Post your abstract photographs here

Sirius Glass

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Post your abstract photographs here.
 

slackercrurster

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Don't have many abstracts. I shoot social documentary of people. I got some freaked out HDR of people, but most are just straight photography.

Here is one that may fit in...I shot it in the coat room where I was working as a process cameraman.

'Coat Hanger' 1974. Hasselblad 500 CM



I didn't like the work print and trashed it partially developed. A week later when cleaning out the trash in the darkroom I saw that it was partially solarized and the chemicals had developed into an interesting patina and I liked it. (Actually this is a recreation, the original is in LACMA) I finished processing, dry mounted it and showed it to the then curator of LACMA and they took it into the permanent collection.

That was back in the 70's when you could get the curators on the phone for an appointment. Nowadays you can't even find out who the curator of photography is for many museums...it is top secret.
 

Kino

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That's a great image! Sometimes I think we pursue technical excellence at the peril of finding beauty in chaos.

Like Orson Welles said, "The camera is a base instrument; you must do violence to it...".
 

Keo

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This is a photographic series called 8. Inspired by the etchings of John Cage and chance operations to remove any artistic influence, I based my chance on a roll of a die. The amount of prints in this series was determined by two dice rolls. Inspired by Ebru artists, I chose to sprinkle chemicals on top of a pool of thickened water to create natural, and organic designs. Each piece was done on Kodak Polycontrast III, 5x7 paper and used standard developer, activator, fixer, stabilizer, and physical manipulation of the thickened water.What chemicals used were also dictated by numbers on the die; the number 1 constituted time to print. I am currently looking to make larger pieces using the same approach but slightly altered.

Introduction to Series


One


Two


Three



Four



Five



Six



Seven



Eight
​
 

naeroscatu

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I have this in my gallery but I think it works well here. Taken at The Ontario Science Museum in Toronto
Fujica ST-605/ 50mm Fujinon lens
Kodak PX125 in D-76 dil. 1:1

The begining
 

Vaughn

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I guess this is an abstract -- I know what it is, most people will not.

8x10 carbon print
Lava Beds National Monument, CA
 

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David T T

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Really beautiful stuff folks!
 

Maris

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Back Eddy, Snowy River
Gelatin-silver photograph on Ultrafine Silver Eagle VC FB photographic paper, image size 21.2cm X 16.4cm, from a Kodak 4x5 Tmax 100 negative exposed in a Tachihara 45GF double extension field view camera fitted with a Nikkor-W 210mm f5.6 lens.
 

Vaughn

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Earlier, I posted an 8x10 negative example of this lava tube (Skull Cave, Lava Beds National Monument, CA). This was taken a few years earlier with a 4x5 camera. This is two 4x5 negatives, each printed as a 16x20 silver gelatin print. Gowland PocketView 4x5 with Caltar IIN 150/5.6 lens.
 

marcofimages

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My second attempt at an abstract dune shot... I titled it "Sand Notes" because the shape of the main feature reminded me of a musical note.
A good exercise in figuring out how light and shadows play on the sand. The shapes change so fast close to sunset.

Ilford FP4+ (cropped 4x5) - 135 Nikkor W @f32



This was taken on the sand dunes in Cape Cod, MA.
Some details about this shot are recorded in this video, where I also talk about travel in landscape photography, and setting an intent when reaching a certain location. Having an intent definitely helped in taking this particular image. During my first visit to Cape Cod, I was shocked that in m any placed it looked like a desert on the East Coast --- and this is what I wanted to show. More videos coming!
 

Billy Axeman

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Sorry to say, but an 'abstract dune shot' is a contradictio in terminis, because abstract is non-figurative by definition. Even when the image appears abstract at first sight but the title says it's a dune, it's not abstract anymore.
 

removed account4

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Billy Axeman said:
Even when the image appears abstract at first sight but the title says it's a dune, it's not abstract anymore
Click to expand...

really ?
i have never heard such rigid definitions of photography or photographic genres ...
its good to know ... thanks !

OP maybe instead of saying its an abstraction you can call it an extraction seeing you are
distilling / extracting a clean image out of something else..
 

faberryman

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Billy Axeman said:
Sorry to say, but an 'abstract dune shot' is a contradictio in terminis, because abstract is non-figurative by definition. Even when the image appears abstract at first sight but the title says it's a dune, it's not abstract anymore.
Click to expand...
So you are saying if an image is an image of something, it can't be an abstract, or if the photographer tells you what it is it loses its nature as an abstract. Sounds like photographers should just keep it's identity a secret. Also, can you expand on what you mean by "non-figurative".
 
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