ABSTRACT FORMS
Exploring abstraction in photography with Francis Bruguière, Jaroslav Rössler and others.
The relationship between photography and abstraction is fascinating. Unlike other visual art forms which begin with a blank space or surface that has to be filled by the artist, photography begins with a world full of information. The conventional job of the photographer is to select and capture a small portion of reality in a relatively faithful manner. However, it could be argued that all art, including photography, is essentially abstract. Photographs are versions of reality. They are flat. They have edges. Photographs are artful selections. They are silent. In the early years of photography, certain artists understood this aspect of the medium and emphasised the abstract qualities of photographs and the disinterested eye of the camera. This tradition of abstraction in photography continues to the present day.
What lives in pictures is very difficult to define... it finally becomes a thing beyond the thing portrayed... some sort of section of the soul of the artist that gets detached and comes out to one from the picture.
-- Francis Bruguière |
The enemy of photography is the convention, the fixed rules of 'how to do'. The salvation of photography comes from the experiment.
-- Laszlo Moholy-Nagy |
This is the video we watched in class.
Although the infomation is for an assignment of rthis particular teachers class the inofrmation she offers is very relevant to the work you are about to produce. Use notes from this video to help you finish the forst set of tasks. |
TASK:You must start this project by completing the following tasks…
Research the history of abstraction in photography. Check out the images on the Pinterest page. Watch the video about the history of abstraction in photography and make notes on it and watch the YouTube vodcast which explores some famous and not so famous examples of photographic abstraction, again making notes. Write a short introduction explaining your understanding of abstraction in photography. Choose a quotation that helps you to think about the meaning of abstraction in art and photography. Use www.photoquotes.com www.pinterest.co.uk/photographyeducation/abstract/ Create a series of Galleries or Visual Mind Maps featuring the work of Francis Bruguière, Jaroslav Rössler, VjekoSager, Jerry Reed, Tamara Lorenz and James Welling including your understanding of their work in the context of abstraction. Find your own resources and document them in your book with a analysing the work a describing what place they have in the concept of abstraction and what you have learnt from them... You need a minimum of 2 artist studies here. Use the help sheets that we explored in class to help you get through |
Francis Bruguière…Bruguière was an American photographer who moved to London in 1928 where he began to experiment with non representational photography. Of these, the cut paper abstractions are particularly beautiful. The photographer exploits the endlessly subtle qualities of both paper and light, manipulating both in order to create complex patterns of texture and form.
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Jaroslav RösslerRössler was a Czech avant-garde photographer who became known for combining different styles of modern photography including cubism, futurism, constructivism, new objectivity, and abstraction. His photographs often reduced images to elementary lines and shapes, exploring the contrast of light and shade. He experimented with a wide range of techniques and processes including photograms and double exposures.
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Vjeko SagerSager is a contemporary artist whose series 'Antimatter' combines cut paper abstractions reminiscent of those by Francis Bruguière with charcoal drawings. Whereas Bruguière's images explore dramatic contrasts of light and shade, Sager's photographs are much lighter in tone. The cuts in the paper are mostly located in the central section of the paper. They tend be to be shorter and straighter, producing subtle disruptions of the paper's surface that remind me of architects' models.
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Jerry Reed"Over time, I have come to see that what motivates me is the result of my having redirected how I make images, turning from the externally directed position of witness to that of author. In so doing, I accept the entire authorship of the creative process from my creation of the paper sculpture to making of the fine art print. Paper Work, my current three-year project is comprised of twenty-six images. In my studio, I shaped two-dimensional art papers giving them edges and volumes, then lit them dramatically utilizing Fresnel lighting to emphasize their three-dimensional forms. Though ephemeral, my forms are preserved photographically."
Photographer Jerry Reed cites both Rössler and Bruguière as influences on his work. His objective and analytical approach to documenting visual effects may reflect his early career as a scientist. |
Formal Elements |
This project is about how the camera can draw attention to the formal elements of art in order to create images in which the subject isn't the most interesting element. You should be able to develop the ability to 'see' a potentially great photograph in the mind's eye, as well as being able to view the world in such a way that it seems full of possible photographs. Great photographs need not require a dramatic scene, studio lighting or a profound issue. An understanding of the formal elements (and principles of design) can help you to recognise a great photo opportunity in the most mundane and unpromising subject matter. This unit of work is about developing ways of seeing.
