These are various articles I have written about abstract photography:
Version 1
Photography is a unique art form that sets itself apart with its capacity to document and portray reality accurately. Its invention disrupted traditional art forms like painting and sculpture, challenging their established figurative styles. It was therefore quite surprising, even shocking, when this form of image-making, which was still vying for its place in the art world, began to venture into the territory of the non-representational, giving birth to abstract photography. This genre emerged from a desire for experimentation and defiance of norms. In his 1929 essay on the history of the medium, Walter Benjamin described photography’s “second nature” as its inherent ability to separate and abstract the visible from the real. This led to the creation of photographs that rejected the mandate for absolute realism, focusing more on the process than the object, and often leaving the viewer guessing about what they depicted. This form of expression is what we now know as abstract photography.
György Kepes, a Hungarian artist, used long exposures to play with the neon light effect in his kinetic outdoor neon light mural for Radio Shack in Boston, 1949-1950.
What is Abstract Photography?
When a medium is as realistic as photography manages to detach itself from the role of being a mere representative of life, the results can be quite intriguing. An abstract photograph doesn’t represent or hold a specific meaning, at least not in the most literal sense. Like abstract art in general, photographic abstraction aims to convey a certain feeling, an idea, or an aesthetic impression. It relies on our visual perception and the fundamental sense of form, color, and lines to create captivating compositions. Sometimes we can recognize the subject or the object in these compositions, and sometimes we can’t. While other artists, such as painters and sculptors, can create abstraction from scratch, photographers must find existing abstraction around them and isolate it by capturing it on film or a digital sensor. This requires significant technical knowledge and a vision that can see beyond reality. When done correctly, this kind of photo-making can produce incredibly powerful imagery rooted in reality but departed from realism. Like abstract art in general, it has become very popular among art enthusiasts and collectors due to its striking visual impact and the complexity of its creative process.
László Moholy-Nagy’s Untitled (Photogram), c. 1939-1941, is a Gelatin Silver Print, 40 x 47,8 cm, housed in the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York.
A Brief History
While some of the first instances of abstract photography were created in the 1800s, after the first photograph was taken around 1839, the actual style didn’t emerge until the early 20th century. The 19th-century examples were primarily experimental images taken for scientific purposes. For instance, the visual documentation of radiation made by French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel around 1903, while not intended to be pioneering works of photographic abstraction, demonstrated that photography didn’t necessarily have to provide a complete depiction of its subject. The first exhibition dedicated to abstract photography was held in 1914, featuring images by Erwin Quedenfeldt that showcased lines and shapes found in nature.
The genre received a significant boost from Surrealists such as László Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray. Their darkroom experiments established a new expressive language, which sometimes didn’t even involve using a camera, like rayograms. Artists like Otto Steinert and Heinz Hajek-Halke blurred the line between surrealism and abstraction, reinventing concepts of portraiture toward the latter half of the 20th century. The 1960s saw technology playing a more prominent role in creating abstract photos, particularly through microscopes that were now advanced enough to provide remarkable imagery. The rise of digital photography in the 1990s took the genre to a new level, although many artists chose to stick with traditional techniques that didn’t involve Photoshop or other editing software.
Silvio Wolf’s Horizon 14 and Horizon 16, created in 2006, capture the edge of a burned filmstrip.
Creative Techniques – Crafting an Abstract Photo
Abstract photography can be seen as a rule-breaker of the medium. This very fact forms the heart of its creative process. It’s never just about pointing your camera and shooting, especially in this case. Photographers explored all the technical possibilities of their camera, the film, the photographic paper, as well as factors such as light and time. Reality had to be transformed, so photos were subjected to treatments like solarization and multiple exposures. Rayograms, named after their inventor Man Ray, are photos made without the use of a camera, employing only a darkroom, photographic paper, random objects placed on its surface, and light from above. On the other hand, some photographers use cameras and their unique characteristics in innovative ways, such as removing the lens and letting the light hit the sensor directly.
When it comes to the act of shooting and creating an abstract image with a camera in any given location, there are many possibilities depending on the result the photographer wants to achieve. Since it’s all about color, shapes, and lines, artists use tools like selective focus to draw attention to a specific detail within a composition. Blur is another important visual aspect, as it emphasizes the abstraction. In technical terms, we can talk about panning, zooming, focus shift, and so on. This type of imagery calls for engaging compositions, which means playing with details, lines, forms, textures, all created by contrasts and colors within the frame. Often, these photographs are found in close-ups, rather than wide shots, narrowing down an existing element of reality until it becomes an independent, abstract matter. And the best part? Abstraction is everywhere, all you need is a camera and an adventurous spirit.
