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Abstract photography – Abstract photography is the method of depicting a visual image that does not have an immediate association with the object world and that has been created, it often takes a second glance to recognise the object being photographed.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: 

Part of “Zen” series – Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1960)

Born in Illinois, in 1925, Ralph Eugene Meatyard used a multitude of methods to achieve his experimental, expressionist photographs. These include multiple exposures, motion-blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. Meatyard derived inspiration from poets he adored and his fellow members of the Lexington Camera Club, combined with his own creative flare and the influence of others Meatyard successfully formed his career in photography with his own form of expression. He took these unique photos where he lived in Lexington, Kentucky, before he later passed away in 1972.

Analysis of Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s work:

“Zen number 7” – Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1959)

Light- The natural lighting of this image softly illuminates the focal point of the image, that being the twig in the foreground of the image. There are no harsh shadows in this image as the lighting is soft.

Line- The thin, jagged lines of the branches lead your eyes towards the middle of the image, and then to the right-side edge.

Repetition- The repetition of line is present in this photo, as the pattern of irregular lines in the foreground direct your eyes along the screen, from left to right.

Shape- The organic shape of the branches are unorganised and random, therefore they have little relation to each other in terms of shape and regularity.

Space: There is a very narrow depth of field in this photograph. The branches in the foreground of the image are in focus, whereas the background is blurred out. I believe the photo was taken with an aperture of f4 or below.

Texture- The spiked branches in the image give the photograph a rough texture, as the lines in the image are ridged and sharp.

Value/Tone- There is a varied tone to the image, as the background to foreground fades from dark to light. The branches in focus are highlighted amongst the background, which makes them the focal point for the viewer. The branches are lightest part of the image and they are contrasted against the dull background.

Colour- The muted, monochromatic tone of the image accentuates the contrast between light and dark. There is a cold hue to the image, which highlights the juxtaposition of light and dark further.

Composition- The image has a very unorganised composition, the shapes are organic which makes it harder to understand the composition. There is also regularity to the image, which makes the composition more complicated and uneven.

My response to Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s work:

I believe the images highlighted in green are my most successful photographs for this shoot. I think this because they either relate to the artist’s theme of contrasting light and dark the best, or they use the artist’s method of blurring the image with change in shutter speed.

I think the images highlighted in red are my least successful images purely because they have the least relevance to the artist I have studied, or because the light in the photographs is too over-exposed.

To take the ‘Out of Focus’ images, I used an ISO of 400, and changed the shutter speed settings on my camera to achieve a ghost-like effect.

Photoshop Development:

Original Photograph
After – Using cropping and black and white filter.
Original Photograph
After – Using black and white filter.
Original Photograph
After – Using cropping and black and white filter.

Overall, I think the biggest similarity between Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s and my own work is the use of juxtaposing black and white tones that create a contrast against each other. However, I think to improve my photos in the style of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, I need to change aperture settings, etc on my camera so that the lens focuses on the twigs and branches rather than the area around them.

Ann Hamilton

From “Face to Face” series – Ann Hamilton (2001)

Born in 1956, Ann Hamilton is an American artist best known for her large-scale multimedia instillations. Hamilton received a BFA in textile design from the University of Kansas in 1979, and then lived in many states in Canada, before deciding to achieve an MFA in sculpture at Yale in 1983. Ann Hamilton then produced several series of works between 1984-2018, but her work in the 1980’s is what brought the artist to light. While teaching at UC Santa Barbara, Hamilton began experimenting with photography, which she would often combine with other elements involving her current work with textiles. This began her work in photography and helped to evolve her successful career.

Analysis of Ann Hamilton’s work:

From “Face to Face” series – Ann Hamilton (2001)

Light: The soft, natural lighting gently illuminates the actual photograph, however harsh lighting could have been used around the image to create the

Line: The curved lines around the edges of the image act as a border to the photograph, these can be seen as leading lines that lead to the figure in the middle third of the photograph. The lines start of thicker at the corners of the image but begin to thin out as they reach the middle.

Repetition: There is little repetition in the photograph as the image focuses on the aspect of portrait rather than patterns and repetition. On the other hand, there is a slight echo with the use of shutter speed, which gives the figure a ghost-like affect.

