it can evoke the same reaction in the viewer.
Color
Color often attracts a person's attention and excites him. nervous system. In abstract photography to achieve best effect the color can be made more saturated using a graphic editor.
Contrast
Another way to create dynamic photos is to use contrast in them. A very simple frame in composition can only attract attention thanks to contrast.
Lines
Lines always make abstract photography more interesting. With their help, eye movement is controlled. There are several ways to use lines. The first one is to direct the line to the visual center of the image (to the center where the interesting object is located). For example, in this photo there are steps leading up to the visual center (a pile of three apples). These lines direct the viewer's eye to the semantic center of the image.
The second way to use lines is not to direct them towards the visual center, but simply to draw them across the frame. Lines always force the eye to analyze a photograph, and if there is no visual center, the eye can travel through the picture for a very long time. However, although this technique can be used in abstract photography, it is best not used in classical photography as it detracts from the image.
Briton Josh Adamski has gained fame thanks to the art of conceptual photography. He was born and lived most of his life in the UK, but is currently based in Israel. Much of Adamski's work is centered around water, as he lives near the beach and draws inspiration from the theme of the sea. In his works important role abstraction plays. Josh processes his photographs in photo editors to make them even more abstract and expressive. The city, the coast, parks and squares - everything that is here and now is certainly reflected in the amazing, fantastic photographs of this author. They give not only delight, but also inspiration.
(Total 29 photos)
1. Josh Adamski was born in 1948 in the UK, where he lived most of his life.
2. Josh began to be interested in photography since childhood, often begging his father for a camera for his first experiments.
4. Today, the name of Josh Adamski is named among the masters of modern photography, photo artists who not only skillfully present their works, improving them with digital processing, but also put meaning, idea, and soul into them.
5. He considers Ansel Adams’ phrase “You don’t take a photograph, you make it” to be his motto, which can be translated as “You shouldn’t take a photograph, you should make a photograph,” and specializes in mind-blowing, impressive, conceptual photography of the cityscape .
6. Josh Adamski is sure that there are no rules for taking a good photo: there are just rules. good photographers, whose works are breathtaking even when they are made ignoring all existing rules.
7. Josh Adamski captures stunning panoramas and turns them into works of fine art in his unusual, abstract style.
8. Distant silhouettes add intrigue, and smooth lines and blurring of a certain part of the image convey a mysterious calm.
10. Soft lines and blurred silhouettes give the works an atmosphere of peace, and the masterful use of color allows the viewer to direct the viewer’s perception of the photograph in the right direction.
12. Adamski’s photographs allow you to be transported to another world, which is full not only of peace and tranquility, but also of a special power that takes your breath away and does not allow you to take your eyes off the fantastic pictures.
