Intro To Digital Photography – Abstraction Unit Blog Post #4

The Pictorialism movement in photography was a movement where photographers would attempt to make their photos resemble drawings or paintings. This was achieved through a variety of methods such as painting chemicals over the photo to imitate brushstrokes, or using a soft focus on the lens to imitate the blurriness of some paintings.

On the other hand, the straight photography movement was a movement where photographers would make a photograph as distinctly a photograph as they could by emphasizing the characteristics that only photography possesses. Straight photography is characterized by a sharp focus and the capturing of detail. However, straight photography could be used for abstraction as well, as the direct and straightforward presentation of objects can also show the underlying structures and forms of the object through a more abstract lens. Straight photography was likely popular due to this unique property, which allowed photographers to explore a new way of creating abstraction in photography.

Edward Weston and Aaron Siskind were two prominent photographers who were influenced by the Straight Photography movement, which is shown clearly in their works.

Here is Edward Weston’s Cabbage Leaf, which is a great example of how straight photography impacted his work. At first glance, this appears to be a simple, clear and distinct image of a cabbage leaf, but upon further inspection, the viewer could see how the folds of the leaf flows across the image like a piece of fabric, contrasting with the solid black background.

Another example is this image by Aaron Siskind. This photo is abstract in the way that although it has very clear-cut and distinct details, the intent of the photo is for the viewer to observe and focus on the texture and the forms of the shapes in the image, instead of trying to discern exactly what it is that the photographer has taken a photo of. This reflects the different ways abstraction can be achieved in straight photography.

Andreas Gursky’s work is abstract in that it focuses on broad shapes, forms, and repetitions in pattern, toying with the viewer’s sense of scale and often creating a feeling of being dwarfed by the big wide world around us. The viewer is not meant to focus on one specific subject, but the wider picture. This means that his works would be classified more as straight photographs.

On the other hand, Uta Barth uses the focus of the lens to create soft and blurred images instead of sharp and detailed ones to focus on the shapes and colors of the images, creating a quaint feeling that suddenly makes ordinary, everyday scenes feel so much more special. In this way, these photographs are much closer to paintings than photos, and would likely classify more as pictorialist photographs.