Abstract photography

Learning goal

You will be able to explain that a photograph's subject can be not a recognizable object but a shape, a color or a texture, and try out the basic ways of making abstract photographs. You will learn to cut an object off from its context by moving closer or cropping, to turn trees or lights into flows of color and line with intentional camera movement, and to build a frame only from color fields; you will discover playing with the recognition threshold between what the viewer recognizes and what they don't; and you will grasp that the abstract has no right answer and leaves interpretation to the viewer; you will also learn to look after consent and respect when you photograph a human body as an abstract form. The abstract has no specialty path of its own; but this way of looking, which trains the eye to form, carries over to every genre.

The question

A few hairs the cat left behind sit on the window sill; the late-afternoon light grazes them from the side and drops thin, long, intertwined shadows on the white paint. You bring the camera close and photograph only the shadows and the light. On the screen there is no sill, no hair, no cat: only dark lines dancing on a gray ground and thin, bright threads of light.

When you show the photo to a friend, their first question is "what is this?" Then they look for a while and say "but it's beautiful." Does a photograph have to show reality? What can a frame that shows nothing recognizable carry as a photograph? In this lesson we will talk about abstract photography and the moment in a frame when form takes the place of the object.

Context

Since photography's first years, its strongest feature has been seen as recording reality: showing a face, a place, an event as it is. But from very early on, photographers also tried the opposite of this power: photographing an object so close, from such a strange angle or so blurred that only forms are left. Abstract photography is the name of these experiments.

This genre is a kind of opposite of the genres you saw in earlier lessons: landscape, street and portrait introduce the viewer to something; abstract photography, on the other hand, postpones recognition or drops it altogether. That is why concepts you learned in earlier modules, like line, pattern, texture, color and negative space, turn here directly into the subject itself. This lesson has no separate track, but the sense of form it builds works in the frames of every other genre too.

Simple explanation

How is abstraction built?

Abstract photography is photography whose subject is not a recognizable object or event, but shapes, lines, colors, tones and textures. The easiest way is isolation: moving so close to an object, or cropping the frame so tightly, that the viewer can't work out from its surroundings what it is. The curve of a shell, the crease of a fabric, a wall's peeling paint or a reflection on the surface of water turns into a form of its own when cut off from its surroundings.

A color field is a surface made of a single color or tone that fills a large part of the frame. Many abstract frames are built from several color fields side by side and the borders between them: the corner where a red door meets a blue wall, the sharp line between the sky and a building's flat facade. The texture we saw in Lesson 11.6 and the pattern in Lesson 14.3 are the materials an abstract frame turns to most often; but here they are there not to introduce an object, but for their own sake.

What do movement and blur add?

Intentional camera movement is deliberately moving the camera, sliding it up and down, turning it or shaking it, during a long shutter speed. This movement turns the scene into lines and flows of color: sliding the camera upward while photographing a poplar grove turns the trunks into vertical brushstrokes; turning the camera while photographing night lights turns them into colorful curls. You can't know the result exactly in advance; making many tries and choosing from among them is the nature of this method.

For this, a shutter speed between a quarter of a second and one second is often enough. In daylight such a long time gathers too much light; in a shaded forest or on an overcast day, f/16, ISO 100 and a quarter of a second can be a balanced start, while in brighter light an ND filter is needed. Missing focus on purpose is a way too: setting the lens to its closest focusing distance and looking at distant lights turns them into soft circles of color. Sharpness here isn't a requirement but a choice.

Why do the recognition threshold and the body matter?

The recognition threshold is the border between what the viewer understands they are looking at in a frame and what they don't. Keeping a frame just above this threshold creates the moment when the viewer looks for a while and then recognizes something; keeping it fully below leaves them alone with only forms, colors and rhythm. Both are legitimate choices; an abstract frame has no right answer, and the viewer draws their own interpretation from it. A frame's success is measured by whether it keeps the viewer looking.

The human body can also be photographed as an abstract form: the curve of a shoulder, the line of the knuckles, the texture of the skin. When doing this, consent matters more than ever; the person should know how a part of their body will look and where it will be shared. Light striking from the side brings out the texture of the skin: on dark skin the light draws bright lines over the joints and curves, while on light skin it brings forward fine veins and freckles. Showing the body as a form shouldn't mean reducing it to an object; showing the frames to the person and deleting the ones they don't want is part of this respect.

