Finding More Joy in Abstract Nature Photography!

March 3, 2025  |  Topics: Stories

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By Eddee Daniel

Abstract art is not meaningless; its meanings are merely … abstract.

I was exploring a wildlife refuge that I’d never been to before, the Mukwonago River Fish & Wildlife Habitat. A large tree-less field was bounded on one side by the river and on the other by the straight line of a pine plantation. Characteristically, my eye was out and my camera at the ready for potential images, preferably ones that represented something distinctive about the property. As I walked, the pines began to thin until there remained only a screen of trees against the white, overcast sky. When I spotted the two irregular trees behind the straight lines of the pines, I laughed spontaneously at the incongruous juxtaposition—and immediately knew it would make a strong abstract composition (above, cropped).

This photo essay is about abstraction, but as the story above illustrates, I rarely set out with the goal of finding abstract images. Instead, I set out to find images that represent the place, revealing what it looks like and identifying key features that a visitor can expect to see there. If I discover abstract images along the way they are happy surprises like the one described above. Of course, I must be alert to the possibility, keeping an open mind about potentialities beyond my intended goals. Otherwise I’ll only ever find what I’m looking for and overlook the kinds of beautiful images you are seeing in this essay.

Creating an abstract photograph can be more challenging than creating a realistic one because photography is inherently realistic. It takes a special kind of effort to see the world abstractly. Seeing the world abstractly requires reducing the concrete, physical objects in front of the camera to the abstract qualities of line, shape, form, texture and color. (The very act of “taking a photograph” is abstract because it reduces the visual experience from real, three-dimensional physicality onto a framed, flat representation. But that is a different level of abstraction.)

Because it is derived by representing the seen world a photograph is usually “about” the thing that is seen. This is especially, perhaps necessarily, true of documentary photography. But when considering fine art photography we must employ the perspectives and vocabulary of art and artists. Instrumental music and non-objective paintings are not expected to mean anything beyond the aesthetic experience of hearing or seeing, except maybe the emotional impact of the experience. Abstract visual art should be enjoyed the way music is, for its beauty or to be moved by it.

An abstract photograph is less about the thing that is seen than about those abstract qualities. For example, as I was walking down the line of pine trees at the wildlife refuge, they gradually thinned out to the point that the idea of “tree” became less important than the idea of “line.” In fact, the contrasting lines of the trees brought to mind a very un-tree-like image of two vivacious dancers cutting loose in the company of staid, straight-laced onlookers. I’ve titled the image “Cutting Loose” in order to nudge the viewer into seeing it the same way.

Multiple interpretations are almost always possible with abstract art. Abstract photographs employ the element of surprise, abstraction being unexpected in a photograph, as well as mystery: what is it about? If it’s not about the trees, then what? It makes you think. If a photo is about a tree, then it’s tempting to glance at it, register the impression of a tree and be done with it. But if you have to wonder why the photographer shot it, composed it, that way then you find yourself more engaged with the image.

Describing abstract visual art in words is like layering another layer of abstraction on the first.  To speak of abstraction in photography is to try to impose order on the disorderly universe, but the creation of an abstract photograph involves trying to discern an order that is already present in nature. I don’t create the concrete objects depicted—the contrasting lines of the trees, or the complementary colors of flowers, or rhythmic motion of grasses, and so on. Unlike a painting, you can’t create a photograph from imagination, you must employ precise and very selective seeing.

What I do is notice.

Then there is that slippery concept of beauty. I find these abstractions beautiful; I hope you do too. What better reason is there to make art?

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 third installment in what has now become a series. Here are the first two installments:

Finding Joy in Abstract Nature Photography

Abstraction in Nature – Revisited!

Eddee Daniel is a board member of Preserve Our Parks.

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