ABSTRACT (Yr 10)

Knowledge Orginiser:

What is ABSTRACT Photography?

Abstract photography is a method of expressing ideas and emotions with photographed image elements without focusing on a realistic image. By avoiding representations of an object, scene, or any particular element, it reveals details that are normally ignored by the viewer and triggers their imagination.

THINGS TO think about - Fill the Frame

The “frame” in photography is the rectangular scene captured by your camera. Your camera captures only a fraction of what your eyes and mind see. You make decisions about what to include within the edges of your photo.

To fill the frame means making your subject a large proportion of your image. This means you need to get close to your subject.

By using this shooting technique you will automatically start to abstract your subject. Think carefully about which elements you want to include and/or exclude from your shots.

the key elements of a good abstract photo?

While abstract photography gives you permission to NOT follow strict photography rules, there are a couple of elements that you should consider to give your abstract photos more depth and increase their appeal:

Simplicity
Composition
Angle of View
Lighting
Harmony
Mystery

Tips to Succeed

Capturing a good-quality abstract photograph can be complex, but focus on the following to ensure you are getting a good shot every time:

Start with everyday objects
Use elements of design to your advantage
Go macro
Shoot through objects
Capture motion

ARTIST FOCUS - PAUL STRAND

The American artist Paul Strand had a long and productive career with the camera. His pictorialist studies of the 1910s, followed by the coolly seductive machine photographs of the 1920s, like the contemporary work of Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped define the canon of early American modernism and set its premium on the elegant print. Experimenting with Charles Sheeler, Strand then pushed further in describing the movement of the city in the short film Manhatta (1920). In the 1930s, he became seriously involved with documentary film and, from the 1940s until the end of his life, he was committed to making photographic books of the highest quality. Skyscrapers and machines—quintessential symbols of modern life in the early twentieth century—were among Strand's last subjects as he advanced in breathtaking leaps across the landscape of artistic possibilities on the brink of World War I. Duchamp and Picabia had introduced machines into American art when they arrived in New York in 1915, and automobiles capable of going fifty miles an hour were everywhere. "Just at the present the sole ambition seems to be to roll about, day in and day out, every moment in [these] machines. Literally a rolling around in the present symbol of wealth," Alfred Stieglitz noted. Strand, interested in mechanics and cars since childhood, made photographs with the sensuousness of a youth running his hand over the voluptuous fenders of his dream machine.

Source: Paul Strand (1890–1976) | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art