All photographs:

Yellow Photographs:

These are my yellow photos. I focused on patterns, architecture and a little bit of light, with the formal elements shape, repetition, texture and tone in mind. I chose photos I thought had stories behind them by leaving out the rest of my non-yellow photographs that had a single focus. I picked photos that had direction and repetition with emphasis on both specific and broad details, such as gradual change in lighting, or repetition of big shapes.

Green Photos:

These select nine are my green photographs. I eliminated most of my yellow photos that had duller or a less variety in color, along with ones that focused on patterns. For these photographs I mainly chose ones with focus on bright, vivid colors, metals and light against them and other architectures. While my first, third and seventh photos had vibrant colors, my second photo had a variety of colors that made it stand out. My fourth photo, alike to my third and seventh, used different colors that contrasted with the background to create direction and shape which made that stand out despite it being duller colors. Light was used in many photos, ranging from being used for value or tone, like how the image gradually goes from darker to lighter in photos one, six and seven, to reflecting off of metal or glass surfaces like in five, seven eight and nine, and even through the sunlight spilling between the gaps of leaves from a tree beyond the photo onto the background in photo four. Each and every one of these photos demonstrate my vision and reflect my chosen photographer, Ola Kolehmainen’s style, either by using light against architecture or the use of vibrant colors.

Red Photos:

My red photos are my favorite of my 798 set. They have vivid colors, lots of texture, and use light to make tones and value in the photos. All three give a rough texture, from the thick layered paint in the first and the second, to the spreading rust of the third. I think each demonstrated my vision and mostly reflected my chosen photographer, Ola Kolehmainen’s style. For my next set, I would like to improve the quality of my photos by further eliminating any distracting factors, especially in the background to make it more interesting. I would also like to use a larger variety of architecture like glass to better demonstrate Ola Kolehmainen’s style. For the next shoot, I will be more careful in my composition so as to limit the distractions in the photo, and will also try to emphasize the use of light against pieces of architecture.

This is the single photo I will be fully evaluating.

This photo is of a vivid colored piece of architecture in the 798 art district. It reflects my vision in that the though there is only one color, it is a very vibrant eye catching one that makes the photo interesting. It also uses the formal element of value and/or tone through its use of light. The angle of which the sun hit the piece of architecture creating an image of darker shades in the bottom left corner gradually becoming lighter towards the top right. The light also emphasized the use of pattern in the photo, creating focus around the carved semi-circles resembling a fish’s scales in the paint. Another feature that made the photo was the thick layers of paint on the building, creating a thick texture in contrast to the typical smooth metal building you see in everyday life. These attributes of this photo are the reasons why the audience can see my intentions as a photographer and how I was inspired by the abstract photographer Ola Kolehmainen especially through the use of light against architecture.

I will be analyzing the photo style of Ola Kolehmainen. These are my chosen eight photos by him.

1) 2) 3) 4)

5) 6) 7) 8) 

Ola Kolehmainen’s photography style is capturing light against architecture in an abstract manner. He highlights the metallic and/or bright colors in different settings with careful specific lighting, weather the object material is metal or not. This is demonstrated in all of his photos I’ve picked out, but it especially caught my eye in photo 2 “Big Time” because the way the lighting was used made multiple different focus points. The focus of his photos fluctuate between the objects reflection in another space, like in “See What You See”, “Oblivion” and “Bauhaus I” (photos 5,6, and 8), to the emphasis on geometric shapes like in “Sketches of Spain”, “Composition With Collected Reflections”, “Diamond”, and “Untitled”, as well as “See What You See” (1, 3, 4, 7, and 5). Another attribute that Kolehmainen frequently considers in his photos is composition, as mentioned in the title for photo 3, “Composition With Collected Reflections”, but also demonstrated in photos 1, 5 and 7 with levels (background, middle ground, foreground) in 1 and with the evenness between the shapes being parallel with the photo in 5 and 7. Another repeating attribute within his photos is the use of patterns or repetition. The repeated shapes within a photo contributes to making a photo interesting, especially in “Sketches of Spain”, “Composition With Collected Reflections”, “Diamond”, “See What You See”, and “Untitled” (photos 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7). His photographs demonstrate abstraction in that in each of his photos there is no one big interesting thing, there are multiple interesting points throughout the photo. I’ve already emphasized this about his photos, but I really like the way he creates photos with light. I think utilizing light and how it reflects off of or bring things into focus makes a photo really neat. I chose Ola Kolehmainen because his ethereal photography really inspired me in seeing light and architecture in a new way and not just boring everyday things. His photos contributed to my vision in that I look for light and its relationship with different architectural pieces to make a really cool photograph.

Ola Kolehmainen. Published 2006. “See What You See”. Photograph. Gibsons, accessed 2024.