Shape: The shapes in the image are organic and natural, because of this they have little relation to each other, the image is not artificially set up therefore it is hard to find comparable shapes.

Space: I believe there is a narrow depth of field in this image as the background is slightly more blurry than the foreground. However even the foreground is slightly blurry due to the use of slow shutter speed.

Texture: The image has a rough texture because of the jagged edges around the border and the wrinkly features of the face on the figure.

Value/Tone: There is a range of tones in the image, due to use of soft lighting which creates the contrasting shadows and highlights. The darkest part of the photograph is the shadows cast under the trees. The lightest part of the image are the illuminated features of the lady.

Colour: The photograph has a monochromatic filter to exaggerate the echo affect from the slow shutter speed.

Composition: The composition of the image is natural and not artificially set up, therefore it is difficult to superimpose geometrical shapes onto the image in order to understand the composition better.

Comparison of Ann Hamilton and Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s work:

Ann Hamilton and Ralph Eugene Meatyard both focus on the use of depth of field in different ways. Meatyard uses a narrow depth of field in order to draw the viewers eyes onto the focal point. Hamilton uses a slightly wider depth of field in order to keep more of the image in focus, but keeps the foreground as the main focal point. However Hamilton uses a slower shutter speed in order to achieve an echoed affect.

Both photographers use a monochromatic theme in these photos in order to accentuate the beauty of light and dark rather than colour. Hamilton and Meatyard use softer, natural lighting in these photos so the shadows and highlights are less harsh.

Although both Hamilton and Meatyard use the theme of focusing in their style of photography, they almost use them in an opposite way, which exemplifies the contrast in shutter speed photography.

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Ralph Eugene Meatyard –

Ralph Eugene Meatyard Sets the Stage | UKNow
“Untitled” work from 1963 by Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925–1972) lived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he made his living as an optician while creating an impressive and enigmatic body of photographs. 

This photographer experiments with the focus on his work. In this image he focused his camera and most likely has used f.2 to focus on the masks and the branches on the trees. The background isn’t in focus and the boy sitting on the tree is slightly blurry. In this photo Ralph might have also changed the exposure as the masks and the boys shirt are much lighter than the tree which makes them stand out right away.

Uta Barth

no title]', Uta Barth, 1995–7 | Tate
unknown

 She is interested in drawing attention to the viewer’s perception and separating the image from the thing depicted. Her images can appear quite abstract, partly through the use of deliberately blurred information. In this film she describes her interest in “light, perception and this visual acuity to the mundane, fleeting, ephemeral, everyday kind of information.”

Regarded for her “empty” images that border on painterly abstraction, the artist carefully renders blurred backgrounds, cropped frames and the natural qualities of light to capture incidental and fleeting moments, those which exist almost exclusively within our periphery. Looking at her work I think she uses f.32 all her work is out of focus. For this image I think she used f.2 as the persons hand is in focus and the main first eye-catching aspect. Even though the background is blurred out you can still make out that it’s people walking across the road or street. This gives an abstract touch to the photo as it makes the viewer try to figure out what they’re looking at and what it may be.

Exploring different aperture settings 

Fundamentals of Photography – Photographing the world

When taking photos it’s important to explore and change the aperture settings. Changing the focus helps with capturing what you want to be the main focus of the image. For example, the lower your aperture is (from f/1.8 to f/5.6) the closest objects to you will be in focus or the main subject and they may appear much darker as little light is coming in very fast, whereas if your taking your photos with your aperture on a higher setting (from f/8 to f/32) everything will be in focus or sometimes the whole image may be slightly out of focus and completely white as the lens is letting much more light come in.

Changing your aperture creates different depth of fields and even any movement in your photos may cause a blur.  As aperture changes in size, it alters the overall amount of light that reaches your camera sensor and therefore the brightness of your image.

Here’s another example of how the aperture affects the light settings-

What is Aperture? Understanding Aperture in Photography

As you can see the smaller your aperture is the less light is captured through the lens making the photo much darker. The larger your aperture is the more light is captured which makes your photo very exposed to light and they appear very bright and almost white.

