Flow

Some notes:

Abstract: “having no reference to material objects or specific examples; not concrete.”
“hard to understand, recondite, abstruse.”
“art characterised by geometric, formalised, or otherwise nonrepresentational qualities.”
[ C14, from Latin ‘abstractus’, drawn off, removed from (something specific) from ‘trahere’, to draw.]

An abstract photograph is difficult to assign words to, resistant to description, unmoved by interpretation; often named ‘Untitled’, a silent presence.

It seeks release from the cycle of representation by minimising the ego, by avoiding the “where I was, who I am, what I saw” narratives of photography. It privileges the purely aesthetic and the “timeless”.

It is often possible to irritate the abstract artist by beginning to write/say: “It looks like….”

The abstract photographer is a spirit photographer. Discuss.

The abstract photograph is both obvious and elusive. Discuss
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Abstract photography is a mystical cult. Discuss.

To title an abstract image is to tilt it towards representation.

Abstraction is becoming more mainstream and conservative. Ask people to choose between a representational image and an abstract image and the majority will choose the abstract. There is a feeling that the abstract is “different”, and that to choose it is to say “I am different!” ( I base this on no research at all.)

“I have been photographing our toilet, that glossy enamelled receptacle of extraordinary beauty….Here was every sensuous curve of the “human figure divine” but minus the imperfections. Never did the Greeks reach a more significant consummation to their culture.” Edward Weston
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Everything an abstract photographer creates is either a depiction of the surface of the body of the Self, or the surface of the body of the Other.