MW6 - Pictorial Abstraction.
Pictorial Abstraction refers to a genre of photos that were made seeing the subject in other than the literal way. In this case it isn’t the plant stalks that are the subject but the intersection between subject and shadows forming something new.
While we’re at it, why not this way?
This is a different picture than the one above but the same subject. This is actually the right side up way I composed the picture but not right side up for the plant stalks poking up through the snow. The plant stalks are coming out of the snow on a 45° slope so no matter which way you look at it it doesn’t seem right side up.
This topic of Pictorial Abstraction suffers from a lack of any well know name to identify it. We can’t simply say Abstract because that doesn’t differentiate it from photos that didn’t start out abstract but have been made into abstracts through editing. At one time we called them Contemporary, but that includes other types of images that are not Abstractions. Pictorial Abstraction shows the subject exactly as seen, without manipulation. The Abstraction is in the way it was seen. Otherwise the photo is pretty much a straight photo, except for the usual tweaks for colour adjustment and exposure, and maybe some cropping adjustment.
This topic is interesting enough on it’s own but as future MobiWorkshop topics come along you will see how it connects. When you focus on making Pictorial Abstraction images you are well on your way to other things to come.
This is another “as shot” image and in this case what intrigued me was the way the pattern in the sand combined with the rock to become something new, like maybe an imaginary cross section view showing a potatoe with roots below and foliage above. Or perhaps a heart with blood vessels leading up to the head and down to the organs & lungs.
Here I am sitting at the doctor’s waiting room, while my shadow self is surrounded by posts and bars.
A straight down beach photo that could easily be an aerial photo from 1000 feet up.
You probably have several of these Pictorial Abstractions but maybe didn’t have a name for them. Or if you do have a name let’s hear it.
Please post some of your own Pictorial Abstraction photos here to expand the discussion.
The basic points are: it must be a straight photo that is an abstract because of the way it was seen and composed, not because of editing.
Pictorial Abstraction refers to a genre of photos that were made seeing the subject in other than the literal way. In this case it isn’t the plant stalks that are the subject but the intersection between subject and shadows forming something new.
While we’re at it, why not this way?
This is a different picture than the one above but the same subject. This is actually the right side up way I composed the picture but not right side up for the plant stalks poking up through the snow. The plant stalks are coming out of the snow on a 45° slope so no matter which way you look at it it doesn’t seem right side up.
This topic of Pictorial Abstraction suffers from a lack of any well know name to identify it. We can’t simply say Abstract because that doesn’t differentiate it from photos that didn’t start out abstract but have been made into abstracts through editing. At one time we called them Contemporary, but that includes other types of images that are not Abstractions. Pictorial Abstraction shows the subject exactly as seen, without manipulation. The Abstraction is in the way it was seen. Otherwise the photo is pretty much a straight photo, except for the usual tweaks for colour adjustment and exposure, and maybe some cropping adjustment.
This topic is interesting enough on it’s own but as future MobiWorkshop topics come along you will see how it connects. When you focus on making Pictorial Abstraction images you are well on your way to other things to come.
This is another “as shot” image and in this case what intrigued me was the way the pattern in the sand combined with the rock to become something new, like maybe an imaginary cross section view showing a potatoe with roots below and foliage above. Or perhaps a heart with blood vessels leading up to the head and down to the organs & lungs.
Here I am sitting at the doctor’s waiting room, while my shadow self is surrounded by posts and bars.
A straight down beach photo that could easily be an aerial photo from 1000 feet up.
You probably have several of these Pictorial Abstractions but maybe didn’t have a name for them. Or if you do have a name let’s hear it.
Please post some of your own Pictorial Abstraction photos here to expand the discussion.
The basic points are: it must be a straight photo that is an abstract because of the way it was seen and composed, not because of editing.