That is not abstract art

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Dear abstract category contributors of 500px,

I’ve noticed you are having some difficulty knowing what to put in the abstract category. Perhaps this will help:

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.

- Rudolph Arnheim (via wikipedia)

Strangely, almost nothing you post in the abstract category is particularly abstract.  In particular, all of the following, which comprise the vast majority of photographs in the abstract category, are very rarely abstract:

  • Photographs of water splashing up when a water drop or something else falls into it. These might count as novel, if we didn’t see these almost every day.
  • Photographs of ordinary, easily identified objects with extreme processing, for example extremely over-saturated.  These may be surreal, but they are not abstract.
  • Photographs of ordinary, easily identified objects without extreme processing. Today we have shoes, padlocks, and giraffes for example.  These are mostly, I’m sorry, snapshots.
  • Photographs of fireworks.   These are not abstract photographs.   They are clearly photographs of fireworks representing … fireworks.  Right?  Why do we have thousands of these under abstract photography?
  • Photographs of ordinary objects arranged in order to portray some particular concept, with the concept taking priority over aesthetic considerations like form and colour.  This is conceptual art.  Not abstract in the least.
  • Photographs of graffiti.  This is a mechanical reproduction of somebody else’s art. Most of what we see in the 500px abstract category is not abstract.
  • Photographs of statues.  See above.  Why do people think these are abstract?
  • Heavily modified photographs of people, for example with body parts missing, added, or relocated.  This might be surreal art.   It is not abstract art.
  • Photographs of people which have not been made surreal.  These may be portraiture, or concept art, or snapshots, or something else.  Not abstract.

Too much to remember?  If your photograph is a portrayal of its subject, some identifiable person or thing, that is not abstract art.  It might be a lovely photograph, it might be art, but it is not abstract art.

Hope that helps, mainly so I can more easily find actual abstract photographs in the abstract category.

Somewhat sincerely,

Frank.

Layers of Decay

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I made this photograph at a disused feed mill.  Sitting unused and un-maintained resulted in lots of rust to shoot … a favourite subject of mine for many reasons.

Photograph of layered rust, entitled "Layers of Decay"

I was particularly interested in the way this steel rod was rusting into distinct layers (hence the title, “Layers of Decay”).  I don’t know why it does that.  Perhaps one day someone who stumbles across this post will be able to tell me.

Rejection is the path to success

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Stephen King had hundreds of rejected submissions before he published anything, and went on to become a household name.  Oscar winning film maker William Joyce had 127 rejection slips before he found his stride. Crime novelist John Creasey’s work was rejected 742 times before he was first published, and he went on to sell 70 million copies of his work over the next forty years.  Ray Bradbury says he papered the walls of several rooms of his home with rejection slips before he found success, earning a star on Hollywood Blvd., having an asteroid named after him, and earning many more honours around the world.

I could go on and on with examples like this.   What is my point?  It is this:

  • Rejection is the path to success.

No, really.  You are almost certain not to find success without wading through rejection.  The only way to find success is to put yourself out there.  The only way to avoid rejection, is NOT to put yourself out there.

So say it out loud:

  • Rejection is the path to success.

And now, whatever your art is, put it out there, start earning your rejection slips, and remind yourself with each one that this is how you get to success.