Abstract

Ab-stract (ab-strakt’)

Webster’s definition of “abstract” reads: 1. Considered apart from concrete existence. 2. Not applied or practical. 3. Thought of or stated without reference to a specific instance, the concentrated essence of a larger whole. 4. A short summary or version prepared by cutting down a larger work. 5. A statement summarizing the important points of a given text.

Wikipedia’s definition of “abstract art” reads: uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which exists independently of visual references to the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality.

Roger’s Thesaurus reads: To remove from association with. Brief, condense, unreal, obscure, abbreviate

So for me the word abstract within my own photography takes a little bit of each of these definitions. I see abstract as a way of focusing on an area within the whole. Not the whole landscape but a small area within, not the whole building but a section of the window etc. Showing a concentrated area of a whole.