Abstract Multiplicities - Multiple Exposure Abstracts
35 images Created 11 Jun 2017
For some time, I have been photographing portions of the deteriorated and weathered paint on the hulls of sailboats left in outdoor winter storage as abstract compositions. That series is called "Painted By The Elements" and appears as another body of work in this Abstract Gallery. Recently I began to experiment with photographing those surfaces using the technique of in-camera multiple exposure. It is a technique I use in much of my other work, which involves shooting two or more images and merging them into a single digital file all within the camera. But this is the first time I have applied it to this subject matter.
I am extremely excited about the combination of these deteriorated surfaces and the in-cmaera multiple exposure technique. It allows me to truly compose a highly abstract, painting-like image in my camera.
In composing these images in this manner, I am sometimes working from a preconceived compositional idea, and then striving to realize it by carefully selection exactly what portion of the subject matter to shoot for the first of the images to be merged and framing it carefully, then selecting the next portion to shoot (which may or may not be on the same surface as the first) and carefully positioning that shot in the frame, and so forth, until the desired number of images are shot and merged. Sometimes I am shooting nearly spontaneously, acting on instinct as I go. And sometimes, it is a combination of the two.
All of these images are, to my way of thinking, multidimensional. To some extent, the multidimentionality is self-evident since the final composition results from combining two or more images into one. But the multidimensionality also comes from the fact that they are, on the one hand, simple photographs of painted surfaces, but on the other hand they are abstract images in which I have "seen" various shapes, likenesses, feelings or other things of interest in each of the separate shots and brought them together into a new relationship to provide a resultant abstract composition with a composite meaning or feeling from the sum of its parts. And, in the final analysis, no matter what I "saw" or felt when I created them, they invite the viewer to derive their own feeling or reaction, which may well be far different from mine. That is, clearly, multidimensionality. And that, to my way of thinking, is the true beauty of abstract art.
As you look at each of these, you may want to ask yourself questions like..What do I see in this image? What is evident, and what is suggested or hiding in its depth? Does it arouse any feeling or emotion in me? What do I think of as I look at them? And how do some of them parallel or contrast one another? The invitations to experience, imagine and feel are limitless in abstract art.
Part of a continuing body of work.
I am extremely excited about the combination of these deteriorated surfaces and the in-cmaera multiple exposure technique. It allows me to truly compose a highly abstract, painting-like image in my camera.
In composing these images in this manner, I am sometimes working from a preconceived compositional idea, and then striving to realize it by carefully selection exactly what portion of the subject matter to shoot for the first of the images to be merged and framing it carefully, then selecting the next portion to shoot (which may or may not be on the same surface as the first) and carefully positioning that shot in the frame, and so forth, until the desired number of images are shot and merged. Sometimes I am shooting nearly spontaneously, acting on instinct as I go. And sometimes, it is a combination of the two.
All of these images are, to my way of thinking, multidimensional. To some extent, the multidimentionality is self-evident since the final composition results from combining two or more images into one. But the multidimensionality also comes from the fact that they are, on the one hand, simple photographs of painted surfaces, but on the other hand they are abstract images in which I have "seen" various shapes, likenesses, feelings or other things of interest in each of the separate shots and brought them together into a new relationship to provide a resultant abstract composition with a composite meaning or feeling from the sum of its parts. And, in the final analysis, no matter what I "saw" or felt when I created them, they invite the viewer to derive their own feeling or reaction, which may well be far different from mine. That is, clearly, multidimensionality. And that, to my way of thinking, is the true beauty of abstract art.
As you look at each of these, you may want to ask yourself questions like..What do I see in this image? What is evident, and what is suggested or hiding in its depth? Does it arouse any feeling or emotion in me? What do I think of as I look at them? And how do some of them parallel or contrast one another? The invitations to experience, imagine and feel are limitless in abstract art.
Part of a continuing body of work.
