John Gough Photography
I am enjoying the work of Jessica Meyer. Especially the blending of old and new in the image above. It is a hand printed Cyanotype, partially bleached with Borax substitute.
This was created for a project in @icmphotomag challenging the creative ways in which we can combine both the fast digital world of ICM photography with the slow manual printing process of #cyanotypes, invented 180 years ago.
I was looking through the medals and acceptances awarded at this year’s London Salon. The majority of awarded images were brilliantly creative. It is clear that to win photography distinctions today it is not enough to point your camera at a fabulous sunset, anyone with a smartphone can do that. To make waves now requires real creative input from the photographer.
Making waves brings me to the world of Wolfgang Tillmans, a photographer who is renowned for his innovative approach and his ability to creatively capture the essence of life. Tillmans’s work crosses conventional boundaries, blurring the lines between photography, abstraction, and conceptual art. I love his later work and I have curated some of his abstract images here. There are also videos about Tillmans here
Tillmans’ career started with traditional photography, but later he started to explore abstraction and conceptual art. He experimented with the photographic process itself, manipulating light, colour, and exposure to create mesmerizing abstract compositions. These works often evoke emotions, making viewers revaluate their own interpretation of the images.
Wolfgang Tillmans is the only photographer to have won the prestigious Turner Prize which he achieved in 2000. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, solidifying his place as one of the most influential artists of our time.
Tillmans curates his photographs in unique and thought-provoking ways. These often immersive installations allow visitors to experience his art interactively, blurring the line between the observer and the observed. He rejects the conventions of photographic presentation, developing connections between his pictures and the social space of the exhibition. Unframed prints are taped to the walls or clipped and pinned. Framed photographs appear alongside magazine pages. Images are grouped on walls and tabletops as photocopies, colour or black-and-white photographs, and video projections.
“I see my installations as a reflection of the way I see, the way I perceive or want to perceive my environment,” Tillmans has said. “They’re also always a world that I want to live in.”
“The viewer…should enter my work through their own eyes, and their own lives”
Wolfgang Tillmans
His exhibition To Look without Fear, is at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 9 November 2023 – 3 March 2024
This year has to be about abstract photography and photo expressionism. The world is becoming too damaged to just capture images with clean lines and clear perspectives. I want to become engulfed in a liminal universe and draw inspiration from other visual artists working in the same space. One such photographer I admire is Roxanne Bouche Overton.
Roxanne Bouche Overton is intrigued by the photography of liminal space and time.
A liminal space is a place between two other places or two states of being. Liminal spaces are often empty and can create unease or uncertainty.
Liminal photography can be used to capture the feeling of being in a dream or the feeling of being lost. It can also be used to capture the feeling of being in a place that is both familiar and unfamiliar.
All of my life I’ve been chasing what I see out of the corner of my eye; those elusive visions, slightly blurred and a bit magical. But when I turn and focus on them, they disappear into ordinary. I wanted to learn how to capture that state of blur. It’s what caught my eye in the first place – I think it’s worth chasing.
Roxanne Bouche OvertonWhen I am out shooting I am looking for those liminal spaces – the transitions between then and now – the transitions of between the blur of my peripheral vision as it moves to sharpness. We must be aware if we to engage our imaginations and collect these moments
Roxanne is a master of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM). Just to recap intentional camera movement (ICM) photography is a technique where you move the camera as the image is taken. This can be done by panning, tilting, or shaking the camera. The goal is to create an image with a sense of movement and blur.
Rozanne,s work however takes ICM to a different level, forget blurry ICM shots of tree trunks. Roxanne works with landscape and urban spaces, often including lone figures in vibrant surroundings.
Learning from great photographers is one of the joys of photography. Why, when you see some images are you inspired enough to find out how and why the photographer captured that moment?
Especially when that moment is not representational, but more abstract and more about the emotion than the seeing. This is what has drawn me to the work of Roxanne Bouche Overton. Her photography has an eerie quality. Her ICM images are not what you have seen before, but what you might have seen, what you cannot quite remember seeing, what you thought you saw, or what you felt you saw but didn’t.
It is extraordinary how Roxanne’s work demonstrates how a camera can capture the elusive.
I have curated some of her work here and there is so much more on her Instagram account.
Her website gives details of publications and workshops.
Her books are available on Amazon:
I have also found this clip which is interesting in giving an insight into her work and how she achieves her results
Photography is driving me to abstraction. That is why I have included the video above. Because Valda Bailey can describe far more articulately than I can, why some photographers are trending towards expressionism and abstract photography, rather than sticking with the more usual genres of landscape, street and portraiture.
