Blog #13, Mid July 2014

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Baldwin Shaw
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"Susan's Eye" Hank Erdmann, Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois Blog #13, Mid July 2014 "Abstraction" Food for Thought: "For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for

1 "Susan's Eye" Hank Erdmann, Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois Blog #13, Mid July 2014 "Abstraction" Food for Thought: "For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else." Ralph Waldo Emerson ( ) American essayist, poet, philosopher Thanks to Dave Kowalewski for the quote "Abstraction demands more from me than realism. Instead of reproducing something outside of me, now I go inward and use everything I've learned thus far in my life." Susan Avishai American artist "When realistic images or patterns are seen in an abstract painting, they are often parallels brought about by processes in painting which echo processes in nature" - Darby Bannard American abstract painter - I had some great replies to my image integrity blog and thought I might pass some of that along. Phil W wrote: "Love the article on integrity! Right on the money! Often I've thought about really playing with an image. Although I couldn't articulate my concerns, the nagging worry that I wasn't being truthful bothered me. I do carefully look at what I shoot before I click the shutter and, in many cases consider at that point how I would post process it as well. That, I believe is being truthful not only to nature but to what my spirit sees in the scene as well. Thanks for the clarifying concepts". Along those lines, and to prove that we are all at least at times susceptible to such foibles, one of the most gifted landscape photographers of our times is a gentleman many of you have heard of. If you read Outdoor Photographer, you definitely have seen

2 images by and read articles by Tom Till. He is certainly one of the most respected photographers of our generation. I had noticed over the past few years that many of Tom's images published in OP seemed to have a bit more saturation than would seem normal but knowing OP's propensity to hue/sat the crap out of images (including some of mine in the past), I figured it was the magazine's fault, not Mr. Till's. "Dogwood Wind" Hank Erdmann, Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois A bit more than a year ago in OP was an article by Tom giving up a mea culpa for the sins of over saturation sickness! I've always admired his work, I've admired him as a photographer and knowing many photographers who sing his praises and say he's one of the "good guys", that article cemented in my mind his reputation as a great photographer. For it's not that we all can't fall into such bad habits (I've been redoing some of my "over done" images for the past year as well, especially some of the really bad scans I made of film images before I got better at the art of scanning itself). The ability, candor and humility to admit to such errors, is not only very, very admirable, but only an artist secure in his/her own abilities and reputation can do such and do it very publicly in the pages of OP. As an artist and a person I respect him more than ever. Tom does us all a service by not only reminding us that we can fall into bad habits, but even the best of artists can do so, and the only way to avoid continuing to make bad art is to take a close and honest look at our own work from time to time. Thank you again, Mr. Till. Tom has some incredible imagery on his site and links to workshops he conducts at

"Autumn Dreams" Hank Erdmann Red Jack Lake, Hiawatha National Forest, Alger County, Michigan Abstraction in photography and art My blog for this issue will talk about the concept of abstraction as

3 "Autumn Dreams" Hank Erdmann Red Jack Lake, Hiawatha National Forest, Alger County, Michigan Abstraction in photography and art My blog for this issue will talk about the concept of abstraction as practiced in photography. The word has taken on many, many meanings and describes numerous kinds of images and I think that's not only ok, it is really what abstraction is about, not being pigeon holed into a specific thing or kind of image. I think that this is a great subject to transition to after my discussion on image integrity. I'm sure there are more than a few folks who ask the question; can abstraction coincide with image integrity? I will make the case that it indeed can and does quite nicely. I had a lady stop in the gallery a few weeks back and while looking at one print on a wall and since I noticed the one she was viewing was mine and hoping therein lied some interest, maybe even a purchase, I walked over and asked if she had any questions about the piece. Fortunately I did not say I was the artist who made it and I wasn't not wearing my gallery name tag as I should have been. Because she did not associate the piece and myself as the artist she was brutally honest in her feelings. Sometimes artists do need to hear negative feedback, if all we hear is "great image" we tend not to at least look critically at what we are doing from time to time. The image in question is an image of a clump of Black-eyed Susan blooms and some small white flowers in a 4 to 1 proportion roughly of susans to little white flowers, and composed tightly and full frame. I rarely print on canvas and even more rarely use any "filter" treatments from Photoshop on images even to abstract them but this print featured both the canvas and a filter treatment. I suppose that is why the expression "never say never" does exist and is so important at least in art.

