Finding Joy in Abstract Nature Photography! (#4)
January 31, 2026 | Topics: Stories
By Eddee Daniel
The whole point of being an artist or making a statement is to learn about yourself. The photographs, I think, are less important than the life that one is leading.”
~ Robert Mapplethorpe
How abstract do you find the image above?
Note that I do not ask, Is the image abstract? As I’ve said in previous installments of this series, all photographs are abstract for the simple reason that they reduce the three-dimensional world to a two-dimensional representation of a selected portion of what is observed. The mere act of framing a scene through a camera’s viewfinder is enough to begin the process of abstraction.
So, how abstract is it? We could start by talking about the subject. How recognizable is what we are seeing? In a snowless winter setting we see numerous more or less identical dried seed heads of some kind of flower standing tall in a field. I for one do not know my flowers well enough to identify the species from the seed heads, which makes them more abstract to me. My mind shifts from the idea of seeing “flowers” (or even “seed heads”) to seeing “shapes” (or “blobs” or something unspecific like that). If I had taken the photo in the summer when the flowers were in bloom I expect I could identify them, which would make the image less abstract, more concrete.
Alternatively, we can talk about the experience that the image represents. It calls to mind the act of walking through a trackless field, pushing aside the tall stalks to make a way forward. For me, I can recall the specific park—Sandy Knoll County Park in West Bend. Naming it inevitably makes the image more concrete. However, there is nothing in the image itself that locates the scene within a specific place, which makes it more about the idea of walking through a field without the specificity. More abstract.
Let’s return to the notion of seeing shapes. We are also seeing lines and a representation of textures. Being monochromatic it is less about color than about the values of lightness and darkness. All of this is the language of abstraction—the elements of design. The principles of design also are at play: repetition, direction, harmony, variation, etc. The extent to which the image becomes in your mind more about “pattern” and less about “field of seed heads” is the extent to which it becomes more or less abstract.
But, you might ask, What does it mean?
First, it doesn’t have to mean anything. It can simply be beautiful, evocative, stimulating—in the abstract! However, meaningful interpretations are possible in all but the most abstract images. Here we might consider the notions of monoculture and biodiversity: The dominant plants visible in the image are all of the same species. We could talk about wandering about in open spaces. We can find joy—or some other emotion—in an experience of the natural world.
I invite you now to find some joy, or some other emotion, in the following selection of relatively abstract images from parks and preserves all over SE Wisconsin.
I do not believe that there was ever a question of being abstract or representational. It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing, and stretching one’s arms again; transcendental experiences became possible.
~ Mark Rothko
Gallery
Note: Because they are abstract and removed from their original context, it might be tempting to ignore the fact that these images do derive from specific places. This being A Wealth of Nature, however, with its mission of inspiring the reader to explore area parks and preserves, the captions reveal the locations and provide links to their Find-a-Park pages.
This is the fourth annual installment in the series. Here are the first three installments:
Finding More Joy in Abstract Nature Photography!
Abstraction in Nature – Revisited!
Finding Joy in Abstract Nature Photography
Eddee Daniel, writer/photographer, is a board member of Preserve Our Parks, the Project Director of A Wealth of Nature, and editor of The Natural Realm blog. Read more or subscribe at awealthofnature.org. Also available by arrangement for group presentations and guided tours.
The Natural Realm blog is part of A Wealth of Nature, which is a project of Preserve Our Parks.
About Preserve Our Parks
Preserve Our Parks, Inc. is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of parks and green spaces. Our mission: To advocate for and promote Milwaukee area parks and open spaces and to strive to protect the tenets of Wisconsin’s Public Trust Doctrine.
For more than 25 years, we have been a leader in advocating for the protection of Milwaukee County park lands, halting many proposals to develop, privatize, or sell local parkland and lakefront spaces. More information about POP, including past accomplishments, is available at www.preserveourparks.org.