This month’s challenge is themed “Abstract”. This theme is always a subject that provides a challenge to a lot of photographers as they try to firstly understand what they are to be photographing. With the theme “Abstract”, a lot of the conventional “rules” used in photography no longer become applicable as the first question one should ask themselves when looking at an abstract image is, “What is it?”
If this question can’t be answered or throws up various suggestions, then the image and the photographer have done a good job.
The guest judge for this month’s challenge was Pedro Vasconi, Director at the “In The Pink” Fine Art Photo Gallery in Loulé.
The superb gallery is located in a wonderful “Pink ” building which is where part of the name derives from and also that “Pink” is used to describe being in good health and great condition. Both come together to portray how the gallery portrays itself attracting exceptional talent and producing world class exhibitions in a dialogue with local and global audiences.
Needless to say that “In The Pink” deserves regular visits as it presents carefully curated programmes of national and international contempory photography as they strive to become the centre of excellence for fine art photography in the Algarve and Portugal.
And again, it’s great to see new members getting their work out into the world too!
Here’s what Pedro had to say:
“With immense honor and gratitude, I have received the task of taking a peek and drafting some remarks on APG’s current challenge. Also, with great joy, I have found all works presented to be very interesting in the different aspects one often looks for, from composition to technique, from subject to form.
However, and as an extra challenge to all of us, the theme of this challenge focus on abstraction, possibly one of the most debated and disputed topics in modern and contemporary art history. Not easy, but I have tried to select photos in the different lines of work that felt most representative. So here it goes:”
Work number 4 “Callipygianesque” by Sean Hill, delves into the very provocative idea of total abstraction. The purist proposition that abstraction should be stripped from all elements of the real world, as means to create a language exclusive to the art, is very difficult to achieve in photography, as mostly a medium based in the reality. However, this work brings a fresh and yet peculiar perspective to this, with colors as a strong communicative aspect to compose the organic forms and their liquid movement. Beautifully executed, even the title transpires curiosity.
Work number 24 “Urban Shapes” by Nigel Moore approaches abstraction through the prolific possibilities in debating with architecture. This allows the work to beautifully investigate on forms, textures and volumes by drawing the light on the pictorial space. The multiple dialogues between photography and architecture are very frequently impressive and, in this sense, I would also like to personally thank for the contributions that have so nicely portrayed In The Pink’s staircase.
And, finally, work number 25 “Ria Formosa” by Ernst Neiodhardt, finds abstraction by taking a closer look at a natural landscape and detaching its shapes as the amalgamation of organic elements. However one is able to understand this as a depiction of the reality, the work has the ability to universalize the site shown and pose the viewer with the challenge of placing the photo thus on the realms of memory. A look at the title brings us back to reality though.
Many Thanks to Pedro for his insights and for his time! Our next Exhibition (Print) will be on the 26th May 2023 and will have a theme “Transport” so take a look at the link for more details and block off the date to join us for the Opening Evening.
Selected Images
Main Gallery