Photographers are usually aware of the ways in which they can create interest in their images beyond the simple fact of the subject. This is what separates good pictures and bad pictures of the same thing. The following list describes some of the abstract elements in any photograph. Below the list is an example of how you can analyse a photograph looking for these things specifically and how this helps to give the image meaning: Focus: Which areas appear clearest or sharpest in the photograph? Which do not? Light: Which areas of the photograph are brightest? Are there any shadows? Does the photograph allow you to guess the time of day? Is the light natural or artificial? Harsh or soft? Reflected or direct? Line: Are there objects in the photograph that act as lines? Are they straight, curvy, thin, thick? Do the lines create direction in the photograph? Do they outline? Do the lines show movement or energy? Repetition: Are there any objects, shapes or lines which repeat and create a pattern? Shape: Do you see geometric (straight edged) or organic (curvy) shapes? Which are they? Space: Is there depth to the photograph or does it seem shallow? What creates this appearance? Are there important negative (empty) spaces in addition to positive (solid) spaces? Is there depth created by spatial illusions i.e. perspective? Texture: If you could touch the surface of the photograph how would it feel? How do the objects in the picture look like they would feel? Value/Tone:Is there a range of tones from dark to light? Where is the darkest value? Where is the lightest? |
TASK:Make thirty-six unique, beautiful photographs of one piece of white bond paper. You may not cut or tear the paper, but you can fold it, roll it, or crumple it. Shoot on a white background in a studio with spotlights and soft light. Use colour filters on the spotlights, if you desire. There should be nothing else in the photographs but one piece of bond paper. Explore lighting and change the lighting for each photograph.
Things to consider here are: - Many of the Formal Elements with a particular focus on the relationship between line, shape, form and light. - Decisions about either photographing in black and white or colour can also be made independent of the need to make figurative images. This can include the decision to take the image in colour and convert to black and white or adjust the colour balance of the image as an element of post production. |
The Darkroom... |
A darkroom is a workshop used by photographers working with photographic film to make prints and carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light sensitive photographic materials, including film and photographic paper. Various equipment is used in the darkroom, including an enlarger, baths containing chemicals, and running water.
Darkrooms have been created and used since the inception of photography in the early 19th century. Darkrooms have many various manifestations, from the elaborate space used by Ansel Adamsto a retooled ambulance wagon used by Timothy H. O'Sullivan. From the initial development to the creation of prints, the darkroom process allows complete control over the medium. Taken From Wikipedia.... |
Photograms...What is a Photogram/Rayograph?
Photograms or Rayographs are camera-less images created by placing objects on a photo sensitive surface and exposing them to light. Where the object touches the surface it will protect it from the light, leaving a white or pale grey impression (depending on its opacity). If light is able to get underneath the object the surface will change in tone. If there is no protection at all the paper will turn black. |
Anna Atkins...
Anna Atkins created photogram-like images using paper that could be exposed in sunlight and developed and fixed in water. Photograms/Rayographs are the result of experiments in the darkroom where chemicals (Developer/Stop/Fix) are used to activate the image which is finally washed in running water. Rayographs are the name given to photograms by the artist Man Ray. Otherwise they are the same type of image.
Many photogram artists today know that they owe to an element of chance the discovery of the photographic process called photogram. It was the surrealist, Man Ray, who discovered this method once he placed a small glass funnel, graduate, and a thermometer over an unexposed piece of paper that has been previously by accident submerged in the developer. Once he turned on the light and noticed the silhouettes of the objects starting to appear, the ‘AHA moment’ and the beginning of the experimentation flourished. The resulting photos he called rayographs. But, it was the Hungarian artist, Moholy-Nagy, who coined the term photogram, also known as the cameraless photography. The process is fairly simple. It utilizes the rudimentary photograph principles, the placement of the objects on a photosensitive surface and the brief exposure to light, creating an obstructed x-ray image.
