“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.”

At first, whenever someone asked me what photography was, I would answer that it was a type of art that captured a story of some sort. Whether it was a crowd in NYC or just a small box sitting in the corner of a room, there would always be a way to capture a story or a message. So when I was first introduced to abstract photography, I was shocked that an image could not have a subject or that everything in the image could be the audience’s focus. This went against what I thought before: a photograph plainly needed to contain a story or message. When I scrolled through the internet and looked at abstract photographs, I discovered I could not identify a theme. This made my first impression of abstraction weird, making me think that everyone could shoot an abstract photograph, anywhere, anytime. However, when I first went out in the rain to attempt taking some abstract photographs, I was surprised by how difficult it was. Comparing my photographs to those of professionals, something felt different, as if some element was lacking in my photo. Only later did I realize that abstract photographs could not focus on a subject, but provoked emotions, showing the mood in the photograph. Photographers combined lighting, lines, shape, texture, tone, and many other elements to form an abstract photograph. I think that by the phrase “Abstract photography can be defined as capturing images in which the subject isn’t the most interesting element”, it is telling us that abstract photography can be anything. Any object and group of objects could form an abstract photograph- the trick in this art is figuring out how to do so.