4 I made the original image with a single exposure in the "straight" abstraction manner of a part of the scene being greater than the whole. When I think multiple exposures at the start of the creative process, I normally make a "straight" or single exposure frame of the same shot if for nothing more than reference. Occasionally both images work on different levels. Both versions are abstractions, but in very different ways and I'll get back to this concept shortly. After playing a bit with two exposure images I made a second single exposure composition that used more yellow flowers surrounding the white ones and worked better with the double exposure. Both single exposure versions are abstractions by themselves just by the fact that I've limited the image to nothing but the two groups of blossoms. Had I included just a bit more of the scene, you would "Matthiessen Swirl" Hank Erdmann, Matthiessen State Park, LaSalle County, Illinois have also seen the side of my house, my sidewalk, my front steps, and my front door. None of those elements would have made this simple image better, any one or all of them would just have confused the viewer as to what I wanted them to look at. All I'm saying here is look at these beautiful flowers and enjoy their beauty. At some point after making these images (a few years at least), I was out in California teaching a class near Lake Tahoe and had the opportunity to visit Elizabeth Carmel's gallery in Truckee, CA and see her incredible work. You can view her imagery at In looking at her landscapes I noticed a "treatment" in some of them that I assumed was made with some Photoshop or other software filter. I'll be the first to admit that normally I don't like such "trickery" because it looks as such, trickery to mask an otherwise inferior or less successful image. But these gorgeous prints in front of my eyes weren't transmitting anything to my brain but "WOW". They were slight abstractions of what I assume were originally straight forward landscapes, but they thrilled my eyes and what more can you ask of any artwork? I asked myself the question why does the treatment work on the selected images she chose, and why did I like them and not think "cheap trickery". That's when I started to think about and identify the concept of "Image Integrity" in my own mind. The images not only worked but worked well because they were "true" to their subjects. They would have been wonderful images as straight landscape images without the treatments. They didn't change the natural scene to something it

wasn't, they didn't make the scene something new, but using nature as the base, they made a wonderful and exciting piece of art, glorifying the scene instead of cheapening it.

5 wasn't, they didn't make the scene something new, but using nature as the base, they made a wonderful and exciting piece of art, glorifying the scene instead of cheapening it. In short they kept image integrity intact. Admittedly this is not always easy or possible to do when using such "digital enhancements". Which by the way are no different than "darkroom enhancements" done for many, many years before the computer became a part of photography. In one way, I was glad Ms. Carmel was not in the gallery that day. While I would have loved to meet a great artist, I know I stupidly would have asked what "treatment" she used. Whether she would have divulged the filter/treatment or not I have no idea, but as most artists do she probably would have shared at least the name of it and likely more because that is just what most artists do! I really prefer however to hunt down and "discover" such "tools" of creativity for myself, because I really want to explore their use on my own and not try and duplicate what someone else did, even if I really like it. I've yet to find that treatment as I don't look for such things very often but some day It will likely present itself when I least expect it. "Susan's Abstract I" Hank Erdmann, The original single exposure intimate landscape of this image; My front yard, Shorewood, Will County, Illinois After I returned from that trip and was searching for "that treatment", I first explored the filters in Photoshop and frankly I didn't like most of them. Using a landscape shot, the two filters I liked most, "Ocean Ripples" and "Pallet Knife" showed some promise, but certainly not, at least in my mind, for a landscape image. To work, I thought I needed a "base image" that was already abstracted in the conceptual way of "a piece being better than the whole". I then searched for images in my file that were straight images in that style. Something that has become really popular are canvas prints. With canvas I always wondered why when a photographer took so much trouble to record intricate and intimate detail in the landscape, why they would then print it on an inherently "softer looking" base such as a canvas print. On the other hand when the canvas print becomes an attribute versus detracting from the original, it does have a great feel and look. With that thought process in mind, I went to the best internet canvas printer I've yet to find, (my printer just doesn't like the material!) and ordered a canvas print of the image using the "Ocean Ripples" Photoshop filter. A week or so later I was looking at the print and I liked what I saw. If the artist is happy, it is ready to be seen by at least someone else, so down to the gallery it went with me. Mounted, framed and hung it looked very nice on the wall and certainly an image I was proud to put my name on. Less than two weeks later it sold! Wow, I'm ordering more I said and I did. I also made one with the other filter; "Pallet Knife" and have since sold one of those as well. ~ continued ~

"Willoway Winter Fog" Hank Erdmann The Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois.

Willoway Winter Fog Hank Erdmann The Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois. "Willoway Winter Fog" Hank Erdmann The Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois. Blog #13 The "Enhancing Accent" December 11, 2013 This blog will focus on the subject of The "Enhancing Accent" and Center