For that reason, I wanted to understand more about abstract photography. I knew that it appealed to me, so I recently attended an exhibition, celebrating photographic expressionism. Coincidently organised by Valda Bailey and her colleague Doug Chinnery who together are baileychinnery.com
Some of the best abstract photographers working in the UK were represented at the exhibition. If you view some of their work then you will get an idea of how some photographers are moving from reality to the abstract.
Iveta Lazdina is a fine art photographer from Latvia, who works with ICM, and multiple exposure to produce abstract photographic art.
Using ICM and multiple exposure to ‘simplify the image and using a limited colour palette to convey feelings of calm and serenity’
‘I use photography as the medium to express myself creatively and I enjoy the playfulness of using camera techniques such as multiple exposure and intentional camera movement to capture my impressions’.
Jocelyn Horsfall specialises in ‘atmospheric images inspired by flowers and foliage and the natural world’
‘For my abstract work my inspiration comes from my friends Valda Bailey and Doug Chinnery, working with multiple exposures and ICM . It can particularly gratifying to apply some of those techniques to the more conventional genres of Landscape, Music and Wildlife.’
Laura Goin uses ICM and multiple exposure to capture the countryside that reminds her of home in Missouri.
‘For me, the landscape is a means of expressing how I look and feel about what touches me. The way a painter uses brushes and paint. I paint the landscape with my camera to create my images’.
There is a trend towards abstract photography, but compared to other genres it is still minuscule. On Instagram the number of abstract posts is 3.2 million, compared to landscape photography 68.3m, wildlife photography 27.2m and a whopping 114.5m for street photography. So we need to get this trend into perspective. It is a road less well travelled.
That however is part of its appeal. When I was into landscape I was always turning up at sites to put my tripod into the holes left by others. The likelihood is that they were up earlier than I was, had better light or better kit etc, all of which made their images far better than mine. When I was into street photography there were photographers with New York or London on their doorstep. My opportunities in rural Bedfordshire were far more limited.
In 2023, 54,400 photos are taken every second, 196 million per hour, 4.7 billion per day, 32.9 billion per week, 143 billion per month, and 1.72 trillion per year. With too many photographs in the world is it surprising that some photographers are moving away from representational photography?
Abstract photography is moving beyond a literal interpretation, it is art and photography combined. There are no longer boundaries, creativity becomes more important than technique and technology. Photography is all about seeing. About making versions of what we have seen before
Expressionist photography is more about seeing what isn’t there.
I asked an AI image generator to create ‘a girl walking through a flower meadow’.
I then asked an AI Chatbot to define the future of photography following the development of software that can create AI generated images like the one above.
These are the results:
What is the future of AI in Photography?
AI is already being used in photography to enhance and automate various tasks, such as image recognition, object detection, and image editing. In the future, AI is likely to become even more integrated into photography, with capabilities such as real-time image processing, autonomous camera control, and the ability to create images with a high level of realism. Additionally, AI-powered virtual and augmented reality experiences are expected to become more commonplace in photography, allowing users to interact with their images in new and exciting ways.
Will AI generated images replace photography?
It is unlikely that AI-generated images will completely replace photography, as the art and craft of photography involves more than just capturing an image. Photography is a form of creative expression and storytelling, and while AI may be able to assist with certain technical aspects of photography, it is unlikely to replace the human perspective and emotional connection that a photograph can convey.
AI-generated images could, however, become more prevalent in certain areas such as advertising, product visualization, and film special effects. AI-generated images can be used to create high-quality, highly realistic images at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional photography. In these fields, AI-generated images may be used as an alternative to traditional photography, but it’s unlikely to completely replace it.
Moreover, AI generated images are mainly used to create images that are difficult or impossible to photograph in reality, such as images of things that do not exist in the real world, or to create images that are not possible to take with a camera, such as x-ray or thermal imaging.
Is there a future for photography with AI generated images so easy to produce?
While AI-generated images may make certain tasks, such as image manipulation and creation, easier, it is unlikely to eliminate the need for photography entirely. Photography is a form of art and storytelling, and the human perspective and emotional connection that a photograph can convey is something that AI-generated images cannot replicate. Additionally, photography is a way for people to capture and remember important moments in their lives, and this is something that AI-generated images cannot replace.
Moreover, photography has a lot of applications and domains, such as photojournalism, landscape, portrait, and many more, where the AI generated images can’t really compete with the human eye and creativity. In these fields, the photography will remain a valuable and necessary profession.
In summary, the rise of AI-generated images may change the way photography is done, but it is unlikely to replace the art and craft of photography entirely. The future of photography with AI-generated images will likely see a shift towards more collaboration between photographers and AI technology, rather than replacement of one by the other.
Picture by DALL-E. Words by Chat GBT
It has been remiss of me but I had not updated my Images of the Month page since around May. Where have I been? Well if the November image above is anything to go by it would seem the past few months have been a bit of a dream.
Two of my images are on show at the Artsnug gallery in Walthamstow, London. They are part of the WalthamStories exhibition.
I was invited to submit the work as part of the exhibition which celebrates:
a community’s contagious love of it’s home. Inspired by local devotion to this corner of London, we endeavour to tell some of the many tales of this vibrant borough through the eyes of the Artsnug artists.
We invited our artists near and far to explore this urban home at the edge of the forest, between waterways, thickets and high rises. To immerse themselves in our local landscape. To wander our street-art filled streets, glimpse our historic buildings and delve deep into our rich history.
This is the inaugural ‘WalthamStories’ – chapter one. An exhibition of bespoke and exclusive artworks to celebrate all things Waltham Forest!
Artsnug, Walthamstow
The two works I have in this curation are Passage and Village Stories
Passage uses the ‘in the round’ technique made popular by Pep Ventosa, this is a way of capturing a scene by walking around it and taking multiple images. These are then layered together to create an impression of a place which is both soft and surreal.
Pep Ventosa, a Catalan Photographer renowned for creating impressionistic looking photographs using this technique. His series ‘Trees in the Round’ became the lynchpin of his work. His photography, however, is now more diverse and includes urban landscapes, and interiors
When talking about his work he describes how: “The process mimics how we actually see: the eyes are constantly focusing on the specific details and elements of what’s in front of them and the brain then processes that visual information making the reconstruction, so we perceive the world around us”
This piece incorporates people in the scene to create a sense of transience by layering time. ‘Time Slice’ is a technique used in cinematography and photography to include both the past and present in one image.
In my most recent photography I have looked to layering both place and time, as I move away from sharp digital recordings, to try to capture the world that we see and feel.
If your inspiration is flagging I suggest a visit to Photo London. The event which is held over four days at Somerset House in London, is back after a break of two years due to Covid.
Visiting Photo London you get the chance to visit around one hundred exhibitors. These are commercial galleries worldwide that specialise in the sale of photographic art. As you walk from one gallery exhibit to the next, you are blown away by the imagination and craft created by some of the world’s top creative professional photographers.
My interest this year was nature and abstract art. Here is some of the photographic work that caught my attention.
Katherin has developed a process which robs flowers of their pigment. She treats the flowers for several months and then photographs them. She’s inspired by the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, the acceptance of transience and imperfection. It creates a beautiful ethereal effect.
Explore her work here and on her website.
A Finnish fine art photographer who photographs skies, and nature. What caught my eye were his images of water lilies.
There is a lovely selection of his work on the Purdy Hicks website
Eeva’s work is abstract, often the amalgamation of many images captured while she walks often down the same path outside her door in her native Helsinki.
There is a selection of her work on the Purdy Hicks website
This video explains the process behind her photography
These photographers create a panorama of repeated patterns.
The recurrence of the similar shapes and elements with the minimalistic colour leads the viewers to gauge the incongruity within an appearance of a congruent field of the photograph. The dissimilarity creates a subtle flow of rhythm synonymous with the circuits of movement in nature. These are the images constructed by the France-based photographer-duo Edouard Taufenbach and Bastien Pourtout, as they like to say, “In the exchange and confrontation of two points of view. This creates a multiple and subjective image of reality.”
The photomontage The Blue of the Sky, for which the duo won the Swiss Life 4 Hands 2020 Prize, represents the sky dotted with the swallows.
This is a video in which Edouard Taufebach explains their three year project to create a collage of Marlene Dietrich images.
Learn more about their work on their website
I apologise in advance but this is an idea I have to borrow from Vancouver based photographer Jennifer Latour. Bound Species is a portfolio of work which splices different plant species together.
In the series, her plant creations transport us to the vibrant technicolor of a warm spring day. “It was brought together from my love for design, my work in effects, and my photography,” she explains to IGNANT. “I splice different plants and flora together to create their own unique breed of species”. Combined with frosted natural scenes, peculiar cemetery trees, and anonymous portraits drenched in sunshine, Latour’s poetic and tender imagery elicits feelings of positivity and calm. Despite referencing a common object in art history, Latour’s spliced creations are surprising in their balance of color, minimalism, and innocence, transmitting visual pleasure and contentment in the viewer.
IGNANT
I have collected some of her work here and there is more work for sale on Artsy
Photo London is so worth visiting because it introduced me to these new artists. This is photography I have never seen before and probably would never see.
These are not the sort of images that appear every week in Amateur Photographer.
I think photographers are special. Photographers see and feel differently from other people.
“Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is.”
Anon
I am convinced that photographers see more than people who are not photographers. I am sure that photographers look continually for opportunities to see. When they do see, they can in that moment. Concentrate. Look for details. Wonder. Feel as well as see.
“Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.”
Don McCullin
In 2015 Canon undertook an experiment in which three people were asked to look at a picture. Eye tracking technology was used to analyse their eye movements. Showing where they focused and for how long.
Canon invited a non-photographer, a photography student and the professional photographer who shot the image. Each viewed the image.
The non-photographer focused on ten or so points that drew her attention with a total of 212 eye movements.
The photography student made twice as many eye movements. He also spent time looking at different areas of the image.
Finally, the person who photographed the image paid the most attention to the detail. Nearly 1200 eye movements.
See the chart above.
What does this prove? Well, nothing it was not a properly controlled test. It is just a little piece of flimsy evidence that supports my hypothesis that photographers look and see more.
How about feeling?
In another experiment, Canon examined the power of perspective in portrait photography. The camera company enlisted the help of 6 photographers and asked them each to independently shoot portraits of a man named Michael. But there was a twist: each photographer was told a different thing about Michael’s background.
The photographers were told that Michael was: a self-made millionaire, someone who has saved a life, an ex-inmate, a commercial fisherman, a self-proclaimed psychic, and a recovering alcoholic.
But… Michael is none of those things. He’s an actor, and as he followed the photographers’ direction, he did his best to take on the personality of each character.
The photographers, guided by their fictitious brief, had drastically different approaches to photographing their subject.
“A photograph is shaped more by the person behind the camera than by what’s in front of it,” Canon says. This experiment, titled “Decoy,” was intended to prove that point and “shift creative thinking behind the lens.”
The experiment is demonstrated in the video below:
A photographer’s feelings, attitude, character, opinion, and knowledge will all be captured in every picture they take.
Photographers are the luckiest people. We don’t just look. We see and we feel. We often capture moments that others would miss, and in sharing that experience we allow others into a private world that is uniquely ours
This guide is full of street photography quick tips for the photographer who wants to go out and hunt for urban images.
Remember 99% of street photography is about failure. Just accept that the majority of shots will be rubbish. The joy of getting just one image will make up for all the footslogging.
“Every once in a while at the end of the day, when I am most exhausted and hungry, something – a shaft of light, an unexpected gesture, an odd juxtaposition- suddenly reveals a photograph”. Alex Webb
It is easiest to start street photography with a theme or a project. People smoking or vaping. Reflections in shop windows. Conversations. Arguments. Eating and drinking. All human life is there for the taking.
Get close by using use a 35mm or 28mm prime lens. The advantage of a wide angle lens is that it gives the viewer a sense of being there and in the moment.
It is better to blend in with the crowd and be part of the urban scene. By shooting from across the street with a long lens, you are more like a sniper than a street photographer
‘If your photos aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough.’ Robert Capa
Compact cameras with a prime wide angle lens are best for street photography. A zoom lens is not necessary and could slow down picture taking.
Shoot from the hip. Raising a camera to your eye just says “Look at me”
Be prepared to crop, there is often no time to compose the frame. Get the picture and do the work in post processing.
Use a smartphone. It’s ideal for street photography.
The experts say use aperture priority, but that advice comes from an earlier time when depth of field was required to ensure the subject was sharp.
Modern cameras with auto focus don’t require zone focusing. So to ensure a sharp image use shutter priority with a high ISO. This will freeze the action and capture that decisive moment.
‘Sharpness is a bourgeois concept’ Henri Cartier-Bresson
Dilemma! Is it better to walk around and search for street images or is it better to find a good location and let the picture come to you?
Walking around is more active and interesting, however standing and waiting means that the dynamic is easier. As people will be entering your personal space instead of you entering their space.
Learn the law about street photography.
If there is confrontation, be open & friendly. Apologise profusely even though you are not in the wrong and be prepared to delete images on request
Business cards are useful to show that you are a real photographer, maybe even a professional photographer.
Like no other genre street photography gives the opportunity to capture emotion.
‘You fill up the frame with feelings energy, discovery and risk, and leave room for someone else to get in there’ Joel Meyerowitz •
Most of all street photography can tell a story.
“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.” Elliott Erwitt
These street photography quick tips are just a guide. Learning by doing and experience will fill in the gaps