Abstract

Go straight to the abstract pictures.

There is nothing much to say about this lot. They are not exactly abstract, because it is obvious what everything actually is, though if you need any help it is in the captions. The thing is the pictures have a dimension beyond a simple record.  They divide into two groups. The 35mm, mostly black and white, but some in colour, are entirely places and things encountered by chance, which appeal to my endlessly curious but warped and inconsequential mind. I always want to know what is going on, and it may not be what everyone else thinks it is. Not one of these 35mm images was set up, or artificially lit or even commissioned, except for the Dutch poster pictures (see World), which were shot in the same spirit, at the client’s request. They are 100% me.

The medium format group, easily identifiable by their square(ish) shape and needle sharpness, were also mostly taken as found, but for a different reason. There are 42 on here, but I may add more.

One type of images provided by picture agencies is intended for no other purpose but to provide a background for other smaller images, graphics, or type (or all three). These images are usually appropriate to the subject but invariably bland. A survey years ago found that the most used individual picture in the history of photo agencies was one of blue sky and unremarkable fluffy clouds. In the early days of Collections I thought we should have some background pictures too, so I set about doing them myself. I did my own clouds, and fruit, vegetation, wood grains, architectural details, bricks, grass, you name it. I did hundreds of them. Got completely carried away. Alas, they turned out to be too interesting. We never sold a single one of them!