Understanding the Abstract

Fellow photographer Chris Shepherd has written and interesting article detailing his thoughts on Abstract Photography. It's a good read and illustrated with a picture I particularly like. To me it is a good example of an abstract image that's both well executed and contains meaning for the viewer.

His views in the article differ slightly from my own so I may at some point write a contrasting article to compliment Chris's. This is not a critisism of the views Chris holds. Quite the contrary as it is different view points and perspectives that make any creative act such as photography unique. The fact our views are simmilar but diverge is no suprise to anyone and i'd certainly not want to change that difference of opinion. I'd add that I wouldn't say one of us is right and the other wrong either. Creativity is never as black and white as this if you'll pardon the photography joke in the metaphor! We all have our own approaches shaped by our own creative perspectives.

This is vitally important as without this no unique work could be produced. We'd all be static and boring clones of each other.

My next article will cover the differing ways photographers can perceive and approach the same subject. Like this note it deals with the 'creative differences' all photographers share and how they enrich photography for us all.