ABSTRACTION IN PHOTOGRAPHY

The Pictorialism Movement in photography is “an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality”(From Britannica)

Pictorialism movement aims to produce a painterly style by manipulating light and using images to communicate emotions.

Photo from (widewalls.ch)

The straight photography movement is to take pictures of subjects without any editing. It emphasizes accurate composition, and focuses more on reality. It is popular amongst photographers because straight photography was to “capture a realistic, and unmanipulated representation of the subject.”

Photo from (theartstory.org)

Both Edward Weston and Aaron Siskind were photographers who were influenced by the Straight Photography Movement

After doing several researches, I found out Edward Weston is known for his precise and detailed black and white photographs, he uses the idea of straight photography by placing a strong emphasis on clarity, crisp focus, and a true portrayal of his subjects.

(Image from pinterest)

The work of contemporary photographers Andreas Gursky and Uta Barth can be considered abstract due to their exploration of non representational elements in their images. Andreas Gursky’s works captures recognizable subjects, such as buildings or crowds, and they often present them in a way that emphasizes patterns, repetition, and abstraction.

(photo fromn Yatzer.com)

Uta Barth’s work focuses a lot on the lightings and colors. She have a lot blurred or images that are out of focus, her works emphasize shapes, colors, lines, and textures and it creates abstracted photos.

(photo from Sitegallery.org)

In my opinion, Uta Barth may be pictorial because the images looks blurred and painterly, it has a soft focus, which gives a dreamy quality to the photo. Andreas Gursky, on the other hand, is more of straight photographer, in his works, it shows real things clearly and have a sharp focus that makes a precise composition. It also uses natural lightings instead of making adjustment on the tone of the pictures.

(Uta Barth, photo from tate.org.uk)

(Andreas Gursky, photo from theguardian.com)