Fractured Urbania

There is a very interesting attempt at abstract photography over here called "Fractured Urbania". It is obviously inspired by David Hockney and it is the first of this kind that I've seen somewhere on a photography site. But that may be due to me not surfing enough ;-)


This image is copyright by Chris Heilman 2010. Click through the image for a larger version.

Chris wrote about his image: "A great deal of my photography is about photography. In this case [...] the photographs are overtly about construction of new, large scale urban development. Breaking the photograph up this way suggests impermanence, ... or what? an artificial facade? The picture is an expression of this."

I find it highly interesting but have no clue as to how it was produced. But I'm a little weary as to what is the goal of these images and how this goal is supported by this special technique. As I wrote in a commentary there: "In the case of both images above I'm a little unsure what the topic/theme of those images is. The consequence is that I have the feeling the technique is a little "l'art pour l'art" (if you excuse my French!)... But nice technique nonetheless." To which Chris answered. "This is not the first time I have heard this criticism of my work, and I accept that there is validity to it. Given that, I feel that my themes are perhaps too personally coded to be easily accessible."

I think his remark hits on an often recurring theme with photographs that are more than just snapshots or "postcards": What is the intention of the photographer behind or beyond what can readily be seen in the image?

Branching, Trees, Black & White

Coming back to one of my favorite subject: Trees.
Fractal structure, blending one typical macro form with different micro-structures they are fascinating all around the year.
So fall/winter is a good time to marvel about the inherent structure of trees, with the camouflage of the leaves gone, the colors stripped. Add to that some aggressive curves, catapulting any colors into either black or white and you reduced the tree(s) to some primeval forms.
I called it

Branching:

Black and White Cats

Back to black (and white). Those silhouettes against the evening sky just lent themselves to reach the first level of abstractification: a black&white conversion.
Plus the need for high shutter speed and a small aperture made a relatively high ISO of 800 necessary. Add in the tight crop plus cranked-up contrast added some gritty noise too - which btw. works better in b&w than in color imho.
Making those nice pussy-cats look like...

Daredevil & Calamity Jane;-)

Abstract Architecture?

Well, no. But architecture sometimes gives you material for interesting viewpoints, extreme perspective, or surprising crops that sets your image apart from what other people have seen there, on the street, with the building in plain sight.
Yesterday I was just standing there in front of this imposing granary building in Beilngries, Bavaria. Looking through my viewfinder, I was not hoping for much: Standard "from-the-street" perspective, and the front of the building looked bland. But tilting the camera and aligning the narrow but high windows along the diagonal something suddenly clicked - and so did my camera :)
Unfortunately the standard contrast development did nothing to show both the wooden shutters and the structure of the wall well, so I did some HDR development: