Benedict Brain is a UK-based photographer, journalist and artist. He is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and sits on the society’s Distinctions Advisory Panel. He is also a past editor of Digital Camera Magazine, and the author of You Will be Able to Take Great Photos by The End of This Book.
As a photographer, I’ve long been drawn to the interplay of form, shape, texture, line and light – the ingredients of our visual world, if you like. Working with an ‘abstract’ hat on can be great for playing with these ideas. Rather than capturing the literal representation of a subject, working abstractly can invite the viewer to find beauty or meaning in unexpected places.
While I’ve always been interested in abstract photography, I don’t practice it much. However, during some recent research, I was reminded that early pioneers such as Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy and Aaron Siskind pushed the boundaries of the
medium, and this inspired me to think and photograph this way, too.
I’m interested in how abstract photography can evoke emotional responses without the anchor of a recognizable subject so that the viewer is left to wander and delight
in the light, the shapes, the rhythmic patterns and so on.
Recently, I found myself wandering the streets of Cadiz in Spain. As always, I wasn’t seeking out postcard-perfect vistas; instead, I was working on a number of ongoing long and short-form projects, most of which are rooted in a more ‘real’ and descriptive approach, some of which I have shared here in this column.
It was thrilling to be travelling and making work again after a few months break from travel;mI wish I could work with the same zeal when I’m at home in the UK. This is something I need to address. As is typical when I visit places, the city’s most ordinary scenes seduced me – peeling paint, weathered signage, and the play of light and this eventually led me to notice these wonderfully painted swirls on an unused shop window.
These images, presented here as a diptych, can remind us that there are opportunities to take photographs, especially abstract ones, just about anywhere. Removing the anchor of a recognizable subject can leave some viewers wanting. However, for me, that’s precisely the allure of abstract photography.
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