Visual evidence

You decide to photograph only abstract frames for a week. To the hair shadows on the sill, you add traffic lights turning into soft circles of color behind raindrops, from a bus window on a rainy evening; you have put the focus on purpose on a point close to the glass. On an overcast afternoon you go to a poplar grove and shoot at f/16, ISO 100 and a quarter of a second, sliding the camera upward; in three out of thirty tries, the trunks have turned into vertical flows like green and gray brushstrokes.

On the last day you ask a friend, a dark-skinned, long-fingered musician, for permission to photograph their hands up close. The window light strikes their hands from the side; you crop the frame so tightly that only the curves of the knuckles, the bright lines the light draws over the joints and the deep shadows between them are left. When you show them the frames, they ask you to delete one because it doesn't look like their hand; they let you use the other three in an exhibition. Every frame in the series stands on one side or the other of the recognition threshold; none of them explains anything, all of them invite you to look.

Common mistakes

Summary

The subject of abstract photography is not a recognizable object, but shapes, lines, colors and textures; cutting an object off from its context by moving closer or cropping, building the frame from color fields, intentional camera movement, or focus missed on purpose are paths to abstraction. Playing with the recognition threshold between what the viewer recognizes and what they don't, and leaving interpretation to them, is the nature of this genre; an abstract frame has no right answer, and its success is measured by keeping the viewer looking. When a human body is photographed as an abstract form, you need to ask for consent, show the frames, and bring out the texture of every skin with respect using light from the side.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will photograph only abstract frames for a week.

1. Move so close to an ordinary object at home, or crop the frame so tightly, that it can't be told what it is; take five frames.
2. Find and photograph a frame made of only two or three color fields.
3. In a shaded place or on an overcast day, try intentional camera movement with a long shutter speed; from at least twenty tries, choose the best three.
4. Show the frames to someone and ask them to guess what they are looking at; note which frames stayed above the recognition threshold and which below.

Check yourself

• In the frames you chose, does the eye keep looking even when nothing is recognizable?
• In the frames you shot with intentional camera movement, is there random blur, or a rhythm?
• If you photographed a body or a hand as an abstract form, did you show the frames to the person, and show their skin and texture with respect?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is usually the subject of abstract photography?

• A) A recognizable event
• B) Shapes, lines, colors and textures
• C) Only human faces
• D) Only landscapes

2. What is it called to slide the camera upward during a long shutter speed while photographing a poplar grove?

• A) Isolation
• B) An overhead shot
• C) Intentional camera movement
• D) A color field

3. What is an abstract frame's success largely measured by?

• A) Whether it keeps the viewer looking
• B) Its sharpness
• C) Whether it has a right answer
• D) Its file size

4. You photographed a friend's hands as an abstract form. What should you do before sharing?

• A) Nothing; the hands can't be recognized
• B) Strip the color from the frames
• C) Share the frames secretly
• D) Show them the frames and delete the ones they don't want

Answers

1. B — Abstract photography makes form, color and texture the subject on their own.
2. C — Deliberately moving the camera during a long shutter speed is intentional camera movement.
3. A — The abstract has no right answer; a strong frame invites the viewer to look.
4. D — Even when a body is photographed as an abstract form, consent and respect hold.

Summary card

• Abstract: the subject isn't an object; shape, line, color, texture.
• Cut it off from its context: move closer, crop tight.
• Color fields and their borders; texture and pattern as the subject itself.
• Intentional camera movement: a long shutter speed, many tries; focus missed on purpose.
• Play with the recognition threshold; when photographing a body, ask permission, show, delete what isn't wanted.

Bridge to the next lesson

Abstract photography has no separate track; but this week, which trained your eye to form, color and texture, will seep into the frames of every genre from macro to architecture. In the reading order, on the other hand, we move from unrecognizable forms to the opposite: a subject that needs to be recognized as clearly as possible. You want to sell a necklace you made by hand, an old camera of yours or a book online; but the frames you take are dark, cluttered and don't inspire trust. How do I photograph something I want to sell at home? The module's last lesson talks about simple product photography, with window light, a white card and a clean background.