Month: August 2025

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Blog Post 3- Abstraction in Photography

The Pictorialism Movement was an international effort, taking place around 1885 to 1915. The purpose of the movement was to bring out the artistic abilities in photograph to prove it was on par to painting and sculpting in terms of an art from. This was to combat the argument that photography was more machine generated than actually man made. The subjects are things you would see day to day, from people to streets to open scenery.  Giving the photos the photographic and familiar feeling despite looking like they were hand crafted. While there isn’t a strict definition to pictorialism, there were some common techniques; like color tinting, soft focus, adding to the photos to simulate brush strokes, and darkening rooms. These images contain soft lighting and a hand painted feeling.

 

The Straight Photography Movement was something that started nearing the end of Pictorialism, the earliest being 1910 and something still being used to this day. It gained popularity through the advancements of cameras and also the determination to show artist integrity. Photography was still seen as a technical and machine made form of art or documentation. The goal was to get a clear photos of objects and how they appear in the world. Rather than altering photos and making them look painted, straight photography brought out the subject in a more sharp form. Usually accompanied by dark lighting and sharp forms, making ordinary objects look more than they once were.

 

The two movements highly contrast each other. While straight photography aimed to convey meaning, pictorialism brought out how artistic photos could be. Straight photography brought out artistic values by making something so machine made special, the creativity behind the object rather than the printed photo. While pictorialism still captured the same familiar scenes, but made them softer and more appealing to the viewer.

The straight movement could be more popular because it was less time consuming and, arguably, easier to make. Creating stories and meaning behind objects would be much easier than touching up the common scene. It gave more meaning and made things more personal to the photographer compared to the scenes that would be more personal to the viewer. Taking pictures is apart of our daily lives. Snapping what would be memorable and what would have meaning to them.

 

 

 

“Pictorialism | MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/collection/terms/pictorialism.

“Pictorialism Movement Overview.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/movement/pictorialism.

“Straight Photography Movement Overview.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/movement/straight-photography.

100ASA Ltd. “The Straight Photography Movement: Capturing Reality Through the Lens | 100ASA.” 100ASA, 100asa.com/blog/the-straight-photography-movement-capturing-reality.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Pictorialism | History, Techniques and Examples.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 17 Nov. 2006, www.britannica.com/technology/Pictorialism.

“What Is Pictorialism in Photography?” Bosham Gallery, boshamgallery.com/blog/30-what-is-pictorialism-in-photography-when-photographs-looked-like-paintings-1880-1915.

“Pictorialism Movement Overview.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/movement/pictorialism.

Wikipedia contributors. Wall Street (Photograph). 25 Nov. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_%28photograph%29#/media/File:Wall_Street_by_Paul_Strand,_1915.jpg.

Manten, Eric. “Manten|Photography — What You Need to Know About Straight Photography.” Manten|Photography, 24 Nov. 2019, www.mantenphotography.com/blog/2019/10/what-you-need-to-know-about-straight-photography.

Staff, Spm. “The Straight Line Is Godless and Immoral.” Street Photography Magazine, 11 Aug. 2024, streetphotographymagazine.com/article/the-straight-line-is-godless-and-immoral.

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Blog Post 2- Defintion

Abstraction photography is different from abstract in art. While art can express something without it being anything, photography is different. Clicking a button is capturing something, it’s not as easy to convey raw feeling though taken pictures rather than drawn pictures.

Abstraction is like distorting, tweaking the colors, and making the pictures “weird” with intentional but also natural feeling. The art or the meaning of the photo is completely up to the photographer. Manipulating angles and the way objects are positioned in a way where nothing catches your attention more than the other, creating their form of art. Or taking pictures in intentional lighting to make it look like something else.

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Blog Post 1- Starting Point

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. During this unit, you will investigate appropriate examples of abstract photography and respond in your own way.

 

My initial description of abstraction is where there’s a lot of objects or shapes in an image with no clear main focus, or something bright in color and uniquely disproportionate. When it says that abstract photography doesn’t make the subject the most interesting element, I believe it means that there is other elements that compliment or rival the subject. Either that’s shape, color, texture, sizing, or other visual elements. This could also mean that there isn’t a main subject. In other forms of photography, there’s a object that’s the main focus, but in the few abstraction pictures examples that isn’t always the case. Sometimes there’s more than one subject or showing a subject in a new light.

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Blog Post 1- Context in Photography

 

 

What feelings/states of mind of the photographer are suggested by the image?

  • Every mistake in the photo is intentional. The position where he was compared to the tree to the house. The residence he chose had a lot of vegetation and bushes around the front, looking like a mess when you turn the contrast up very high. There was always a second chance to retake the photo, to fix the focus on the camera and the pose where he stood, but he didn’t. To me, I feel like he is mocking the rules of photography, purposely breaking them and then putting “WRONG” in big, dark letters. He knows its wrong but that’s the point. The wrongness of the photo gives it character, a reason to be featured.

 

We know what Baldessari was thinking about when he took this series of images (because he tells us in the video above!). How does that influence our appreciation of the picture? Even if we hadn’t seen the video, does the word “Wrong” help us understand his state of mind ? Why?

  • In the brief text box that was in the DX lesson, he says that he questions why we should to conform to conventional aspects. Why should our art should be judged? To me, he knows these photos are wrong, but it is right to him because it’s his art. Him calling his own photograph wrong helps us understand that it was on purpose rather than an actual accident.

 

Baldessari, John “Wrong” Photograph. Dragon’s Exchange, ISB, 22nd August 2024. https://dx.isb.cn/dash/#/classroom/648607/sections/lesson/344114/page/344116/edit, Accessed 22nd August 2024.