PROJ #4: ABSTRACT SURFACES (after Aaron Siskind, 1903-1991)

RATIONALE: To exercise your artistic/creative seeing eye, and make photographs that are abstracted pieces of the wider view.

DIRECTIONS: Look at the surfaces around you. Really look. Notice how light falling on those surfaces creates light, shadow, and ultimately a visual texture. Photograph 8+ of these surfaces and bring to next class. Note: The philosophy of "less is more" does not apply to us now. If you see & do more, all the better. :)

AARON SISKIND.
Although he started his career as a documentary photographer, Aaron Siskind (American, 1903–1991) quickly became known for his abstract photographs. Socially and professionally close with many of the Abstract Expressionist painters in his native New York, Siskind created photographs in dialogue with painting, attempting to find a new language for photographic depiction that could transform an object into an image, a description into an idea. Across a decades-long career, his work explored what he called “the drama of objects,” imbuing forms with animism and rhythm. (From Art Institute of Chicago website)

Aaron Siskind. Peeling paint. c.1950

Siskind's Peeling Paint at MoMA. CLICK HERE.
Siskind's Wiki Bio. CLICK HERE.
Aaron Siskind Foundation. CLICK HERE.
RISD bio. CLICK HERE.