MY CONTACT SHEETS-

RESPONSE-

ADJUSTING FOCUS-

I focused the camera on the raindrops to make the background blurry and out of focus, I did this by using f/2.8 which concentrates on the closest thing/object to the lens.

MINIMALISM- in different aperture

You can see the difference in the lighting of the photos when I changed the aperture settings and the two photos look completely different. I used a small aperture for the first photo and you can straight away see that the photo is much darker and you can see the sky more clearer as it’s bluer. I then used a larger aperture for the second photo and the photograph turned out much lighter and the sky turned out more white than blue as there was more light getting captured. I photographed this from a staircase looking completely upwards.

COLOUR AND CROPPING

I ripped the different coloured paper into different shapes and then photographed them layered on top of each other as you can see in my contact sheets. I next cropped the image on photoshop into a circle and layered the four different images with each other to create a multicoloured abstract photograph.

APERTURE SETTINGS-

Process- I photographed a rose in different apertures to see how they would look like in different lighting and if the colour would be more enhanced or dull. As you can see when I used a smaller aperture the photo turned out almost black as very little light was coming through and being captured, you can slightly see small tones of red. Compared to when I used a larger aperture the photo was much more bright and the roses were very visible but slightly blurry as I used a slower shutter speed.

EVALUATION of my work- overall I wanted to explore a few different sectors of abstract photography to see what looks the best in various exposures. I used different aperture settings and found out that it can completely change how your photo looks.

Independent, Task

paper paper paper

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For this photo, i started by folding the paper and standing it up at a ‘zig-zag’ pattern. I used artificial lighting from a phone torch to take control over how the shadows fall over the ridges. This photo stands out to me as the clean folds in the paper enhances the shadows that i was attempting to emphasize.

for this photo, I crumpled up a piece of paper, I used artificial lighting from the overhead lights in the class room, this made it harder to use the lighting to compliment the creases so once I put it into photo shop, I adjusted the light and dark tones to bring out the creases that were harder to determine in the original photo.

In this photo, I layered a paper plane over the same crumbled paper, I did this to make the photo more complex and interesting, I used a phone touch as a light source to help differentiate the two papers through directing it into the space between.

Independent, Task

BLACK LIGHT

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Keld Helmer-Petersen

Keld Helmer-Petersen was born on August 23, 1920 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Keld Helmer-Peterseis studied at the Institute of Design in Chicago . He received a Leica camera as a present thanks to this he started taking  photographs.
He prefers to take pictures of industrial areas, cityscapes and nature. He is known for his abstract colour photographs but he also likes working with black and white images.

My images :

I decided to choose old images of Paris and things we can see
in our daily life that i had on my gallery . I think that they will be interesting with black lights .

with BLACK LIGHTS

We can notice that the pictures of paris looks they are drawn which indeed creates a cool effect. The black lights are embedded in the details we can see it very well in the lemons.

Independent, Resource, Task

black light

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Keld Helmer-Petersen:

Keld Helmer-Petersen, a Danish photographer born in 1920, was recognised for his abstract photography in the 1940’s and the 1950’s. Helmer-Petersen’s passion for modern architecture, industrial areas and structures inspired his experimental photography, as he challenged the possibilities of the photographic image. He was a self-taught photographer who learnt from other photographers, such as Albert Renger-Patzsch. through technical manuals and photobooks. In the early days of his career, he joined amateur photographer clubs, where he would develop his photography skills further. Helmer-Petersen produced his first photobook, ‘Fragments of a city’, in 1960, which contained images of the city of Chicago. Keld Helmer-Petersen began teaching photography at the Academy of Architecture in Copenhagen until retiring in 1990.

Analysis of Keld Helmer-Petersen’s work:

Part of “Fragments of a city” series – Keld Helmer-Petersen (1960)

Light- The lighting in the image is hard to decipher as there is no highlights or shadows in the image. However I believe the image was taken in daylight, perhaps early afternoon in order to achieve the iconic shapes and lines.

Lines- There is a distinct pattern of lines in the image, as they cross over one another and create intricate designs. There is a contrast of both thick and thin lines in this image, which can be seen as a form of juxtaposition.