The photo I will be fully evaluating is “See What You See” by Ola Kolehmainen, taken in 2006. Along with an abstract theme, he demonstrates multiple formal elements of photography in this piece, but I think the main elements he focuses on in this piece are focus and repetition. He demonstrated repetition through the horizontal strips of lines and shapes, and highlighted the texture of the reflective and clear metal surface. He shows value through the strong light in the bottom left corner and darker themes in the middle column looking section. He also showed focus through lighting, using the light to show a silhouette of a tree beyond the photo. Despite that, it also offers another focus, being the horizontal metal layers pattern as the building progresses upward. I thought these specific elements in this photo were important because it helped describe how many interesting points there were all across the piece, as well as highlight the abstraction through that. Something I found unusual about this photo is the contrast in potential focuses, but I think that is what makes it more interesting and it is why I chose this photograph. This is my analysis of “See What You See” by Ola Kolehmainen.

Works Cited

1. Ola Kolehmainen. Published 2017. “Sketches of Spain”. Photograph. archdaily, accessed 2024.
2. Ola Kolehmainen. Published 2011. “Big Time”. Photograph. 1stdibs, accessed 2024.
3. Ola Kolehmainen. Published 2007. “Composition With Collected Reflections”. Photograph. Artnet, accessed 2024.
4. Ola Kolehmainen. Published 2008. “Diamond”. Photograph. Artsy, accessed 2024.
5. Ola Kolehmainen. Published 2006. “See What You See”. Photograph. Gibsons, accessed 2024.
6. Ola Kolehmainen. Published 2009. “Oblivion”. Photograph. Artnet, accessed 2024.
7. Ola Kolehmainen. Published 2005. “Untitled”. Photograph. AEX, accessed 2024.
8. Ola Kolehmainen. Published 2011. “Bauhaus I”. Photograph. photography-now, accessed 2024.

• ola kolehmainen

• ernst haas

• Statement of Intent

I want my photographs to focus on the use of light against architecture and different everyday objects using composition and shapes. I would like my photography style to resemble a mixture of Ola Kolehmainen and Ernst Haas. I want my photo to reflect Kolehmainen’s us of light against glass or glass-like geometric shapes, and Haas’ use of texture and movement in his photos.  When people see my photos I want the first word they think to be: “Whimsical”.

This is my analysis of one of Andrew Gursky’s abstract photos.

Andrew Gursky,  “Shanghai”

This is a photo by Andrew Gursky titled “Shanghai”, published in 2000. Some things I think Gursky was interested in capturing in this photo is how the horizontal lines are curved and going in the same direction yet don’t intersect, the way the lines repeat and show a pattern, and how the lighting gradually gets brighter from bottom to top. If I was the photographer, I would name this photo “Inner of a Bee Hive” because I think the layers of lines and the bright yellow resembles a bee hive but the way the lines curve towards you makes it look like you are inside of it.

This photo shows line and pattern through the repeated horizontal lines of the hotel levels and shape through the hotel room doors and the rectangular outline of the hallway fence surrounding the potential center of the room or building. I think these rectangles on the railing also show repetition/pattern. There is a soft and smooth texture within the railings and light, and a more solid texture in the walls and doors. There is little variety in lighting but there is more light towards the top which gradually gets slightly dimmer as your focus moves downwards. The focus of the photo is the repetition in railways of different floor levels and the contrast in the dimmer light bellow vs the brighter light above.

This is my analysis of the photo and how the formal elements of photography are demonstrated within it.

Works Cited

Andrew Gursky. Published 2000. “Shanghai”. Photograph. Art Institvte Chicago, accessed 2024.

In photography, “formal elements” are the set, specific components that make a photo interesting. These elements are:

• Line
• Shape
• Repetition/Pattern
• Texture
• Value/Tone
• Focus

For example, here is a photo that depicts these elements.

This is a photo taken by Daisuke Yokota, the name and date of which it was taken is unknown. The frames of the windows depict “lines” as they travel vertically and horizontally, outlining the windows and the room as well as creating a sense of balance on the floor through the collection of contrary line directions evening out throughout. This photo demonstrates shape by emphasizing the rectangular and square shapes through sharp edges around certain objects like the windows, the windows on the buildings outside the windows and the buildings themselves. A pattern of repetition is shown in the rectangular windows repeated across the middle and upper section of the photo, as well as a pattern in the square of lines weaving together. There is a smooth pattern all over from the flooring to the marble window frames, as well as a misty, foggy texture outside the windows and a grainy texture throughout the entire photo. Though most of the photo is a darker tone, there is some contrast between the softer lighting in the city against the darker of the flooring. There are multiple focuses including the dark clothed woman, the repeated windows, and the cluttered buildings in the background. These are the elements of photography demonstrated in one photo.

“Abstract photography can be defined as capturing images in which the subject isn’t the most interesting element. Albert Renger-Patzsch and Aaron Siskind photographed the ordinary to reveal their beauty. Uta Barth reversed the typical use of the camera, shooting out of focus and Andreas Gursky photographs the repetition of elements.”

Initial Thoughts:

To me, this quote describes how beauty can be captured in places you’ve never thought to look and in ways you don’t typically look to think. I think this reinforces the idea of how there’s ‘more’ in everything when you accept theres more than one interesting thing at a time.

My Definition:

Abstract Photography – Photographs that tell a story beyond the main subject.