Abstract art. You either love it or hate it. Or maybe you’re not always sure how you feel about it. In photography, I never really cared for them much. I’ve always been a realist, what you see is what you record with the camera.
What changed? Me, I suppose. When I photographed with film I never edited my images. Yes, photo labs likely color corrected my images but they never straightened crooked horizons, added textures or any other sort of post-processing techniques that are more easily accessible and doable in digital post-processing today.
Another change for me was when I took part in an online mentorship titled: Blurs and Unsharp Photography: Guided Play with some amazing people who embrace this genre of photography. Do you know what I did? I played. Honestly, there are methods and ways of doing these things while being technical, making sure settings are set so you capture things in a certain way. Me? Nah, I’d rather just play, push buttons and see what happens. I get lucky sometimes.
I do know what needs to be done to get certain effects. After 40+ years of creating images, I have learned a thing or two about how the camera works, what exposure is and how I need to adjust things to create what I want. Mostly, I experiment with those options though, I don’t dwell on them and I generally do not like discussing the technical side of photography at much length.
Mixing Abstract & Architecture
Nature is the original architect. Look around you next time you’re out walking. Trees, flowers, plants, water and anything created by nature has an architectural element in it. Sometimes you have to look for it and other times it’s blatantly obvious (think about lines and shapes in sunflowers or leaves).
So, why not put manmade and nature-made together in a fine art display? I think it works quite well if you find the right combination.
Take a look at these three-room mock-ups and you’ll see what I mean. Personally, I really love the curves of the red hosta images with the curves of the newly opened St. Regis Chicago building by Jeanne Gang and Magellan Development Group.
Sometimes when we add art to a room we want it to be an accent and not the center of attention. Maybe we’d like a pop of color. Perhaps we need some curves and roundness in a room full of lines and sharp edges.
If you’re looking to add abstract art or other types of fine art photography to your decor let me know how I can help you.
