If visual art can be organized into a spectrum, where one end is objectivity and the other nonobjectivity, how far down the line can photography progress toward nonobjective? Can photography show something that is not a thing? “Each work of art which has an object, a figure, or a part of nature as its theme is objective,” according to Arsén Pohribny’s Abstract Painting. Therefore, an image of a chair is objective. Nonobjective art depicts no material objects. Jackson Pollock's drippings are nonobjective, as are Mark Rothko's color panels and Wassily Kandinsky's basic shapes and primary colors.
Photography is inherently objective. Many photographers, like Aaron Siskind, try to challenge that objectivity by making macro photographs of textures and strange objects. Others, like Man Ray, use experimental techniques to distort and disguise the image until it becomes something else entirely. I feel that the objects always remain recognizable as objects. I can tell that it is tarred cement or a nude woman or clouds; all of which fall short of nonrepresentational images.
Everything we see is reflected light from a surface that describes an object visually. However, stars, flames, and light bulbs are sources of light, which enter our eye without being reflected off an object. By exposing only light sources, the photographed image bypasses any object’s visual description. The light source is then as pure for photography as the paint for painters because it does not describe an object by itself. Therefore, the light source, if abstracted even a little, becomes nonobjective. Abstractions #80-#85 are my continuing and evolving body of work that brings photography into the nonobjective realm.
I use motion to create the abstraction and music to inspire my movements with the camera, turning the act of shooting into a spontaneous dance. My musical choices include Cake, KoRn, Led Zeppelin, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, and The White Stripes. This gives the images their energetic and rhythmic nature. The type of lines changes from set to set based on the arrangement, type, and quality of lights I use, similar to using different paint brushes. The recurring change in tone is alternating current running through the lights turning them on and off dozens of times per second.
During the capturing stage of the process, I am for the most part unable to compose with intension. I take advantage of the post-production stages to intercede will into the final piece. For this series, I focused my attention entirely on the resulting composition. After studying the composition, I inverted a specific area of the photograph to enhance certain elements and diminish others I considered distracting or unnecessary. The resulting images are a pleasing balance between spontaneous gesture and precise intension.