Abstract photos by well-known photographers

Forums: Art, Photography, Abstract Photography, Abstract Composition
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There is a nifty thread over on the original art and photography forum where a2kers can post their own abstract photos. Link:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=68216

I think it would be interesting to have a thread in the art forum with abstract photos from photography history. I'll be back with some after I look around on google a bit. Please add those you like too.

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Here's one image by Margaret Bourke-White.
I saw an exhibit of her work in Cremona back in 1999, and I remember that most of the large photos seemed to work as abstract compositions to me.

http://www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/white/moscbmb.jpg

This link is from the Temple University photo site.

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Here are some nice ones from Harry Callahan:

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/screen/callahan/callahan_kansas_city.jpg

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/screen/callahan/callahan_windows.jpg

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Do we have a definition yet?

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Are we searching for a definition of "abstract" when it comes to photography?

I think of it as something that celebrates form or color outside of context, something where the meaning is not immediately clear. Or, if the meaning or context is clear, it forces you to see it in a different way.

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boomer maybe it's also pattern out of context?

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I would think that texture would fall under form, but yes, sure, I think it would.

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Abstract art, art that does not depict objects in the natural world

Abstract art is now generally understood to mean art that does not depict objects in the natural world, but instead uses shapes and colours in a non-representational or subjective way.

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I think the rules change for photography though because you're not creating the color and shape simply from imagination or memory.

I've been debating myself on over-Photoshopping things lately. At what point does it stop being a photograph and start becoming graphic art?

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To elaborate just a bit more...

I think photography, by it's very nature is representational. By altering the way something is seen, something that really exists is seen, that you abstract it.

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but then that's in the "eye" of all

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Don't go getting all new-agey on me, husker.

You've lost me!

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Thanks for the definitions and explanations, Boomer!

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It's just my very own personal opinion, but you're welcome, littlek.

I think of it like this:

Take a shell. A shell is pretty abstract in and of itself but the way it is photographed can make a world of difference

Here is a photo of a shell, I think it is very representational:

http://www.tongaturismo.info/pictures/Sea%20shell%20large.jpg

Here is another photo of a shell, I consider it abstract:

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/screen/weston/weston_shells.jpg

One photo is about a shell, the other is about form.

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Aha!

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The late Andreas Feininger, my favorite photographer, once had an exhibition called "Structures of nature". His theme was to photograph natural structures in a very abstract way. I love it -- here are three examples. (International Arts and Artists, whose website I found them on, has more .)

http://www.artsandartists.org/images/fullSize/feininger/nautilus.jpg

http://www.artsandartists.org/images/fullSize/feininger/06.jpg

http://www.artsandartists.org/images/fullSize/feininger/08.jpg

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Those are beautiful examples, Thomas.

Those photos remind me of an article I read on Jackson Pollack and fractals not long ago. I'm no mathmatician so my understanding of fractals is very limited but perhaps that has something to do with abstraction....

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please give me the link to the original size of this^ photo?! Thank you.

It's great.

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Sorry to have seemed to have disappeared, didn't mean to.

Before I rushed off, I had two thoughts about what to do next. One was that we'd better come up with what we think abstract means. The second was to look up Harry Callahan because I remember him as doing quite abstract photos. I come back to find both being discussed, yay.

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Thomas, of the Feininger photos in your post, I'm most drawn to the second one.. will have to think about why. Well, the first one has this stasis that I see in it, a sort of frozen beauty of curves. The third one is interesting but not the one I'll remember (messy at bottom? I dunno.)
Second one, wow. Layers of depths of darks and lights, cascading, but not uniformly so.

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Abstract photos by well-known photographers

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