Repetition- There is a clear repetition of lines in this image, they direct your eyes along the screen, to the focal point of the large, black sillouette.

Shape- The shape of the image revolves around geometric shapes and lines, that are both thick and thin.

Space- It is hard to depict whether the image has a wide or narrow depth of field, as the image is simply a pattern of line and shapes in a silhouette, therefore this aspect of formal elements is irrelevant to the photo.

Texture- It is also hard to work out the texture of the image, but the repeated lines have a smooth surface, therefore I would say the overall texture of the image is rather smooth.

Tone/Value- There is no gradient of tone to the image, as it is simply pure black and white. However these contrast each other with the juxtaposition of light and dark.

Colour- There is no colour to the image, this is to signify the gloomy silhouettes of the geometric lines in the photograph.

Composition- The composition of the image is very organised, however there is no rule of thirds used in the image as the object was not set up by the photographer, the image rather focuses on the entire structure of lines instead of a singular focal point.

My Response to Keld Helmer-Petersen’s work-

Original Images Used-

Photoshop Development:

To achieve the same affect that Keld Helmer-Petersen used on his images, I used the threshold tool on photoshop to imitate the same silhouette-like appearance on the photographs.

I believe my work resembles the work of Helmer-Petersen well as it gives off the same silhouette aesthetic that he achieves with his work. It allows the shape and pattern of the object to be highlighted amongst the background behind it. However my work focuses more on natural aspects of shape, with the use of plants, whereas Helmer-Petersen often uses artificial structures for his work.

Independent, Task

Albert renger-patzsch the world is beautiful

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Renger – Patzsch was a German photographer associated with the New Objectivity. The New Objectivity arose during the 1920’s to challenge expressionism. This photography’s main focus point was to change the perspective on the objective world. Making it more ‘abstract and romantic’. His work connects to the New Objectivity through his aim of making everyday objects look beautiful.

Image Analysis

The World is Beautiful
Albert Ranger-Patzch ; The World Is Beautiful
Albert Renger-Patzsch | Jeu de Paume
Albert Ranger-Patzch ; The World Is Beautiful

Both of these pieces are from Ranger-Patzch’s collection, The World Is Beautiful, however they express very different things. In the first photo, we see a simple object found in a house which is normally overlooked. The lighting in photo one is quite low, enhancing the detail of the buttons found in the minimal shadows over the objects. The random placement of the buttons adds the the concept as it is more alike how these objects are found.

In photo 2, we can see another man made object, but more of a structure. The 2 main differences between the two photos that stand out to me the most is the symmetrical layout shown though the use of the camera angle compared to the random placing of the buttons, these show a wide variety in the movement that anything you see can be beautiful. Another is the natural light vs. artificial light and how Ranger – Patzch manipulated and used the lighting given to create shadows and depth.

Contact Sheet

A contact sheet is very useful to a photographer as this tool allows them to view the shoot on one sheet, making easier to differentiate the positives and negatives as they are put altogether.

for this project, i went around my house, finding objects that are dull to the eye in attempt to create a different and more creative perspective on the objects. similar to how Renger – Patzsch photographed glasses, forks and buttons.

favorite photos (Edited)

final photo

This is my favorite photo as it shows that an object as simple as a peg can be portrayed as a beautiful and interesting. Once I put the photo into photo shop, i played around with the color tones within the black and white adjustment to give more texture to the pegs, emphasizing the faint grains to give them more life. The lighting used in this photo was natural, the weather at the time made the light less intense, allowing me to used the positioning of the pegs to create depth and shadows without being over exposed to the sun.

Independent, Resource, Task

Image ANalysis

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Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Installation Views - Selected Works - - Ralph Eugene Meatyard - Exhibitions - DC Moore Gallery
Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1962)-Untitled

The image allows the viewer to sense either a calm or eerie mood. The bare twigs on the trees gives the viewer a sense of loneliness or depression as there is arguably no life on the trees. One could link bare trees to winter,which is cold, and can be a miserable time of year for some people.

On the other hand, one could also interpret this image as calming as there isn’t much going on with it and nothing is too busy.

In addition, only the front of the twigs are in focus which allows the viewer to see all the little details on the twigs and even see the little buds that are beginning to form on them.

