Abstract photography, sometimes called non-objective, experimental, conceptual or concrete photography, is a means of depicting a visual image that does not have an immediate association with the object world and that has been created through the use of photographic equipment, processes or materials.
ALFRED STIEGLITZ
“photography fascinated me, first as a toy, then as a passion, then as an obsession”
He was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was born on January 1, 1864. He was friends with German artist at the beginning of his career and he brought his first camera and traveled through the European country side photographing landscapes and peasants. He began to self teach himself about photography and he won first place for his Last Joke, Bellagio photography in 1887 from Amateur Photographer. In the main part of his career he considered himself an artist but refused to sell his photographs. His father decided to purchase a small photography business so he could earn a living in his chosen profession, Stieglitz paid his employees a high wage as he wanted high quality images. He then started getting awards for his photography exhibitions. He brought his first hand-held camera in late 1892 and he used this to take his two best known photos which are Winter, Fifth Avenue (right) and The Terminal (left).
SONGS OF THE SKY
His photographs called ‘Songs of the Sky’ are focused on landscapes of the sky, which have abstract qualities. The title of these images are related to music, which shoes Stieglitz intended to do.
Moodboard;
These 8 images here are my inspiration for this shoot. I like how the dark and light in the images contrast each other and they all have different moods such as danger or a sense of heaven. He has really shown nature giving off many emotions in this project and it makes people looks at the images very differently because you can feel an emotion when looking at these images of clouds, something so simple yet with so much meaning.
This image by Stieglitz is one of my favourites because the natural light is seeping through the waves of clouds. The leading eye point in this images would be the whiter parts of the image because it captures the eye as it is contrasting up against the dark duller coloured clouds in the image and this shows how nature works together to create something so simple but beautiful and I believe that was Stieglitz’s motive behind this image, to show the earth for what it is. This image also has little editing to it, so it is showing the natural creations. 
SHOOT 1
When performing my shoot, I regularly came back to the 8 images above, so regain inspiration and to remind myself of the images he took.
These three images here are a few I selected from my shoot, just to show the variety of images I took. All three images have been edited into black and white and also have adjusted the contract slightly, to make the white clouds pop more. To help me get these images I regularly came back to my moodboard I created earlier before starting to shoot, to remind myself of the way he took his photos and to regain inspiration, to form new ideas.
EDITING/PHOTOSHOP
When editing this photo I focused in editing the darkness of the images, to create a higher contrast between the tones in this images. I would use this image as one of my final images because of the way the clouds look, the texture looks soft, so it gives the image a calm mood, but with the dark background the clouds look more vibrant and bold.
I was also experimental with my images, mirroring them using Photoshop, to make my own abstract photo. I mirrored each image then joined them together to make one photo, this makes the image more interesting and creates a contrast.
These are the steps on Photoshop I took to get the finished result of joining 2 mirrored photos together;
FINAL IMAGE
Before 
After
These images demonstrate a before and after editing. The final, completed image has been edited into black and white but I have also edited the darkness on the image and the contrast. I made the contrast high to show the different tones and shade. There is a depth of field in this photo, the top of the photo feels more close up to the white sheets of cloud and then the clouds become smaller which makes them look further away, even tho everything was in line. The clouds have made many different unique shapes, which creates a more interesting photo as there are more shapes to look at and admire. The images just looks satisfying because of the different tones and shapes around.
Aaron Siskind is an American photographer who is a part of the abstract movement. Siskind captures the abstract qualities of layers and texture. Aaron Siskinds work focuses on ideas of distraction in nature and architecture. Siskind intensified this approach to photography with the abstract movement with close-up framing and an emphasis on texture, line and visual rhythms, creating abstract images of the real world. Siskind was one of the first photographers to combine what was known as “straight” photography (recording the real world as the lens “sees” it) with abstraction. Siskind turned away from the social/political world post-World War II, and instead looked inward to seek meaning in the mostly inanimate forms he observed around him.
The Boyle Family is a group of collaborative artists based in London. Boyle Family aims to make art that does not exclude anything as a potential subject. Over the years, subjects have included: earth, air, fire and water; animals, vegetables, minerals; insects, reptiles, water creatures; human beings and societies; physical elements and fluids from the human body. Boyle Family is best known for the earth studies: three dimensional casts of the surface of the earth which record and document random sites with great accuracy. These works combine real material from the site (stones, dust, twigs etc) with paint and resins, preserving the form of the ground.
