Is this Abstract? 1 for C&C

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

That was in reference to Olympus' post. Just a joke though, Bitter does do nice abstract work, but that post just sounded laughingly @ss kiss-like to me.

 

[KenC]

I do a lot of stuff I describe loosely as "abstract" but in most cases one can tell what it was I photographed. I think the distinction is whether the image relies on shape, line, texture, color or tone, etc. for its effect rather than recognition. What if the source of an image presented as an abstract were not clear to the first thousand people who viewed it, but then someone figured it out - would it then cease to be an abstract and would you have to start calling it something else? I realize that this leaves us without a firm definition of an abstract, but so what? Categories like this are always imprecise.

 

[Trever1t]

I'll start a new thread....

 

[Longlens]

Hi folks, I'm just coming to this thread quite a long time after the original post, but since it is a very relevant question, thought I'd chip in.

BekahAura, in any photographic competition for Abstracts, your image would most likely not even be selected for exhibition since it fails the basic test of an Abstract, which is to be difficult to understand; or abstruse. Here are some general guidelines when evaluating what is an Abstract.

Here is a clip (used with permission) from the official Judging manual. of the Canadian Association for Photographic Art...

Definition - Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which exists independently of visual references to the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. The arts of cultures other than the European had become accessible and showed alternative ways to the artist, of describing visual experience.

Abstract photography is possibly the most difficult to appreciate for anyone nurtured in a purely factual approach. Most people who struggle do so because they are trying to interpret the shapes and colours in terms of identifying recognizable objects instead of looking for the way different parts of the image relate to each other and create a special feeling or don’t, in terms of visual design, as the case may be.

Hope this helps.

 

[AgentDrex]

Why are you bloating Bitter's head? Oh, wait, he is that good...he is indeed an inspiration...one secret...tell Bitter to go fly a kite...and he will...literally...