Gottfried Jager has expressed his position on abstraction in photography and has derived a new term, ‘Concrete photography’, for a type of photography that denies the term ‘abstract’ as being appropriate in reference to images that neglect the representational functions of depiction and foregrounds the non-representational. “Concrete photography generates image structures, it does not abstract. It generates pictorial objects using the most originary means of photography, such as light and light-sensitive material.” Here, photography dismisses any form of depiction or representation, and alternatively seeks an autonomy for itself. An image existing as its own entity, in its own right, with its own past, present and future with no reference to any external realities within the image it manifests as. That is to say, there is no recourse for the viewer to identify any significant meaning behind the surface of the image. It may have a relational aspect to other pictures of a similar constructive nature but it bears no correspondence in terms of a relation to descriptive patterns of the outside, natural world. Nor does it refer to an inner world of the mind and imagination of the artist. This outlook, while somewhat restrictive in its reach re-defines a branch of abstraction and has a limiting effect to the breadth of photographic/artistic expression. It seems to denounce any instinctive response in favour of a scientific pragmatism.
The desire to depict is an inherently human trait; the ability to depict is carried out through mechanical means. By our humanistic nature and the nature of our technical evolution we embody a duality of being.
The complexities of photography, the sheer breadth and diversity in approaches to photography involved establishes a relationship, between figurative and non-figurative, representational and abstract images that hold fast to each other despite their apparent opposition.
Abstract photographs, or opaque photographs, operate in a different way to abstraction as a technique of expression. As stated earlier, abstraction generally refers to the minimisation of detail, a closing down of specifics in an image, however the effect of opaque photographs has the tendency to open up the possibilities of photography, they go beyond self-referential autonomy and address the medium as a whole, as well as to the canon of photographic history. They act in a way that allows us to see into the ever-broadening horizons of new perspectives in image making with a refreshed vision. We are forced to drop our preconceived notions of what photography is, of what it means to depict photographically. We have to engage in different ways of approaching them and discussing them. Discussions about the elements that make up the opaque photograph are altered, framing, composition, depth and surface entail different approaches to the formation of thoughts and feelings. Through nondisclosure the opaque photograph’s meaning remains open, unfixed. It may reveal things to us immediately, or over a period of time, on the other hand it may not, it might remain elusive. Regardless of any temporal release relation, the opaque image can establish a new connection with the viewer through the creation of meaning.