By now you should have submitted your FINAL IMAGES for printing.
They will be ready to frame, mount, and display by the end of the week. We will show you how to make your final selection and display your work.
Now that you have made your decisions, you are in a good position to…
We always get asked how many blog posts are required (as a minimum) to complete the unit…so here goes :
Compare and Contrast : Edgar Martins
The images above are by a Portuguese photographer, Edgar Martins.
They are part of a series of work inspired by the writing and sending of letters, the power and intimacy of a letter. Martins has recently won various awards for his minimal, direct and stylish approach.
For this mini-series he photographed paper, carefully lit and isolated from any other context. There is a stillness to them that belies the fact they may have been written as suicide notes, contact between prison inmates and loved ones and more. Martins spent time working with court, prison and parole officials and indeed, prisoners in Portugal exploring this theme, that often ended in death for many of his subjects.Now refer back to your experiments with paper, and add your own research and analysis of Edgar Martins’ work.
TASK 1
TASK 2
Compare and contrast : Lewis Bush “Metropole”
employs a range of editing techniques to his images of London City, it’s constantly changing built environment and the industries held within it.
Have a closer look at his work and compare the way he blurs, overlaps and distorts our vision of the city to techniques that you may have employed to your images.
Why do you think he does this?
Describe and explain how your ideas have evolved.
Remember to use this model when discussing and analysing photographs :
TECHNICAL -VISUAL-CONCEPTUAL-CONTEXTUAL
ALWAYS choose 1 x key image of your own to discuss in detail
ALWAYS choose 1 x key image of an influential photographer to discuss in detail
Follow the 10 Step Process for each unit to ensure you tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :
Copy and use this plan to help you organise / evaluate your photo-assignments…
I firstly layered two images over one another, as shown above.
After I layered them I tried out changing the opacity of the layer on top to see if I liked how the image looked by just using opacity. I decided against using it for these two images.
I then went through the different blend options to see how the image would look using different blends. The option I liked the most was the “multiply” option.
I then added a new layer with a new image and used both the opacity and the blend options together to make the new image appear almost invisible but still noticeable in the image.
This is the final outcome.
The next two pictures are finished double exposures.
Garry Gay was born in 1951 and was a color photographer from Glendale, California. He tad taken digital photos since 1993 and had a successful career due to being the president of multiple photography clubs. Garry Gay tended to take images which were very colorful as seen below where he had been taking colorful household object pictures.
The main focus of Garry Gay’s work is the use of colourful objects he takes photos of. Garry uses the formal elements of shape and texture in his work, shape is shown in his work through the different sized objects while the texture is shown through the bright colours in his work and the materialistic objects which helps the bright colours to stand out. Most of Garry’s images are taken from a straight angle which allows different parts of the objects to be the focus piece. After analysing Garry’s images i think he uses artificial lighting in his photography which helps the colours to really pop out, as well as him using a quick shutter speed as there is no blur in any of his images. Most of his images do not include any type of background and only other objects which are to do with the main focus of the image which means that his images are very layered and his main focus doesn’t tend to stand out as much as it would with a plain background. However, this is a very effective technique and by using a wide depth of field this allows for the whole image to be in focus as well as the use of a high aperture.
I like Garry’s work as it is very simplistic however very effective and is very different from any other photographers i have previously researched about.
After researching and analysing Garry Gay’s images i have decided i want to use a quick shutter speed when capturing brightly colored pencils. For my background i will use pencil sharpening which i have chose to do after being inspired by the idea that Garry always included other objects to do with the main subject. I think bot the pencil shavings and the colored pencils will look very effective when together and this is an idea which i can up with myself.
When taking my image i am going to have my camera on a Manual setting so i can change the shutter speed and aperture to whatever i desire and will therefore be able to achieve my goals for this task. These images will be taken inside under artificial lighting.
I found that during taking my images for this photo shoot, it was very hard due to having to use a slow shutter speed as i was under artificial lighting which make the images very hard to focus and therefore they have turned out quite bad.
Editing the image..
The end picture..
When originally taking this image, it was taken with no flash on Manual Focus as i wanted to capture the range of overall very blue colour in the image, as well as being able to edit the depth of field when taking the picture. When planning my editing stage i planned to use Adobe Photoshop to edit the brightness, contrast, saturation, the colour balance and the exposure of this image in order to get my ideal end photograph.
