Abstract Photographers : Definition of Abstract : Abstract Beauty

Before beginning our exploration into abstract photographers and abstract photography as a genre, lets take a look at what the word abstract means.

One definition of abstract is that it "begins with an object in reality and reduces, enlarges upon, or blurs it beyond recognition". For abstract photographers, this means they "allow the lens to focus so acutely that we see the wrinkles but do not recognize the elephant in the picture."

Famous Abstract Artists

Left: Abstract by Kandinsky (standing on its side)

The famous abstract artist and art theoretician, said to be the "father of abstract painting", Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944, Russian) describes in the passage quoted below, his first encounter with the abstract beauty of a painting which appeared to represent nothing.

"I returned home (at dusk) having finished a study, still dreamy and absorbed in the work I had completed, and suddenly saw an indescribably beautiful picture, pervaded by an inner glow. At first, I stopped short and then quickly approached this mysterious picture, on which I could discern only forms and colours and whose content was incomprehensible. At once, I discovered the key to the puzzle: it was a picture I had painted, standing on its side against the wall." (Wassily Kandinsky, 1913)

We can be delighted, as he was mesmerized, by the saturated colours and dreamy forms of one of his paintings (shown above): pure pigment and free shapes on canvas. Perhaps the green splotches remind us of nature or the yellows of drips but that is our reaction to the unrecognizable. In an attempt to approximate Kandinsky's revelation on art without content, the picture above is a rotated version of the landscape below. Get the picture?

Autumn in Bavaria, Kandinsky, 1908
Autumn in Bavaria, 1908

Although Kandinsky had loosely interpreted the landscape, it is a painting that clearly depicts a place. The subject of the picture is an avenue or bridge as it would be seen by someone approaching it. A mere tweaking of perspective and an assemblage of reality is restored to us. We begin to see familiar objects and may even construct a sketchy narrative that appears to vanish in the distance of the painting. Colour and form reconstruct the familiar and concrete.

Abstract Beauty

Because abstract painting and Kandinsky broke ground for art that lacks content and represents nothing, abstract photography might be best appreciated by first looking at abstract painting. While art forms other than painting such as music for example have been shown by theorists to share aspects of the abstract, photography is especially well suited to the comparison in that it has evolved out of the desire to replicate in our eyes, to represent or depict, things which we recognize or wish to remember.

After Kandinsky's hazy vision of one of his paintings turned on its side had impressed its significance upon the artist, he began to paint more and more loosely. Eventually, nothing was recognizable or inspired by reality. The painting by Kandinsky was never meant to replicate reality and, yet, it possesses an abstract beauty which is expressive and surprising.

Just Colour & Rhythm

Kandinsky wrote much throughout his lifetime about art theory, comparing pure colour and form with music and comparing music with emotion. While he carried out his program of abstract painting to its logical conclusion of non-representational forms, nothing that consciously relates to reality appears upon the canvas. Kandinsky, instead, considered rhythm and movement hallmarks of his work. A painting would, by nothing more than its media, evoke in us our own colours and rhythms - our emotions. And in a very general sense, this is what Kandinsky's writings about art and his painting itself demonstrate.

The art world, of course, is immeasurably vast. Kandinsky had broken open painting to release other kinds of abstraction. From Picasso's cubism to Pollock's abstract expressionism and anything conceivable between them, abstract painting encompasses sharp lines and geometric forms to accidental drips and spatters. Amorphous, dreamy blobs of paint to punctiliously penciled shapes.

Abstract Photographers Have More Fun

It is from this point of view that we can now turn to look at the work of abstract photographers. For beginning photographers, especially, making abstract pictures is easy and fun. Anything can be used in the service of abstract photographers - literally. Let fly open the kitchen cupboard doors or wander your backyard during a snowstorm for inspiration. The results, whether in focus or blurred, will be abstract photographs as long as they do not depict or represent what we know as reality. The picture may remind the viewer of reality in some way, but that would be beside the point.

Abstract painters drip and pour paint; drag rags or brushes across canvas; or draw shapes with exaggerated precision and no obvious meaning. They build up paint or other material to create the painting. Abstract photographers begin with an object in reality and reduce, enlarge upon, or blur it beyond recognition.

Where did the elephant go?

Abstract photographers allow the lens to focus so acutely that we see the wrinkles but do not recognize the elephant in the picture. The repetition of objects photographed from some unusual or distant vantage point produce rhythmic colour. And allowing the lens to blur reality dissolves an object beyond recognition into pure colour and amorphous shapes. The abstract photographer thus makes a picture meant for pure visual sensation.

Left: Abstract with Wine: Photo by Shakespearesmonkey, Courtesy of Flickr

A good example of contemporary abstract photographers work can be seen in the picture to the left. The image evokes tactile sensations through the over-lapping of plum-coloured tones, both cool and warm. Texture and colour recede or advance the planes of the picture. But in fact what we are viewing is the abstraction of wine stains, with still-liquid Chianti glazing the surface.

Another example can be seen in Rich Cobalt Below (below). Here the lines are simple curves, the surface is rich and glossy, and the colour makes this photograph into a cool blue abstract. This photo is of the inside of a cobalt blue mug, yet one can easily see how this same concept of closing in on an object could apply to a lamb's ear, the treads of a black rubber tyre, or melting ice-cream.

Right: Rich Cobalt Blue: Photo by Cobalt123, Courtesy of Flickr

The final example of abstract photography below is angular and rhythmically appealing. Colour is muted, allowing our eyes to focus upon geometric forms and pulsating perspective created by light and shadow. The photographer took advantage of a shuttered room at sunset while on vacation.

Where did the boundaries go?

In a digital age, when we are able to view our photographs with great immediacy, abstract photography is especially gratifying for beginners. There are no boundaries except for those you impose upon yourself. Don't allow your camera to gather dust while you await an event to document, for most certainly the material of abstract photography surrounds you.

Left: Abstract Light and Shadow: Sheraton Miramar Resort El Gouna (Photo: Mo Elnadi, Courtesy of Flickr)

The arts are like sisters - each maintains her individuality, while sharing with one or more of the other sisters' common attributes. The study of aesthetics, in part, questions the relationships among the sister arts. As viewers of art, we are logically drawn to see painting and photography as similar: most of our experience tells us that pictures - drawn, painted, or photographed - depict places, persons, or things.

Pictures that seem to resemble nothing, that are all shapes or colours or shadow and light, fall into abstraction. Abstract Photography can be playful; sharply focused or blurred; and revealing detail so fine or so far away as to be incomprehensible.

Because it lacks depiction and does not document anything, abstract photography lends itself well to beginning photographers who like to experiment as much as to advanced abstract photographers who have developed a love of line, shape, colour and tone for the beauty that is inherent in these formal qualities.