Intro To Digital Photography – Abstraction Blog Post #12

Artist Study: Keld Helmer Petersen

The photographer that I chose for my artist study is Keld Helmer Petersen, who uses a lot of bright backgrounds and dark silhouettes to create shapes and contrast in his photos. This makes the viewers focus on the way the shapes interact with one another instead of their textures or any other such details in the photograph. A lot of his images are related to architecture or other similar human-made structures, with lots of straight edges and sharp angles instead of flowy lines and organic shapes. I chose this artist because this style of abstract photography is very similar to my red selection set, and it conveys a sense of abstraction and emptiness that I want my red selection to convey. Some of Peterson’s work also has more neutral grey tones as well, which matches the first set of my green selection photographs.

This image is interesting to me because of the ways the different lines interact and intersect across the white background. The dark silhouettes of the light posts are throughout the image in a way that they don’t appear too cluttered, while still breaking up the negative space. They make a bold statement and provide a place for the viewer’s eyes to rest, as well as support the many lines from the electricity wires. Speaking of the wires, I find the way they move to be very interesting. Although they are non-organic in nature, the way they are almost messily positioned across the image makes them feel a lot more lively and real compared to if they were all perfectly straight and in line with one another. They create flow and movement throughout the image and break up the negative space lightly in a way that the solid silhouettes of the light poles cannot.