When taking my images i used Canon EOS 1300 D and took all my images in Manual focus which helped me to create a picture with lots of depth. When taking the image i also used a high shutter speed ( 1/250).
The visual aspects are shown through the colour of the image which are emphasized by the brightness of the image as the light brightness helps to brighten up the blue paint on the wall. There is a lot of texture in this image due to the main subject of this 3D image being the wall which has a lot of dents in as well as different colours which act differently to the brightness used in the picture. There is an obvious use of a strong depth of field in this image which has been tone to add more texture and depth into the image.
Editing the second image..
The end picture..
When originally taking this image, it was taken with no flash on Manual Focus as i wanted to be able to change the camera settings for the focus of the image. While planning my editing stage i planned to use Adobe Photoshop in order to change the brightness, contrast, exposure, offset, viberance, saturation, the color balance, the shadows and the highlights of the image in order to create my ideal final image.
When taking my images i used Canon EOS 1300 D and took all my images in Manual focus which helped me to create a picture with lots of depth. When taking the image i also used a high shutter speed ( 1/250). Using the fast shutter speed helped to under expose the image due to the darkness in the background in the image. Using the fast shutter speed helped me to achieve my end goal of having colour and the darkness in the image contrast with each other as there was not much light let into the image. I also used an ISO of 6400 which again helped the contrast between light and dark.
The visual aspects of the image are shown through the colours in the image which is emphasised by the tone of the overall light. There is not much texture in this 3D image however there is viable texture on the leaves of the plant which makes the image very unique, as well as using an ISO of 6400 which is helping to add more contrast between light and dark. There is no pattern arrangement in this image. However, the Rule of Three method is clearly shown on the right hand side of the image.
Mirroring images and Double Exposures
Steps to creating a reverse image copy (mirror of your image)
By using this effect and the idea of copying the image across as if there was a mirror in place, it give the image more feeling and gives the viewer more chose to interpret their own thought of the image and allows more textures and surface to the image.MY INSPIRATION:
This is a mood board of a set of minimalist images which i am including into my research to get me started with my homework task and give me inspiration for my photo shoot. I particularly enjoy this homework task as minimalism often involves a lot of color and simplicity of shapes and forms.
Haas was an Austrian-American photojournalist and colour photographer. He incorporated his photojournalism and photography as a medium of expression and creativity.His father was photographer and encouraged Ernst, but it was only by his fathers death in which he became intrigued by photography when seeing his fathers darkroom. Haas used black and white film for much of his career, color film and visual experimentalism became integral to his photography. He would make his own photographs, translating his passion for poetry, music, painting, and adventure into colour imagery. Once he began working in color, he most often used kodachrome, known for its rich, saturated colors. To print his color work, Haas used the dye transfer process whenever possible. An expensive, complex process most frequently used at the time for advertising, dye transfer allowed for great control over color hue and saturation. As the technology of color photography evolved and improved during this period, audience interest in color imagery increased. Many of the magazines that published Haas’ work, such as Life, improved the quality of their color reproduction, and increasingly sought to include his work in the medium. Despite this progress, many photographers, curators, and historians were initially reluctant to consider color photography as art, given the technology’s commercial origins. His images don’t have a focal point, the picture as a whole speaks, not just one area of the photo. He uses natural lighting to create the clear reflection, he has relatively low level of control due to the fact he can’t position the whereabouts of the sun, so his pictures may have been planned. His photos have contrasting tones, some areas are warm some are cold, his work clearly empathizes the beauty in colour. When I think of colour in photography I picture a vibrant, detailed flower, but Haas, creates colour from objects such as transparent water.
I decided to use Ernst’s water photos as inspiration for my final shoot. I used the puddles of water on a swimming pool cover and on a kayak as a focal point for my reflections and ripples. My texture came from the leaves and water, my colour from the blue and red. In my first and second photos I was influenced by Ernst’s water reflection photos, I got my brothers to stand in the same direction in which the sun was shining in order to achieve the distorted reflections. Natural lighting was the easiest way for me to achieve the reflection, I found I had relatively low levels of control as the positioning of the sun determined the angles at which I could take the photos. I also found it hard to take pictures without them being over-exposed due to the high intensity of the sun, the ripples however were easy to create and added a sense of structure and pattern. I had to crop all of my final outcomes in order to get rid unwanted negative space which interfered with the overall colour combination.
