I picked up a camera creatively for the first time in May 2007, thinking that I would shoot urban scenes in the city where I live because I’m basically an urban dweller. How mistaken can you be…
Urban
What started to catch my eye as I took those first tentative steps was the amount of vibrant colour and texture in the details of the streets and buildings around me. Early attempts to catch this on camera were basic and straightforward, mainly close-up images of easily identifiable urban fragments that were mildly interesting (to me anyway), but not different enough to make me feel as though I had achieved a style of my own.
I knew that I had found an eye for the way urban textures and colours interacted at the detail level, which I felt formed part of the essence and character of any city as a whole. Just think about the way urban areas use different, often local, building materials which have characteristic colours.
Crossfire
I also recognised a desire to create, not just capture. I gradually realised that the colours and textures that I found so interesting and representative of urban living could be abstracted and framed in a way that satisfied a need to produce artistic work. Why not use ready-made or found urban fragments as the raw materials, much as an artist would use paint, and the camera as a means of putting the raw materials together to make the “painting”?
This was not a new idea by any means. Once I started to look for images to learn from and Flickr groups to get involved with I realised that there are some wonderfully creative urban abstracters out there. It’s a view of urban living that takes pleasure in design, minimalism, and abstract art and finds it everywhere in the world.
Colour of Magic
Many people who choose to make abstract images from urban environments also use a square crop. This means finding the discipline to ensure that all the details you want for the finished image are within the square frame – a format you have to create in your mind’s eye as you shoot (the viewfinder being rectangular).
I keep in mind that abstract does not mean random, excellent abstract art is composed, although not always in an obvious way. The use of leading lines remain important and the rule of thirds still enhances viewing pleasure. Of course a witty (or not) title helps the viewer to understand why you chose to show that particular image and what your imagination was telling you.
Painting by Numbers
Shapes, patterns and colours exist wherever people live and make their environment. Have a look at the way the textures of neighbouring buildings join together – check out canals, water and glass for their distorted reflections, look for the unexpected splash of colour, the drips of paint, the cracks or the shadows. Turn the shot upside down if that makes it more interesting, horizontal or vertical lines don’t have to remain so – try turning the camera to make them diagonals.
This isn’t about capturing the big picture, this is about imagination…
Jan Dolan can be found on Flickr – where she is known as foto.phrend – she is also creating a series of images to promote this year’s Photocamp in Bradford.
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