The recent boom of artists and photographers who are going back to the darkroom and prefer the experimentations of the past to the digitalized image creation is changing the photography scene and at the same time, the richness of experimentation and play feeds our eyes with beautiful images. Continue reading and find out the top artists that use this process of the past, and who are not afraid to play and who don’t need a camera to create their beautiful images.
The recent boom of artists and photographers who are going back to the darkroom and prefer the experimentations of the past to the digitalized image creation is changing the photography scene and at the same time, the richness of experimentation and play feeds our eyes with beautiful images. Continue reading and find out the top artists that use this process of the past, and who are not afraid to play and who don’t need a camera to create their beautiful images.
Dan Peyton...Dan Peyton is one of the cyanotype process purists. Creating his images on the coated paper and then exposing it to the sunlight, he surrenders to a subtle element of the unknown. The height of the sun, contours of the object, the age of the chemicals, all contribute to the making of his images that are reduced to the shadow like, powerful and simplified symbols. Reminiscent of the architectural blueprints, Peyton’s subject matter often includes birds and flags. It is, in fact, the shadow of the object that creates the image, and as such a certain philosophical and metaphysical element can be applied to his blue images. The simplicity of his images is governed by his choice of the historical process originally developed in the 19th Century.
Featured image in slider: Dan Peyton – Forsythia Elegy, 2015. Image via static.wixstatic.com |
Thomas Ruff...Thomas Ruff’s recent works, explore, similar to the artists already mentioned in this list, the photogram process. His photogram series depict abstract shapes, lines and spirals in seemingly random formulations with varying degrees of transparency and illumination. Owning in his collection two photograms by Art Siegel inspired Ruff to try this process himself. Realizing from the beginning the restriction of the size of photograms that are influenced by the paper size, Ruff aims to produce large-scale photograms, and to create modern photogram images. The custom-made software program does the process of exposure and connects the artist’s photogram images to the images of Ruff’s zyclesseries, a body of work created by the computer-generated abstract line drawings based on algorithms.
What seems to be the element that joins all the eight artists from this list is their love for the process and the need for the thrill of the experimentation and the wait for the end result. Almost like an alchemist studio, the artists that practice and explore the limits of the camera-less image production, without a doubt, reference the past but still manage to create highly innovative and original pieces. Featured image in slider: Thomas Ruff – phg.07, 2013-, C-print, detail. Image via photography-now.com |
How to make a Photogram...
Firstly you choose a series of objects. You arrange these objects on a piece of light sensitive photographic paper. This is then exposed to light for a few seconds. The paper is then taken over to the wet area of the darkroom and soaked in a series of chemicals.
The main chemicals used in the darkroom are developer, which causes the silver iodide of the paper emulsion to darken if it has been exposed to light, and fixer, which removes the undeveloped silver iodide from the emulsion. A chemical used to completely stop the development process is called stop bath, and is used between the developer stage and the fixer stage.
The main chemicals used in the darkroom are developer, which causes the silver iodide of the paper emulsion to darken if it has been exposed to light, and fixer, which removes the undeveloped silver iodide from the emulsion. A chemical used to completely stop the development process is called stop bath, and is used between the developer stage and the fixer stage.
Tasks:In your books you need to record the following:
- What is a Photogram? - Artist study including image analysis for 2 artists - Write up information on the darkroom; this must include a map of the darkroom, key information about the chemicals, what they do and the timings, - Use key objects to make a series, 3/4, of photograms. - Scan the photograms and use photoshop to edit the images and add elements of colour and other edits. |
Abstraction with light...Sometimes it’s nice to take a breather and slow down a little. And it’s the same with a slow shutter speed. Experimenting with shutter speeds below 125 may induce camera shake. But when it comes to abstract photography ideas, that might be just what you’re after.
At lower shutter speeds, a period of time is collapsed into a single image. The abstract nature of the resulting images can create dynamic artworks that explore the very nature of photography. Light trails appear, landscapes and faces become blurry, movement is recorded in succession. In an image created with a slow shutter speed, everything comes to life. |
The word photography translates as drawing (or writing) with light:
photo = from the Greek phos meaning light graph = from the Greek graphe meaning writing Photograms (and Rayographs) are close to pure light drawings because they do not need a camera to generate the image. However, in the early 20th century artists and others began experimenting with long exposures of moving lights in order to create light drawings. Frank Gilbreth attempted to improve the efficiency of office workers by tracking their hand movements using small light bulbs. Man Ray attempted to create what he called 'space writing'. The photographer Gjon Mili captured a famous series of images of Picasso drawing with light. He also experimented with multiple exposures by setting of the flash repeatedly during a long exposure. Contemporary artists like John Hesketh continue to experiment with coloured lights and filters to make extremely complex and exciting images. |
Abstraction with Shadow...Exploring the relationship between light and shadow is a fundamental aspect of photography. But often, shadows are overlooked in favour of their counterpart.
Shadows draws attention to qualities around us that go unnoticed, adding depth and intrigue. And because they hold their own against highlights and grey tones, shadows also add contrast. Photographing shadows is one of the best ways to capture an unusual, eye catching subject. A shadow with a strong outline and a recognisable shape may connect with the experience of a viewer. But an abstract shape connects with the viewer’s imagination. Don’t be afraid to photograph unusual looking shadows. |
Task...Having explore the idea of light now you are required to look at the idea of shadows. Whilst you need light in order to create show in this instance it is the shadow that should take the greatest presidence in your imagery.
Make sure you plan your shoot and edit as needed. You may use natural or artificial light or even both. Remember to ensure that your images are abstract in their approach. |
Lines...Line is one of the most basic elements of visual composition. It helps divide an image into portions for the eye to break down and helps unite elements in a photograph.
Leading lines, as the name describes, lead a viewer’s eye around an image or towards a specific subject. They’re sort of like a visual highway. Soft, organic lines denote a sense of flow or transition, like waves lapping on a sea shore. Sharp, artificial lines indicate a feeling of immediacy or modernity. Vertical lines lend solidity to an image. And horizontal lines emphasise balance and depth. |
Task...With so many uses, investigating line in abstract photography is a must. Next time you head out shooting, concentrate on finding lines. Then incorporate them into your photography ideas.
Try focusing on architectural and urban elements for photography ideas. Strong, bold lines are more abundant in artificial landscapes. See how many different types of lines you can find. Curvy, straight, coloured, bold – once you start looking, possibilities abound! |
Texture...Photographing texture is creating an image a viewer can ‘feel’. Over our lives, our minds curate a library of textures and their associations to objects. Abstract photography is independent from depicting objective subject matter. But our minds still associate visual surfaces with specific sensations.
Rounded or fluffy textures in an image convey a different feeling than rough, jagged imagery, for example. By incorporating textural details into a photograph, we can appeal to a viewer’s innate sense of the world through touch. This is the case even if the image is an abstracted one. Photographers: Aaron Siskind, Brett Weston, Edward Weston, Joanne Coyle, Jonathan Miller, Lucy Shires, Paul Mitchell, Susan Rankaitis |
Colour Vs Tone...
Everyone knows how powerful the nature of colour can be. To the eye, blue is a soothing, centring colour whereas yellow is bright and peppy. These associations impact what we ‘take’ from an image, or how we appreciate a photograph.
An abstracted image that incorporates a strong colour scheme draws the viewer’s attention to colour as an abstract in itself.
Having just talked about colour, there is of course another option: removing colour altogether! Without colour, the eye looks for alternative visual references in an image. That’s why black and white photography is a great way to isolate shape and form.
It also accentuates the light and shadow of an image, creating more depth with contrast.
A black and white scheme tends to distance the subject from reality. Because humans see the world in colour, a black and white scene gives us pause to look at a photograph more closely.
In abstract photography this limits any lingering visual references to a figurative object.
An abstracted image that incorporates a strong colour scheme draws the viewer’s attention to colour as an abstract in itself.
Having just talked about colour, there is of course another option: removing colour altogether! Without colour, the eye looks for alternative visual references in an image. That’s why black and white photography is a great way to isolate shape and form.
It also accentuates the light and shadow of an image, creating more depth with contrast.
A black and white scheme tends to distance the subject from reality. Because humans see the world in colour, a black and white scene gives us pause to look at a photograph more closely.
In abstract photography this limits any lingering visual references to a figurative object.