A video tour of the Thomas Ruff abstract photography exhibition at David Zwirner in 2013
Contemporary Photographers of the Abstract
Thanks to the numerous and versatile approaches of abstract photography, many artists from all fields of the arts have produced some excellent examples of it. Over the course of their careers, artists like Barbara Kasten, Tom Friedman, Carel Balth, Vik Muniz, Ellsworth Kelly, Andy Warhol, and Ed Ruscha have all been photographers of the intangible at some point, with works that were created as a study or a separate project. Within the photographer’s circle are the iconic images of György Kepes, Harold Edgerton, Minor White, James Welling, and Aaron Siskind, whom Elaine de Kooning once described as a “painter’s photographer”. Siskind is considered the most prominent photographer of abstraction, producing particularly important work during the 1950s and ’60s when he worked closely with Expressionists like Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. The digital era introduced us to the works of Thomas Ruff, perhaps the most notable representative among today’s photo artists, alongside fellow German Wolfgang Tillmans. Hiroshi Sugimoto’s seascapes certainly evoke a sense of the sublime, even though they’re only black and white, as opposed to the colorful patterns of Penelope Umbrico. The works of Michael Flomen and Ellen Carey rule the field of photograms. While Eileen Quinlan explores feminism and pushes the boundaries of the medium, Yamini Nayar’s abstract works draw inspiration from cinema and mass media. Also worth mentioning are the landscapes of Edward Burtunsky and Doty/Glasco, Barbara Vaughn’s reflections in water, the explosions of Naoya Hatakeyama… The beauty of abstract photography is that it can encompass all genres, offering a plethora of possibilities. As such, it will always be popular among artists and on the market.
The first book in English to document the phenomenon of photographic abstraction, The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography is now available as an affordable paperback edition. It puts the practice into a historical context and examines the variety of approaches thriving within contemporary photo-makers. Author Lyle Rexer examines abstraction at pivotal moments, starting with the inception of the medium, through photo-secessionists, modernists and surrealists, to the latest creatives exploring the possibilities of abstraction in photographs. Rexer explores the influence the history of abstraction exerts on contemporary thinking about the medium. This volume includes a selection of primary texts from and interviews with key practitioners and critics, such as Alvin Langdon Coburn, László Moholy-Nagy, Gottfried Jägger, Silvio Wolf and Walead Beshty.
Version 2
Photography is a unique art form that sets itself apart with its capacity to document and portray reality accurately. Its invention disrupted traditional art forms like painting and sculpture, challenging their established figurative styles. It was therefore quite surprising, even shocking, when this form of image-making, which was still vying for its place in the art world, began to venture into the territory of the non-representational, giving birth to abstract photography.
What is Abstract Photography?
When a medium as realistic as photography manages to detach itself from the role of being a mere representative of life, the results can be quite intriguing. An abstract photograph doesn’t represent or hold a specific meaning, at least not in the most literal sense. Like abstract art in general, photographic abstraction aims to convey a certain feeling, an idea, or an aesthetic impression. It relies on our visual perception and the fundamental sense of form, color, and lines to create captivating compositions. Sometimes we can recognize the subject or the object in these compositions, and sometimes we can’t.
A Brief History
While some of the first instances of abstract photography were created in the 1800s, after the first photograph was taken around 1839, the actual style didn’t emerge until the early 20th century. The 19th-century examples were primarily experimental images taken for scientific purposes. For instance, the visual documentation of radiation made by French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel around 1903, while not intended to be pioneering work of photographic abstraction, demonstrated that photography didn’t necessarily have to provide a complete depiction of its subject.
The genre received a significant boost from Surrealists such as László Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray. Their darkroom experiments established a new expressive language, which sometimes didn’t even involve the use of a camera, as in the case of rayograms. Artists like Otto Steinert and Heinz Hajek-Halke blurred the line between surrealism and abstraction, reinventing concepts of portraiture toward the latter half of the 20th century.
Creative Techniques – Crafting an Abstract Photo
Abstract photography can be seen as a rule-breaker of the medium. This very fact forms the heart of its creative process. It’s never just about pointing your camera and shooting, especially in this case. Photographers explored all the technical possibilities of their camera, the film, the photographic paper, and factors such as light and time. Reality had to be transformed, so photos were subjected to treatments like solarization and multiple exposures. Rayograms, named after their inventor Man Ray, are photos made without the use of a camera, employing only a darkroom, photographic paper, random objects placed on its surface, and light from above. On the other hand, some photographers use cameras and their unique characteristics in innovative ways, such as removing the lens and letting the light hit the sensor directly.
When it comes to the act of shooting and creating an abstract image with a camera in any given location, there are many possibilities depending on the result the photographer wants to achieve. Since it’s all about color, shapes, and lines, artists use tools like selective focus to draw attention to a specific detail within a composition. Blur is another important visual aspect, as it emphasizes abstraction. In technical terms, we can talk about panning, zooming, focus shift, and so on. This type of imagery calls for engaging compositions, which means playing with details, lines, forms, textures, all created by contrasts and colors within the frame. Often, these photographs are found in close-ups, rather than wide shots, narrowing down an existing element of reality until it becomes an independent, abstract matter. And the best part? Abstraction is everywhere, all you need is a camera and an adventurous spirit.
Contemporary Photographers of the Abstract
Thanks to the numerous and versatile approaches of abstract photography, many artists from all fields of the arts have produced some excellent examples of it. Over the course of their careers, artists like Barbara Kasten, Tom Friedman, Carel Balth, Vik Muniz, Ellsworth Kelly, Andy Warhol, and Ed Ruscha have all been photographers of the intangible at some point, with works that were created as a study or a separate project. Within the photographer’s circle are the iconic images of György Kepes, Harold Edgerton, Minor White, James Welling, and Aaron Siskind, whom Elaine de Kooning once described as a “painter’s photographer.”
Citation: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/abstract-photography