Definition: Abstract photography is a form of art that does not have a clear object as a focus and is often hard to understand. It is a piece of art made by experimenting with things that no one else had done before and relate to.

 

The pictorialism movement is a revolutionary stream of thoughts that made photography contain art in addition to the pure science purposes before.

The straight photography movement changes people’s views by producing photographs that are not altered or taken in a planned room. It uses everyday life and common events as a form of art. Straight photography became popular due to the photographer Alfred Stieglitz’s amazing artworks such as The Steerage (1907).

Aaron Siskind was inspired by the straight photography movement as he was one of the first photographers that connected abstract photography to ordinary objects in real life and created art pieces such as Metal Hook (1942).

Andreas Gursky’s artwork is abstract as it doesn’t have a clear object to focus on. His work includes abstract photographs such as “99 cent”, a photo that captures a supermarket from a grand scale, showing all the merchandise as small items. Uta Barth’s artwork directs the viewer’s focus from the object to the environment, which by definition, is abstract. Her artworks, such as the various photos about the “ground”, are blurred. I think both of the artists are straight photographers as they took everyday objects and places and made abstract art work from them. They both redirected the viewer’s attention from the object to the environment.

 

Sources:

https://www.theartstory.org/movement/pictorialism/

https://scalar.chapman.edu/scalar/ah-331-history-of-photography-spring-2021-compendium/dylan-lavigne-assignment-3

https://www.artnet.com/artists/uta-barth/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/arts/andreas-gursky-is-taking-photos-of-things-that-do-not-exist.html

https://www.moma.org/artists/7827#works

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/siskind-aaron/

https://www.artnet.com/artists/andreas-gursky/