on landscape The online magazine for landscape photographers

From Realism to Abstraction

The interpretation of a place

Andy Holliman

I’ve been interested in photography for almost as long as I can remember, I think my first camera was a Kodak Brownie 127 roll-film – not new! My enthusiasm was rekindled by moving to Nikon DSLRs a few years ago.

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This article is inspired by Peter Stevens writing about Honey Pots in issue 140, one paragraph resonated with me particularly:

The challenge to the photographer is to visit these iconic locations and try to add their own style or interpretation, whatever this might mean. This is difficult to do in any genre, but especially difficult for landscape. It is also very personal to the photographer. What is creative and full of meaning to one person might leave another person cold.

This got me thinking about taking the interpretation of a place in the direction of abstraction, using techniques like Intentional Camera Movement (ICM), Multiple Exposures and Long Exposures (read more on these techniques) among others to create images that are not concrete images of a place but attempt to convey a feeling or a mood.



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