The image is black and white which also gives the impression that the image is made to create a sense of loneliness and depression.

The twigs have a reasonably smooth texture which could be interpreted to show that life is normally simple however there will always be little bumps in the road. No one’s life is perfect.

Independent

ALBERT RENGER-PATZSCH- THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL

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Albert Renger-Patzsch | [Stairwell, View from Below] | The Met
Stairwell, View from Below ca. 1929
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Some of my favourite photographs he took-

Introduction – He was a German photographer and a pioneering figure in the New objectivity movement, which sought to engage with the world as clearly and precisely as possible.  He wanted to produce his own recording of the world. Most of his work was in black and white and there’s no sight of humans or life in any of his photography. He mainly photographed wildlife, images of traditional craftsmen, formal studies of mechanical equipment, commercial still lifes, and landscape and architectural studies.

Most of his photos include objects being repeated in the natural environment. He uses a mix of tones for every image- some include warm tones and others are much darker with harsher tones.

Glas by Albert Renger-Patzsch on artnet
Albert Renger-Patzsch. Echeveria. 1922 | MoMA
ECHEVERIA (1922)

IMAGE ANALYSIS/ COMPARISON;

SIMILARITIES-Both photos are in black and white and have a range of different mid-tones. They’re both photographs of something artificial and not abstract. Both of these photos don’t have a distracting background as the photo of the plant is so close up you can’t see anything behind it and the photo of the glasses is taken in front of a white background- this makes the objects stand out a lot more and the tone and colour around the cups is made to appear much harsher.

DIFFERENCES– One photograph is of a plant and to do with nature whereas the other image is different types of glasses as the shadows of them are being reflected beneath them. Another difference is that the photo of the plant is very close up and zoomed in when the other is quite far and you can see the whole shape and size of each glass. The photograph of the plant is portrait in comparison to the glass photograph which is landscape. The photograph of the glasses looks like it would have set up lighting behind it to create the shadow effect whereas the plant photo is more in the natural light hence why it’s less bright.

CONTACT SHEET-

A contact sheet is a piece of photographic paper on to which several or all of the negatives on a film have been contact-printed. This allows you to view all of your photographs. The purpose of a contact sheet is to be able to quickly scan a series of images to find the keepers or the ones chose to be enlarged.

MY PHOTOS-

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Process of my work–

I took photos of nature, objects such as wine glasses and a building (car park) to explore all different kind of scenes to photograph as ALBERT RENGER-PATZSCH does. I tried to photograph things that had repetitive shapes or were in an interesting position to explore the different shadows/ tones I could create.

Here are some of my favourite photos;

EVALUATION– these are my favourite photographs I took because I wanted to look at the nature side and the architecture side. I tried to photos in a similar way that Albert does which is focusing on repetitive patterns or far away shots of nature.

I really like how my photos in the woods turned out because by taking them in black and white you can really see the details and contrast between all the different tones. I took most of them far away so that the whole shape of the tree was visible as the more I would photograph the more the trees would be lined up in a repetitive pattern. I was inspired by one of his photos which shows how the trees kept going and going which created an illusion of the woods getting smaller as you looked into the photo.

I like how the photos of the car park turned out because you can remarkably see the contrast between the colours white and black as the design of the car park is going up in blocks in a repeated pattern. I cropped one of the images down to only focus on that specific segment to really make the pattern the main focus of the photo. I shot it at a slightly lower angle as I wanted to create an illusion of the car park being a lot larger and getting the full shape of it photographed- as Albert usually takes photo of building from a lower angle. The reason I didn’t choose the other car park photos was that cars got in the frame and I wanted to focus on just the building.

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Black light

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Keld Helmer-Petersen

Petersen is seen as one of the best photographers in the 20th century. His career spanned 70 years and he had strong interest in modern architecture, industrial areas and structures. He started photographing in the late 1930s and first made his name with 122 Colour Photographs in 1948.

Keld Helmer-Petersen’s black and white images explore dramatic contrasts of tone. In some, we are only presented with images that are black and white. All mid tones have been removed. He created and found these images, using both cameras and flat bed scanners to achieve the effects he was looking for.

My version