Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer who achieved widespread recognition in the 1940s and 1950s for his abstract colour photographs. However he also experimented with black and white photography, creating striking images. Some of them were extremely abstract, having been produced by removing the middle tones, leaving only the shape of what was photographed.
He released a series of books throughout the years including these black and white, dramatically toned images including (in order):
- Black Noise, London: Rocket Gallery, 2010.
- Back to Black, London: Rocket Gallery, 2011.
- Black Light, London: Rocket Gallery, 2014.
Experimenting in photoshop:
Using the threshold tool in Photoshop allowed me to create an contrasted image similar to that of Helmer-Peterson’s.
I experimented with other images, however the density of each image affected the threshold tool significantly, making the image much more abstract and difficult to comprehend, (as seen below):
Natural aspects, such as dense trees and leaves also made the process difficult, hence why natural landscapes didn’t create the right result I was looking for during the experimentation process.
Final image chosen:
