Abstract Photography

Pure Abstract Photography
A b stra c t
P h otogra p h y
Whi ch Way I s Up?
Tom Reaume
2020
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A b str ac t
P ho to g r a p hy
Which Way Is Up?
2nd Edition 2020
Portrai t Of T h e A r t i st Crossi n g Ov e r
To T h e Dark Si d e. 2011. – TR
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© 2 0 2 0 (2 nd E d it ion) b y Mr. Tom Re au m e (b 1944)

L o nd on, Ca na d a
R e se a rc h , te xt, la you t, a n d de sign

b y Tom R e a u me
S o f twa re – I n De sign & Ph otosh op E le ments
Ty p e fa c e – He lve tic a Ne u e 1 4 | 2 0 | 80
F ro nt Cove r – J u st For You ( 2 0 0 6 )

b y Tom R e a u me
B a ck Cove r – We Can Ch oose # 1 –3 (2007)

b y Tom R e a u me
t o m9 reaume@ g mail.co m
A 7-minute Youtube video on my ar t

w w w.yo utub e.co m/watch? v = b DmHTWOJZh0
I S B N 9 7 8 -0 -9 6 8 0 0 8 2 -9 -4
A n y a n d a ll of my pu re a bstr a c t ( a n ti-sti l l )
p h otogr a ph s in th is book ma y be u se d freel y i n o ther
o n l in e pu blic a tion s with ou t a skin g for my permi ssi o n.
J u s t give me c re dit.
D e dic a t e d t o my b rot he r Fra nk lin.
Uncomm on Ph otogr aph s f or t h e u n c o m m o n c o lle c t o r.

Any singl e ph ot ogr aph ( u p t o 20 i n c he s ) in t his b o o k
m ay be bou gh t f or $800 C AD .
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inside
Coll ections 5
Inside / Outside 6
A Camera Moves 7
Wh y P u re A b s t ra c t i o n ? 8
Method 9
His t o ry 1 3
3 A rt i c l e s 1 5
Art if icial Lights 17
A P re t e n s e o f A b s t ra c t i o n 2 3
Dark Is Outside 25
Evolution of Por trai ture 38
Homage 43
Jef f Wall, Milk 53
too museums 57
MoMA, NY
Ta t e M o d e r n , U K
Nature Movement 63
Extinction 70
Peter Galassi 85
Drawing 93
Seeing 106
Similar 113
Pixels 118
Street Lights 130
Index 164
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C o l l e c t io ns — 11, 00 0 I m a g e s
█ P hotograph s (ov e r 750 print s) █ A chi evements
UNITED STATES Born – Windsor, ON, Canada, 1944

1. Univ. of the Arts, Philadelphia (15 prints) Grants – $300,000.00
2. Eastern New Mexico University (15) Education – BSc Wildlife Biology
3. Kent State University, OH (45) Exhibitions – 30
4. The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Initiated – The annual Speed River cleanup
Michigan State University (15) in Guelph, Ontario; now in its 40 th year
5. University of Maryland (45) Wild Plants of Winnipeg – 35 online
6. SUNY, Gibson Gallery, Potsdam, NY (45) Published – The first journal ar ticle on the
natural history of the Nodding Trillium
7. Univ. of Michigan Museum of Art (15)
8. Montclair State University, NJ (45) EBOOKS – all are available from Tom as
9. Six private collections (192) PDFs
Abstract Photography, Which Way Is Up?
CANADA Photography Traditions
10. University of Manitoba (45) Gadwall, A Natural History
11. Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg (9) The American Crow, Naturally
12. St. Joseph’s Health Care, London (8) The Chipping Sparrow, Its Natural History
13. Four private collections (177)
PAPER BOOKS
HUNGARY 620 Wild Plants of North America
Pure Abstract Photography; The Creative
14. Hungarian Museum of Photography (30)
Moment, out in print, get by ILL
Abstract Photography, Which Way Is Up?
JAPAN
15. Private collection (45)
ENGLAND
16. Private collection (46 prints)
█ Botan i cal Drawings
CANADA
Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa
(10,000 images)
UNITED STATES
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation,
Pittsburgh, PA (500 images)
For Many Reasons, 1982.
I gain more inspiration and courage from abstract
painters than from any still photographer, alive or dead.
This pure abstract photograph is a straight print from
one 35 mm negative. – TR
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Inside / Outside
T
his is a book on lens-based, impor tant to me, in a way I can’t really explain.
pure abstract photography. The Using a camera (like a pencil) as a tool for
t i tle may suggest photographs drawing was a natural progression in my
taken inside buildings versus in a personal ecology and evolution. FIRST—A still
landscape. This is one possibility. camera was replaced by a moving camera. A
hand-held camera is an extension of my ar ms,
The correct interpretation, however, involves less so my eyes. SECOND—I began taking
the BOX, you know the one we usually think photographs at night using photons emanating
inside of, or rarely outside of. In fact, this from colored, stationary lights along the
book presents how innovative, outside-the-box boulevard. The sacred 3 – Lights, Darkness,
thinking in photography looks. and Movements were woven into challenging
pictor ial fabrics.
Let’s begin by def ining what a photograph is. A
still photograph (usually richly-detailed) shows This fundamental shift in how a lens-based
a variety of flora, fauna, and things captured photograph looks (abstract) and acts (always
by holding a camera very still and letting the as ar t), is the expected result from someone
lenses absorb ref lected light (daylight or studio) who changes the still habit. The question (what
to make an image. It is the industry’s standard does a photograph represent?) remains intact;
(habit). Everybody takes still photographs, the answer, however, has changed.
including me. If you watch photographers
at work, they are aways standing still and Some members of the still community have to
looking through a still viewf inder to compose start developing this new habit. Gallery walls
a picture before pressing the button. Stills showing abstract photographs among abstract
are collected and shown in art museums paintings have to become widespread. When it
and commercial galleries. Online, watch the comes to practical imagery, the documentary
12-minute Ted Talks by Paul Rulkens on why majority remains obligatory, but not quite so
the majority is usually unexceptional when forceful in the fine ar t category.
S
it comes to high-performance photography
(ie fine art) h t t p s : / / www.yo utub e.co m/ till photography has hit a wall. It is
w at c h ?v = V N G F e p 6 r n c Y& t= 2 2 1 s repetitive, and the largest for m of visual
pollution on the planet. Viewfinder vision
If you take photographs outside-the-box, then is rampant throughout the medium. Cultural
your images m u s t b e experimental. This too is and economic boundaries, and daily habits
worn out, in-the-box thinking. I don’t regard my prevent curators from showing anything truly
pure abstractions as experimental. For 40 years outside the box. And the box they think and
I have considered them to be FINE AR T. operate in is quite small, about the size of a
camera. Curators are copycats. They, along
Drawing with a camera quickly became my new with institutional standards, control the habits
habit in the early 1980s. S o how did I manage of a still photographic community with millions
to break the old-fashioned, still photographic of par t icipants. ♣
habit. In my 30s, I realized movement was
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s
A Camera Mo ve
T
his is a 16 x 12 inch free ebook on my Pure
Abstract Photography (PAP). In 1981 I began
this alternative style to still photography
while maintaining the basic framework
of using light and a camera to create
images. Through the abandonment of reflected light,
I was able to eliminate much of the visually repetitive
information that burdens richly-detailed still photographs.
The documentation style, in all its many flavors, was
jettisoned in favor of Ar t. Is pure abstract photography the
artistic limit of lens-based photography? Time and your
consideration will tell. My style of image making is NOT
experimental. It reveals my vision of nature and myself.
Everything is moving, including my camera. ♣
Upper Lef t, 1985. – TR

An early pure abstract photograph easily
printed from one 35 mm negative.
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Wh y P u re A b s t ractio n ? Human anticipation is quite powerful. We count

on recognizing the content of a 2-D photograph
A cheap, quick answer as to why I create pure as one of its essential characteristics. When
abstraction is because Jeff Wall doesn’t. we don’t see items we recognize, we tend to
L
label the work experimental and quickly move
iberty and perceptual cur iosity are on to the next book or photo. My goal has
primary ingredients contributing to the always been to provide stylistic diversity to
process – freedom of movement for a complete the medium. The next move is up to
camera, the medium, and myself. By curators. They have to catch up to artists like
reworking the camera I was able to answer one me creating new styles and languages.
persistent question. What do pure abstract
photographs look like? Answering that With a bit of histor ical comedy, camera-
question with this book revealed another frame less images are accepted more than my pure
of visual reference with more possibilities for abstractions created with a camera. http:/ /
cr i t ics, curators, ar tists, collectors, and visitors www.v am.a c .uk / c onte nt/ a rtic le s/ c / c a me ra -
to galleries. Would accepting my level and style les s - p ho togra phy -te c hnique s/
of pure abstraction make the photographic
community healthier and happier? I believe so. Everything comes from nature, including
It certainly would add a new visual language all the images produced by ar t ists. None
and look, and that is always a dynamic, of the images in this book are new. Our
welcomed addition to any house. evolution is evidence. ♣
New Leaves,
2002.
A pure abstract
photograph can
be built of layers
from dif ferent
lights, much like
a painting. There
is a beginning
and an end to
this image. It is a
drawing. – TR
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Metho d horns, screeching tires, homeless drug

users, prostitutes, curious people asking odd
The camera moves (hand gestures) and the questions about my behavior, etc. People (one
light is stationary. This is the how of pure a self-proclaimed gangster) wanted me to take
abstract photography. Furthermore, the lights his picture. I declined.
are ar t if ic ial – colored neon and incandescent.
Used mainly for advertisements along city
streets at night, I re-purposed their photons. In A suitable image rarely materializes during
the f irst 10 minutes on the street. Like
other ar tists in various media, once I enter
a personal way, my ar t is not about abstraction,
but a combination of ideas, values, and insights the zone, stop thinking, and begin moving
In
on using a camera with our light. subconsciously, the edges begin to tear away.
Some of my f irst attempts at concentrated
my 30s I became aware of my drawing with a camera in the early 1980s led
fascination with movement. to a flow of successful gestures which I exhibit
Watching dancers – ballet, and continue to admire today.
contemporary, or exotic,
enthralled me. Attending a ballet When I first saw a light-box-enhanced still
or contemporary dance, I stare at ar m and photograph by Jef f Wall, radiating like a minor
hand movements and tr y to incorporate similar star on a gallery’s wall, I thought it would be
patter ns when drawing with a hand-held transformat ive to create a pure abstract ion by
camera at night along the streets. drawing my camera along the edges of the box.
Half an hour af ter sunset I decided to flex the Pure abstractions represent a hand-drawn
ar t ist ic muscle of the medium. My routine is process, not the snapshot of a signi f icant
to walk through the well-lit darkness of busy event. When creating my images, I don’t look
city streets where ar tif icial lights cast multi- through the viewfinder. It is unnecessary and
directional grey shadows. An orangish glow impossible since the camera is held away
envelops me. I exper ience urban lights by from my body and moving at var ious speeds
looking at their arrangements, colors and
and angles. Anti-stills are organic, unalloyed,
shapes for their potential as art. Approaching a
without borders or memory. They save the
shop’s window or glowing advertisement,
medium from endless repet it ion.
H
I analyze colors and boundaries, then decide
how to move. Dif ferent shapes of lights
olding and drawing with a camera is
prescribe dif ferent movements. For example,
not a precise art, such as making a
slow sweeping actions are usually required
pen-and-ink drawing of a wildflower.
along the edges of a wide illuminated sign.
The shape, size and weight of a
Energetic drawing works best when facing
camera both help and hinder my movements.
clusters or strings of small or thin lights.
Gravity plays with me. Although some of the
Somet imes my lef t hand passes in front of the
b&w images may resemble photograms or
lens, momentarily breaking the flow of light,
even x-rays (so I’ve been told), they are all
allowing me to add a second or third layer
created with dif ferent movements of a camera.
of light. My average exposure is about three
A digital camera immediately reveals my
seconds. My average work period is 2–3 hours
nocturnal gestures. If I like what I see, I create
per night. By then my stage is exhausted.
more images at the site to form a cohesive
group of pure abstractions – for example, An
The nightly habitat is alive with a mixture of
Appropr iate Green (page 10). ♣
shouts, sirens of emergency vehicles, honking
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An Appropr iate Green, 2010.
Seven pure abstract photographs. Green is not
a common color of ar tif icial light along city
streets. – TR
Similar to Glissement by David Diao in 1984.
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Obsessive Mot ion, 2003. – TR

A layered look adds a myster ious appeal to any photograph.
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Image X, 2013. – TR
A layered, messy look defines some of my best work. Such a look is
very painterly and sublime. It relieves the tension in any viewer.
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Hi sto r y by Cig Harvey, (Harper’s Magazine, May 2019,

p 13) certainly looks abstract, but isn’t. It did
When I began creating lens-based pure however, win her the Virginia Prize in 2018.
abstract photographs in the early 1980s much Most of her still photographs deal with daily
of the debate was concerned with the status scenes and people in the common, traditional
of still photography as a f ine art. That debate style. https://loeildelaphotographie.com/
continues to this day. I thought my abstractions en/cig-harvey-laureate-of-the-2018-virginia-
would be liberating for prize/
the medium, but it tur ned
out to be a style the still Still photography is an
photographic communi ty instantaneous, fact-
didn’t welcome. Their gathering methodology.
goal, I presume, was to It has been since its
have a still photograph beginning in 1839 and
accepted as ar t on a continues to maintain
par with painting. What this documentary status.
prevents this, I believe, It records where the lens
is the fact that millions of is pointing and what
people carry image-making infor mat ion it inhales
electronic devices and through reflected light,
can take a richly-detailed usually in rich detail,
still photograph anywhere. which seems to be
Lens-based images on quite important to most
the web don’t look any curators. As long as the
dif ferent stylistically from lens is in focus, rich
what one sees during a details are a given. It
visit to an ar t museum. takes little skill to focus a
Some are much better. camera.
A
bstraction in still photography began Today, we have revisited an old perspective by
with a false identify, which continues using drones to take aerial views, which humans
today. Paul Strand took photographs in always find fascinating. Birds, not so much. You
1916 of porch railings, and a group of bowls. recall Nadar Elevating Photography to Art, an
Both images were enhanced by shadows. of ten reproduced lithograph, (this page) in the
For some unknown reason, Alfred Stieglitz, collection of the Brooklyn Museum by Honoré
a prominent gallery owner, writer and still Daumier, (Nadar with his camera over Paris
photographer in New York City, labeled these in a balloon), appeared in Le Boulevard, 25
two images by Strand “abstract”. Why? See May 1862, indicating the idea of aerial imagery
Tate’s video at https://vimeo.com/259246473 came quickly to still photographers. https://
(time 13:15). And so began the false branding en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadar
of some realistic images as so-called “abstract”
photography. Edward Bur tynsky continues this tradition.
His show of many aerials titled Anthropocene,
Just because a still photograph looks like an September 2018 – January 2019, was held
abstract image, doesn’t mean it is one. For at the Ar t Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. His
instance, the image Emily in the Greenhouse large images are beautiful documents of our
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modifications of landscapes on this tiny planet. photographs. Almost all are still photographs,
When there is no horizon in his images, some either found or staged, grounded in everyday
appear “abstract” until objects are recognized reality. Yet books (The Edge of Vision: The Rise
or mentioned in the caption. Scale of size of Abstraction in Photography, by Lyle Rexer
is always a mystery with aer ials. The use of in 2013) and a video at (https:/ / w w w.y outube .
drones to take still photographs from above co m/watc h?v=qDYBJV4y lz w ) continue to
is widespread. In the August 2019 issue of tout these images as “abstract” photography.
National Geographic magazine, on page 142, Why? Is still photography trying to keep up
Olivier Apicella, using a drone, took a still with the advent of abstract painting initiated
photograph of a farmer spraying water over by a Swedish woman, Hilma af Klint, in 1906?
rows of plants in Sa Dec, Vietnam. (1) This was 10 years before the first mention
of “abstraction” appeared in the title of a still
I am always amazed at what curators, photograph. Her new style was quickly followed
academics, and critics label as abstract by the boys – Wassily Kandinsky, František
Kupka, and Robert Delaunay, among others. ♣
⁓
1) The Guggenheim Museum in New York held
Klint’s first solo American show in the city Space Baby, 1982. – TR
from 12 October 2018 to 23 April 2019. View
her art at https://www.guggenheim.org/
A full moon hanging in the receding night sky.
exhibition/hilma-af-klint
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3 Ar t i cl es so many types of “abstract” photography exist.

Does anyone know how the 180-year histor y of
It is always a pleasure to find academic photography got so cluttered with so many fake
articles on “abstract” photography published “abstract” images? Now that would make an
online. Jelna Stojković wrote Vision Without interesting paper on human psychology and the
the Eye: Following the Material of Abstract need to fit in, go with the herd, and control how
Photography http://www.jstor.org/stable/j. people think.
ctv5vddc3.4 for us to ponder and analyze (2).
She briefly describes three b&w “abstract” To begin, Costello defines what a photograph
images by Taisuke Koyama, James Welling, is, so it can be separated from what an
and Nihal Yesil. What makes her paper unique “abstract” photograph is. Eventually, he
is the background she provides on materials gives bizarre and new names (to me) of
used by the three artists – cellophane, several nebulous abstractions, such as Proto,
aluminum foil, and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) Faux, Constructed Faux, Weak and Strong,
plastic. Let me explain. The first ar tist used while admitting there is overlap between
two scanners to make images with cellophane. his categories. His use of faux is telling.
I won’t pursue his work any further. Welling Remarkably, no images decorate his useless
explored aluminum foil for about 7 months, article as examples. All his categories involve
which is, I speculate, longer than anyone in the still camera’s recording of a fragment of
the history of still photography. His imagery, something in front of it.
close-up and cropped, some staged, reminds
me of Aaron Siskind’s earlier close-ups of Costello, “ Abstract in ar t is typically
peeling paint and streaks of black road tar. One eliminative or reductive: it removes features
begets the other. The technique is similar; only deemed inessential to something’s continued
the subject matter has changed. Nihal Yesil existence as an entity of a given kind. ”
takes still pictures of florescent light ref lecting
off sheets of PVC. None of the three still For my pure abstract drawings, I jettison
photographs are pure abstractions. They of fer everything that makes a still photographic
only a pretense. They are cliches—hardly the image so ordinary. Direct light alone, in its
real thing, in a painterly, or any context. varied for ms and colors, with no sense of scale,
memory, or context, entertains my viewers.
A SECOND online paper worth discussing is
The THIRD adventure into abstract
by Diarmuid Costello of Warwick University,
photography is courtesy of Andrew Fisher. His
UK. What is Abstraction in Photography?
On the Scales of Photographic Abstraction
was published in October 2018 in The
appeared in Photographies, May 2016. He
B ri ti s h J o u r n a l o f A e s t h e t ic s http s ://
explored three sets of var iations of scales
a c a dem i c . o u p . c o m / b j a es thetics /
dealing with abstraction in photography. His
a r t i c l e / 5 8 / 4 / 3 8 5 / 5 1 2 9 0 9 6 Costello infor ms
text is disturbing complex and useless to my
us there is confusion about what is abstract
in photography. No shit? A disparate jumble is
another way to describe this intellectual mess.
I believe too many zealous curators, ⁓
academics, and critics have compounded (2) Stojković, J. 2018. Vision Without the Eye:
the problem by labeling far to many ordinary Following the Material of Abstract Photography.
In Pavoni A., Mandic D., Nirta C., & Philippopoulos-
still photographs “abstract”. Unfortunately, Mihalopoulos A. (Eds.), See (pp. 39-70). University of
Costello does not delve into the reasons why Westminster Press. London
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case. Like the previous two, he deals with He invokes ideas of “ Abstract Photography ”
still photographs tr ying, or is i t hoping, to be by Gottfried Jäger (3) dealing with a dif ferent
“abstract” and so more artistic. He talks about photography that refers only to itself with
the control of scale to help us understand the nothing of importance outside of the picture.
complex nature of abstraction in photography. Two others, Hein Gravenhorst and Herbert
What he and the other two above haven’t Franke create images this way. Another writer
asked and answered is why abstraction in Fisher mentions is professor Lambert Wiesing,
photography has become so complex. They (4) who infor ms, “ ...every abstraction always
never provide an introduction to their ar ticles leads to an exhibition of what is deemed
that attempts to explain why the academic essential; every abstracting tur ning away is
definitions of abstract are so confusing and linked to a visualizing tur n toward. ”
messy. They try to explain what we have in
front of us and in so doing make matters worse. In his conclusion, Fisher, “ Thinking about
And like the others, he deals with lens-based photography and abstraction in ter ms of scale
still photographs, although that distinction is has complicated the meaning of the latter ter m
never mentioned, but taken for granted by me. considerably. ” Isn’t that wonderful.
Fisher’s paper is undecorated with any still Let’s ignore Fisher’s ridiculous paper on scales
imagery. Readers cannot visualize his ideas and in “abstract” photography? ♣
the three scales he talks about, and how they
refer to abstraction. Is my confusion his?
A Time of Pink, 2005. –TR

A pure abstract photograph
created by drawing with a hand-
held camera. The camera is
moving; the lights are stationary.
⁓
(3) Jäger, G. 2003. “Abstract Photography.” Rethinking Be daring, be different, be impractical, be
Photography I & II: Narration and New Reduction in Photography. anything that will assert integrity of purpose
Ed. Ruth Horak. Salzburg: Fotohof Edition, 162–195. Print. and imaginative vision against the play-it-
(4) Wiesing, L. 2010.“What Could ‘Abstract Photography’ Be?” safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the
Artificial Presence: Philosophical Studies in Image Theory. Trans. slaves of the ordinary.
Nils F. Schott. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 60–79. Print. – Cecil Beaton, ar t ist
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A r t i f i ci a l L ig h ts
The strength of photography

combines a camera with light (any
light) to make an image (any image).
Rudi Stern’s book, The New Let
There Be Neon, (HN Abrams,
1988, 160 pages) provides a great
picture story of the history of the
medium upon which I depend for
my ar t. To begin, the scientist
Georges Claude invented public
neon lighting in the early 1900s.
The first neon signs imported into
North Amer ica in 1924 “stopped
traf f ic in downtown Los Angeles.”
Ar tificial light lif ted us out of a half
darkness and set the cor nerstone
for pure abstract photography to
evolve. Conf igurat ions of ar tif icial
lights (letters, numbers) in a window Neon Nails, 2019.
determine how I draw with my The various sizes, colors and shapes of neon
camera. ♣ . lights result in di f ferent looking images that fill
this book. – TR
White Over Red, 2014.

Anti-stills allows me to build
layers of colored light, like an
abstract painter adds layers
of paint to her creation.
This is what partly separates
my images from stills by Jeff
Wall and the other museum
hotshots. – TR
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So Little Red, 2005.

A pure abstract photograph with no
indication of the source of light or its place
in t ime. Conveying no memories, i t is a
complete transfor mat ion into ar t. –TR
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Noctur nal Or b i ts, 2003. – TR
⁀
Mostly White, 2007.

A flat, lens-based photograph created at night shows richly-detailed white plus a dash of color and
for m in one cor ner. One of my favor i tes. – TR
Ray Mead, All We Can See, 1981, oil. Like this photograph, Mead has concentrated his signif icant
colored for ms along one margin of his painting. Iris Nowell, 2010. Painters Eleven: The W i ld
Ones of Canadian Ar t, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver.
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Afr ican Evening, 1982. – TR
Another favor i te. The thin
grey bands are due to the
alter nating elect r ical cu rrent.
A Lef t-handed Structure, 1994. – TR
A confusing title perfectly suited to this
mysterious drawing.
⁀
A Pre t en se of A b st r a c tio n his vortographs are not pure abstractions,

his imagery is generally included in books
A ll photographic pictures are fake; some on historical photography, or “abstract”

more than others. All are abstract; some photography in par t icular. Once his short-
more than others. Photographers naturally lived af fair was over, Coburn quickly retur ned
belong to groups with similar ideas, goals, to ordinary pictures with easily recognized
and subject matter, which they try to force on subjects.
photographers making images unlike theirs.
Do it my way is the rallying cr y of each group. E verything is connected and moving. Ear ly
Pictorialism and then Group f 64 were especially still photographic practices in the late 1880s
controlling, for a brief time. We always measure captured mot ion via two broad, lens-based
and compar tmentalize every photograph, to fit methods. Étienne-Jules Marey and Georges
a category and style. The activist Mar ty Rubin Demeny attached lights to people to follow
told us – What they should remember is that their movements on film. More recently,
ideas stand in the corner and laugh while we images by Pablo Picasso https:/ / w w w.
T
fight over them. yo utub e.com/ w a tc h?v=X-i9e qlR z k s and
Barbara Morgan and Vicki DaSilva https:/ /
he snapshot aesthetic has defined lig htp aintingphotogra phy.c om/ light-
photography since its public p ainting - a rtist/ fe a ture d-a rtist-2/ vic k i-
inception around 1840. Within d as ilv a/ among others, were drawn with
photography’s short history there variously shaped hand-held lights in front
have always been per tur bations of a still camera on a tripod. The musician
of varying lengths by some practitioners as and visual ar t ist Morgan Fisher draws with
they tried to leave the ground and ascend the a camera, or with light in front of a still
Tree of Art. Four decades of Pictorialism, from camera. He attains “ a balancing act out there
about 1885 to 1925 generated still photographs on the high tightrope between chaos and
garnished with a blurry patina and inherent control. ” http:/ / morga nfishe ra rt.c om/
softness (my favorite style). Then, some of
the influential Pictorialists such The still photographic community treats
as Ansel Adams and Alfred their photographs as elemental and
Stieglitz simply changed conclusive, with no other fo r m possible.
their minds and returned The kids are eager to copy Eve’s & Adam’s
to sharp, still photography. style to please curators and judges of
This new precise style, they contests. Is there room for new stylistic
felt, f it in with the moder n directions? Of course, but f irst curators
industrial era (Wikipedia). Fine must liberate themselves from their own
ar t photography is based on stagnant illusions, and abandon biases
opinions and fashions. I like this A Red Apple, in their favor. Then photography will
red apple more than that green 2019. – TR become more democratic, open, and
apple, at least for today. diversif ied. A new ontology will emerge.
A
Read Sunny Yeung’s June 2020
lvin L Cobur n attached three
paper, Photographer as a New
mirrors to the end of a lens
Sisyphus at https://mail.google.
and took 18 still pictures
com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/
ter med vor tographs during one
FMfcgxwJWhtvltddbPDsKHZVrTqSCTDz ♣
month in 1917. Even though
23 To m Reaume
Dorsal Aspect, 2009.
Gestures with a hand-held camera create
unexpected and delicious abstract ions which
free the medium from its stifling st illiness. – TR
From pure abstraction

to high realism, a
camera is capable of
both styles when used
with two different
strategies, depending
on what you wish the
outcome to look like
and say.
Ca na da Ge e s e
pre pa ring t o
la nd, 2018. – TR
Dar k is
Ou tside 1–6
Dark is
Outside
7–11
Dark is Outside # 12, 2013. – TR
T T
he above cluster of 12 he 12 can be hung in pairs,
anti-still photographs floor to ceiling, in a museum.
was created in Toronto at One curator described each
night using long narrow white as a cor r idor, even though it is
lights flush with the ground as fruitless to try to identi fy my
my source. A digital camera images as something in the
provides a quick view. Because everyday. Accepting them as
I was pleased with the results pure abstractions isn’t quite yet
of my f irst gestures, I continued possible among the gli tterat i. ♣
using the lights to create a
group of 12 pure abstractions.
⁀
Black Through White, 2004.

Arrangement var iable. – TR
28 To m Reaume
⁀
Moonrise, 1993. – TR
29 To m Reaume
⁀
Along The Boulevar d, 1982.

A f lick of the wr ist. – TR
30 To m Reaume
⁀
The Unfolding, 1983.

In spring the buds are silently unfolding into
leaves and f lowers. All of this involves movement
which most of us are unaware is happening
around us. We are not obser vers of subtle
movements by plants. – TR
31 To m Reaume
⁀
Consequent ial, 2013.

A sof t image like a watercolor wash. – TR
32 To m Reaume
⁀
Your Undivided Attent ion, 2012. – TR
33 To m Reaume
⁀
Near The Entrance, 2013.

Movement makes everything
grow, including photography.
– TR
34 To m Reaume
⁀
My Br ief Regret x 3, 2012. – TR
35 To m Reaume
⁀
March Of The Curators, 1984.

Little divergent thinking in the house. – TR
36 To m Reaume
⁀
Seated, 1983. – TR
37 To m Reaume
⁀
Evolution of Por traiture
I n P h o t o g r a p h y, 1 9 0 5 – 2 0 0 9
W
e have seen hundreds of por traits
of people and animals, both as
paintings and still photographs.
The Canadian photographer
Yousuf Karsh comes to mind. To
the south, Annie Leibovitz, Diane Ar bus, and
Cindy Sher man occupy the museums’ walls.
I too enjoy creating portraits of cultural icons.

Three pure abstract portraits of God follow this
page. The por trai t of Wonder Woman below is
f ictitious of course, at least when matching the
title and image. Like the titles of paintings by
René Magritte, some of my titles get you thinking
about the role of captions in the various genres of
photography. ♣
Shows As He Goes, c. 1905. Por trai t of a First

Nat ion’s man by Edward Cur t is, 1868–1952, a
still photographer.
Library of Congress, Pr ints and Photographs
Division, Edward Cur tis Collection,
[reproduct ion number, LC-USZ62-90145] in the
public domain, © expired.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
Wonder Woman,
2009.
A pure abstract
photographic por trai t.
As soon as I saw this
colored image on my
monitor I thought of
Wonder Woman as a
sui table t i tle. – TR
38 To m Reaume
⁀
God Laughing, 2001. Is this

the first photographic por trai t
of God?
When displayed in a shop’s
window, a passer-by, after
viewing it, went inside and told
the shopkeeper it could not
be a photograph. The viewer
had nothing in his million-
image baggage to compare it
to. Most curators face a similar
challenge. – TR
39 To m Reaume
⁀
Por trait Of God Spinning, 1996.

Printed from one 35 mm negative
without cropping or manipulat ion.
– TR
40 To m Reaume
⁀
God Thinking, 2002. – TR
41 To m Reaume
Without Yellow There Is No God, 2009.
Without the under lying layer of white, this image
of gestures would be of no consequence. Stephen
Maine’s - HP13-1113, in 2013 is the perfect acrylic
painting to harmonize with this photograph. – TR
⁀
Homage
O
nce you reach the level of an abstract photograph should look and be
creativity demanded by lens- def ined.
based pure abstraction, taking a
still photograph is like finishing As expected, some of my anti-still photographs
fi f th in a 5-horse race. From bear a resemblance to images by some abstract
Wikipedia, Lyr ical Abstraction (personal painters. To ease you into this short section,
expression) is per haps the best designation for I began on page 44 with one I did in homage
my style of photographic ar t. to Jef f Wall, one of Canada’s “influential” still
photographers. I acknowledged his cloudless
My inspiration comes from abstract painters blue skies just to cast a shadow on his overly-
such as the four presented below. Lens- hyped, richly-detailed snapshots. My homage
based still photographers, dead or alive, to Wall is a minimalistic photograph with two
especially those who pretend to be “abstract” small patches of blue separated by a vast
photographers, or whom critics, editors, and expanse of whiteness (a cloud?). There is
curators call “abstract” photographers, only hardly any white in Wall’s snapshots. I wonder
get in the way of expanding and completing why? Doesn’t his camera have a program which
photography. Still photographers can’t create automatically creates pure abstraction? Mine
pure abstract pictures. I wish they would stop does. It’s called my hand. ♣
t r ying. They only add to the confusion of how
Ethel Schwabacher, Serge Poliakof f, Hilma af Klint, Richard Diebenkorn,

War m Ra in I, 1959, oil on C o m p osi ti on g r i se et Det i o stö rs t a , nr 3. Oce a n P a rk No. 67, 1973,
canvas. Wikipedia ro u g e, 1964, oil on canvas. Yn g l i n g aålde r n. Ur oil on canvas. Wikipedia
Wikipedia Gr upp 4, 1907. Wikipedia
43 To m Reaume
⁀
Homage to Jef f Wall, 2004.

This sensuous photograph pushes Wall’s images to their logical
conclusion. It only seemed fair to use a lot of richly-detailed white
when paying homage to Wall’s “masterpieces”. Reflected light
disappears with Wall and direct light fills my night. – TR
44 To m Reaume
⁀
Homage to Turner (a seascape), 2012.

The gossamer colors recall JMW Turner’s
expressive seascapes with clouds. In
botanical ter ms, I am reminded of a f ilmy
palea, the upper bract in the f lower of
grasses. – TR
45 To m Reaume
⁀
Homage to Rothko, 2002.

Like Rothko’s painting, No. 10, in
1957, there are areas in both images
that are not sharply def ined (in focus).
A n ordinary painter, Mark Rothko
evolved into his rectangular, color
f ield phase, where he remained.
Staid curators at The Museum of Modern
As a work of f ine ar t, this is per fectly Ar t in NYC did li ttle to welcome Amer ican
acceptable, even expected, in a pure painters pushing the edges fur ther out to
abstract photograph. – TR sea. They preferred the safe shoreline of
European ar t. Eventually, collectors and
curators woke up and lear ned to appreciate
Rothko’s ar t. https:/ / w w w.k ha na c a de my.
⁓ o rg /huma nitie s/ a rt-1010/ post-w a r-
C Rothko, J Bishop and JM Spring, 2017. Rothko: Color americ a n-a rt/ a be x/ v/ moma -pa inting-
Field Paintings, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA
technique -rothk o
46 To m Reaume
⁀
Homage to Ber nd & Hilla Becher, 2009.

The Bechers’ gray solemn water towers are
replaced by a dazzling gesture of light. – T R
47 To m Reaume
⁀
Homage To The Futur ists, 1984. – TR
48 To m Reaume
⁀
Homage to Mother well, 2005. – TR

This image immediately reminded
me of Robert Mother well’s, Elegy
to the Spanish Republic, 110, a
series of paintings begun in 1965 and
completed in 1967.
https://www.guggenheim.org/
artwork/3047
49 To m Reaume
⁀
Homage to Mother well, 1986. – TR
50 To m Reaume
⁀
Homage To The Snapshot, 1986. – TR
51 To m Reaume
⁀
Homage to Duchamp – Nude Ascending To Heaven, 1985. – TR

My drawing acknowledges Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2,
a 1912 painting by Marcel Duchamp. The art hanging committee
objected to Duchamp’s work. It had “ too much of a literar y title”,
and “one doesn’t paint a nude descending a staircase, that’s
ridiculous... a nude should be respected ” . (Wikipedia)
https://philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/51449.html
52 To m Reaume
⁀
J e ff Wa l l , Milk
M
uch to the delight of curators weakest means of capturing and printing images.
of still photography, Jef f Wall It finally was ousted by pixels, a faster plastic
has given them a richly-detailed method suited to the computer / satellite age.
image, Milk, (1984) with layered Wall, because of his self-imposed limitation
interpretations. Mine will have a from using a large still camera, omits the liquid
botanical slant. Let’s begin. intelligence of the photographer, the “immersion
in the incalculable.” With my methodology, I
Milk, at https://www.moma.org/collection/ combine flowing movements from the liquid
works/93456 is a cliché of an angry young human body with a dry dead camera. I am the
man, one of many in any city. Is Milk a modern, turbulent milk. Allowed to dance, a camera, like
aggressive response to a calm, T h e M i l k m ai d , milk, forms unrepeatable natural patterns.
in 1657–8, by Johannes Vermeer? Wall’s model
T
is perched on the sidewalk like an injured, he way I see it, the angry man’s presence,
flightless bird. This distraught person is giving although foreboding, is softened by the
rather than taking. His angular body for ms a green, roundish shrub occupying the lower
triangle, a popular and historical compositional left of Wall’s snapshot, which nicely balances the
tool, which Pablo Picasso used in Guernica, an harsh angular man. It may even flower and bear
unknown artist in the 17 th century for, Ma d onna fruit. He is on a concrete sidewalk, the shrub has
w i th Ch i l d , and Christians in their fabricated its roots embedded in nourishing soil. The man
trinity ▲ , the 3 for 1 sale. His angry bare left does too, but his connection is less apparent,
arm, ending in a fist, forms a horizontal line perhaps even to him. This lack of awareness may
from which the spray of milk is ejected vertically be responsible for the man’s aggravation with
into the polluted urban air. A high shutter speed himself in his particular subculture in a much
clarifies all the droplets of the liquid which we broader “progressive” society.
find fascinating.
Wall’s still photograph is a cityscape, where hard
Social outsiders make good copy. A 2-D sur faces abound, with 90º angles everywhere,
snapshot of an Other, hanging in a status-laden save for the rounded softness of green leaves
gallery allows comfortable, well-fed and clothed manufacturing food for the shrub. Casting a dark
visitors, feigning artistic interest, to stare at the shadow towards the man, it reinforces his black
image of such a person, but relieved they have pants and their shadows. Is it an evening or
police to protect them from his intrusions. The morning shadow? It matters to the plant.
brick wall behind him sees to that.
T he vertical dark wall shadow separating the
Jeff Wall, (so I’ve read), in his short essay actor and the real shrub is a narrow monolith,
“Photography and Liquid Intelligence” uses anchoring the left side of the still photograph. Its
this staged photograph, Milk, as a temptation only movement is due to the spinning earth as in
to consider the dry digital takeover from a wet my Por tra it Of God Spinning (page 40). ♣
darkroom. For me, these two procedures are
no more than technical ar tifacts, in spite of the
“importance” given to this evolution (wet to dry) ⁓
by some academics publishing their gibberish Jeff Wall, “Photography and Liquid
in high-status journals. Film was our first and Intelligence”, Catalogue Raisonne 1978–2004,
T. Vischer and H. Naef, (eds) (Switzerland:
Schaulager, 2005), p 439–440.
53 To m Reaume
Imagine This, 2005. – TR
Opening White, 2001. – TR
The dance of li fe is as myster ious
as the appearance of this image out
of the war m night air.
Three x Two, 2005. – TR
⁀
too museums
M
useum shows about “abstract” Although six divisions of abstract photography
photography occur about once are listed, the “ techniques and devices are
in a lifetime. They are a lot of not new. ” Three general categories were –
wor k and highly edited. “ photographers who limit themselves to the
experimental or avant-garde; occasional
The “abstract” photographs on walls of ar t abstractions produced as a stimulating
museums are of ten puzzling. Some are clearly exercise; and the ‘accidental’ abstraction
not abstract, while others may be somewhat in which reportage is transformed through a
abstract once the process of their birth is strong sense of design ” . http://moma.org/
explained by the artist. Images made without a d/c/press_releases/W1siZiIsIjMyNjE4MiJdXQ.
camera don’t interest me. I’ve only made a few pdf?sha=62eb07af87b1fcea
scientific photograms of bones for my book on
the natural histor y of the Amer ican Crow. Ta te M oder n, U K
A
Mo M A , New York bout 60 years after the MoMA show,
In
over the summer of 2018, a second
1960, Grace Mayer and Kathleen large museum exhibition, Shape of
Haven at the Museum of Modern Ar t Light: 100 years of Photography
in New York City co-directed The and Abstract Ar t, at the Tate Modern, UK,
Sense of Abstraction, a large show of 300 spawned a 224-page catalogue which I
“abstract” photographs. https://www.moma. purchased. Curators at the Tate calibrated 12
org/calendar/exhibitions/3366 The title is divisions of “abstraction”. Seven divisions were
self-explanatory. On a snowy-white wall, every- of images made without a camera. Visitors
day captions explained what appeared to be waded through a chronology (1910 to the
“abstractions”. For example: Garage Door, present) of 400 (mostly b&w) images by over
1959 by Oscar Bailey; and Weeds,1957 by 70 ar t ists. The “abstractions” in the show
Harry Callahan. were sometimes paired with similar-looking
abstract paintings by Wyndham Lewis, Piet
T he American cr i tic Andy Grundberg described Mondr ian and Jackson Pollock, among others.
the above “abstract” imagery at the MoMA, Photographs greatly outnumbered paint ings.
“Their images, by being simultaneously of the
wor ld and apar t from i t, seemed to exemplify Shoair Mavlian, one of three curators of
[still] photography’s aspirations as a for m the show, spoke in an online 54-minute
of ar t. Today, of course, these attempts at video v ime o.c om/ 259246473 about the
creating an abstract photography wear only the Shape of Light. In her presentation, Mavlian
shredded rags of their original convictions.” showed (time 13:15) the first two b&w
still photographs, in 1915 by Paul Strand,
A press release for the show at the MoMA considered “abstract.” They were definitely not
mentioned 75 contributing photographers. abstract. The content was easily recognized.
57 To m Reaume
⁀
I can speculate trend-setting still

photographers and curators felt the need to jog
alongside abstract painters. In 1915, as today,
debates concerning the abstract nature of still
photography continue. When “experts” in an
ar t museum call a still photograph “abstract”,
what does that mean? How should we react?
Within the dialogue on photography, why would
curators at the Tate, or anyone, maintain this
senseless history lacking authenticity for a
medium known for its “realism” and “facticity?”
S
ome of the more amusing and cr itical
online reviews of Shape of Light
by local critics in London are worth
reading. MIchael Glover of The Independent
(“An absurdly over-large, tediously repetitive
exhibition of distorted photographs”) and
Hettie Judah of iNews The Essential Daily
Br ief ing, (“By about halfway round I actually
felt faint. I longed for some colour, some mess:
a face, even. It was just all so…tasteful.”).
NOTE – The catalogue for the Shape of Light

displayed no abstract images like mine.
I decided to test the temperature of the water

at the Tate. I suggested their Acquisition
Committee purchase 6 of my colored anti-
stills, including God Laughing, to add diversity
to their young and growing collection of still
photographs. A week later they sent a negative
email. I guess curatorial / institutional rules
were in place to keep my fine ar t photographs
Af ter Ansel Adams, 1985. – TR
from entering their very stilly collection. The Its messy appearance resembles
water at the Tate was frozen solid. ♣ the painting, Scontro di
situazioni n.4, in 1959 by Emilio
Vedova. https://artsandculture.
google.com/asset/scontro-di-
situazioni-n-4-emilio-vedova/
bQG6L0NfOHdpPA?hl=en
58 To m Reaume
⁀
Almost Dawn, 1986. – TR

Resembles Night Wing by Anne Truit t 1972–1978.
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/night-wing-anne-
truitt/pwHyzteLmP32Gg?hl=en
59 To m Reaume
⁀
Thur sday Mor ning, 2008. – TR
60 To m Reaume
⁀
Fr iday Mor ning, 2008. – TR
61 To m Reaume
⁀
Wednesday Mor ning, 2008.

A yellow cloud fills the sky
this morning, and no one
knows what to do. – TR
62 To m Reaume
⁀
Nature Movement
N
ature enter tains us in a lavish youtube.com/watch?v=A26V-Y0RtZU where
display of movements. Some he explains how he gets hundreds of colored
motions are obvious – rain, swirls. I despise swirls. The 10,000 pencil-
clouds, bi rds, people. Some are and-ink botanical drawings I did over 10 years
less obvious – opening of the for my 780-page botanical book indicate a
bud of a flower, or molting of a crow’s feather. par t icular and pract ical level of hand contr ol
Others are invisible – subatomic par ticles and awareness of natural forms – useful
(Neutr inos) passing through the Earth and us, attr ibutes when manipulating a camera by hand
wind and sound, ideas migrating away from and editing photographs.
S
the nor m, and movement of our galaxy in
space. till photography provides the
context for understanding anti-
I am seduced by nature through its gestures. still photography. B oth styles are
inter woven through the human body
M ovement saturates our lives. Movement is and intellect. They operate like wor ds in a
the way of pure abstraction. I n today’s wor ld dictionary to define each other. In our science-
we are moving faster and in more ways than layered culture, documentary images are the
ever before. Online, watch the gymnast Simone nor m. In our ar t-based culture, abstractions
Biles, or Karine Ruby on a snowboard, or present another reality. The two styles of
Sof ia Bogdanova in the roller blade freestyle photography must exist because creativity,
slalom. Movement is so varied and real; order, and play define us. Mot ivation and
stillness is the illusion. A moving camera fits methodology (a camera and light) make
perfectly into our current fast-paced culture. the two styles frater nal twins with d if ferent
I strive to expand the consc iousness of personalities. Lens-based photography has
photography by alter ing its complexion and to be re-understood. Its look, histor y, and
language. My lens-based photographs co- meaning have changed for the better. ♣
operate with Nature, reminding you of its many
linkages.
A n anti-still photograph is bor n from more

control than simply twirling and twisting light in
front of a still camera, or indulging in camera
tossing. Watch a 5-minute video of Germany’s
best camera tosser Jens Ludwig at www.
63 To m Reaume
⁀
Gray Landscape, 2013.

It resembles the gray folds in
the but ton-less whi te shir t in
the oil painting, The Portrait of
Alessandro Manzoni by
Francesco Hayez in 1874. – TR
64 To m Reaume
Inter rupted Landscape, 2013. – TR
Mor ning Mist, 2007. – TR
⁀
Genesis, 2013. – TR
67 To m Reaume
⁀
Right Before Dawn, 2013. – TR
68 To m Reaume
⁀
The Beggar, 2008.

Ostracized and marginalized, she relies
on the good will of society to keep her
body and spir i t together for another
day. – TR
Reminds me of PH-235, a painting
by Cly f ford Still in 1944. https://
collection.clyffordstillmuseum.org/
object/ph-235
69 To m Reaume
⁀
A E
n ear thly r itual, ext inct ion
extends over more years
than any of us can imagine.
Presently, ext inction of flora
& fauna is accelerating due
to wasteful human activities, including
those by the ar ts communi ty.
X
Plants & animals are adjusting to their
new paradigm. Arable lands are shrinking,
T
I
salt water laps at our doorsteps, and the
winds blow a little hotter and stronger.
We are at war with ourselves and our
N
natural surroundings. Only Nature (C-19)
can tell us when it is time to slow down.
We don’t listen to our own ver bal and
C
visual rhetoric.
This photograph, Exti n c ti on , (2008), was

created at night in the dark. The huge
amount of richly-detailed white represents
millions of wild cultures that have already
disappeared during Earth’s lengthy
T
I
evolution. Those lef t reside in a crowded
pink cor ner where humans must share
our planet by respecting millions of other
O
species that have made the long journey.
S
urpr isingly, a century before the
N
advent of Chr ist, Titus Lucretius
Carus, wrote a prophetic book,
On the Nature of Things. “ The
universe was not created for or about
humans. The earth—with its seas and
deserts, harsh climate, wild beasts,
diseases—was obviously not purpose-
built to make our species feel at home.
Humans do not occupy the privileged
place in existence they imagine for
themselves. We have only to look
attentively at the wor ld around us to
grasp that many of the most intense and
poignant experiences of our lives are not
exclusive to our species. ” ♣
70 To m Reaume
⁀
A Dr i f t of Yellow, 2008.
Yellow and white are two visually
painful colors to combine. Yet, here
they are together on a road tr ip. – TR
71 To m Reaume
⁀
An Offer ing, 2010. – TR

A pure abstract photograph that reminds me of
an Alpha-Pi painting created by Mor r is Louis
around 1960. https://www.metmuseum.org/
toah/works-of-art/67.232/
72 To m Reaume
At The Green Edge, 2006. – TR
⁀

One of the interesting things

about abstract painting is how
it continues to feed upon the
visible wor ld even as i t eschews
any conventionalized ef for t to
represent i t.
– John Dor f man
For m itself, even if completely

abstract ... has i ts own inner
sound.”
– Wassily Kandinsky
The popularity of abstract ar t

is easily explained, when you
consider all ar t represents reality,
and mystery is part of our reali ty.
– Rober t Black
Since still photography isn’t ver y

imi tat ive of reali ty, why not give
pure abstract photography a shot
at i t?
– Tom Reaume
74 To m Reaume
⁀
Tr ee, 2010. – TR
A 2-D still photograph of a tree
shows some branches, leaves,
and general form. A pure abstract
photograph of a tree presents i ts
nucleus.
75 To m Reaume
⁀
Gestur e # 4 4, 2009.
A photograph showing co-operat ion
between black and white in an ur ban
landscape. – TR
76 To m Reaume
⁀
Come Closer, 1988. – TR
77 To m Reaume
⁀
Ambition, Side View, 1985. – TR

Similar to the painting, Unt i tled,
by Daniel Senise in 2002, https://
artsandculture.google.com/asset/un-
titled-daniel-senise/YgH6yxNUF25HY-
w?hl=en
78 To m Reaume
⁀
End of A Creat ive Day, 1984. – TR
79 To m Reaume
⁀
A Shor t Cut, 1985. – TR
80 To m Reaume
⁀
Cloudbur st, 1984.

A white cloud in the r ight sky of Píhuamo
Valley, by Dr. Atl, Gerardo Mur illo in 1952
resembles the shape of this photograph.
– TR
81 To m Reaume
⁀
One Gesture, 1984. – TR

Drawing with a camera creates singular i ties.
82 To m Reaume
⁀
A Secret, 1984. – TR
A rewarding gesture of a for m that was
within me for a long time.
83 To m Reaume
⁀
The Pleasure of 40º, 1986. – TR

Gestures are the fundamental building
blocks of pure abstract photography.
Some str iped paintings, such as
28 septembre 1984 by Michel
Par ment ier in France are similar to this
photograph.
https://www.wikiart.org/en/michel-
parmentier
84 To m Reaume
⁀
P e te r Ga l a s s i
BEFORE PHOTOGRAPHY —
P a i n t i n g and the Invention of Photography
T
o accompany a major exhibition in lives we can easily live with and occasionally
1981 at MoMA in New York City, gush over?
Peter Galassi, then Associate
Curator of Photography, used People realize a highly-detailed painting takes
the book for m to examine the much more skill and time to achieve than a
invention of photography based on the highly-detailed photograph. Millions of people
aesthetic aspect of linear perspective which today own photographic-recording devices. In
developed slowly in painting over the centuries, this still swarm, only a tiny fraction would also
rather than the “overnight” scientif ic invention be painters, or have the ability to draw a wild
of the camera in the early 1800s. His is an flower in botanically useful detail. So they take
academic ar t icle which has no interest to most pictures.
people that take pictures. He may be right; or
wrong. Only a handful of still photographers When I travel by bus and talk to a person
care. https://www.moma.org/documents/ beside me, if I mention I am drawing plants
F
moma_catalogue_2267_300296442.pdf for a botanical book, they call me an ar t ist. If
I have my camera with me, they ask what is
rom my viewpoint, the development of my subject? Being an ar tist does not enter the
still photography stems from a human photographic equation for most people. The
drive to easily reproduce 2-D images bewilder ing writings of curators, professors,
of what we see every day, especially and critics in jour nals and ar t magazines, do
the most engaging and signi f icant not sway or even interest the masses who take
events. One of the first demands on early millions of richly-detailed still photographs,
photography (1850s) were small realistic photos some of a remar kable nature, each day. Most
of people for their own use. In these photos people carry still photos in their phone which
perspective was not an issue; detail was. they can share with friends. An image combined
Fortunately, fine detail was inherent in a still with verbal enhancement improves our daily
photograph from the star t. The development communications with our friends and co-
of fast lenses, over many decades, to focus workers.
reflected light quickly, lead to this visual
outcome. From the start, images were used
for social and natural spheres, while others
revealed the mundane. Few still photographs
T he history of photography doesn’t greatly
interest me today. Yesterday, I’ve read
dozens of books on still photography and seen
passed as FINE ART. about 1 M reproductions. I’ve emerged from
this blizzard without finding any photographers
When the flattened perspective is perfectly wor th emulating. This is because I don’t use a
aligned, the colors a drop-dead gor geous camera as a way of “documenting the wor ld”,
match, the subjects and compositions have or “telling a story” in the traditional still
all been used, will we be satisfied we have sense. I prefer to create other-worldly images,
impar ted opinionated human per fection to a each existing on its own pedicel as part of a
photograph? Has still photography achieved newly-opened rare inf lorescence, and with no
anything with a truly ar tistic point of view, or is reference to the look, perspective, and purpose
it simply a false comfor table ideal in our daily of common still photography. ♣
85 To m Reaume
⁀
These two pure abstract

photographs are spiritually
connected to the painting,
Another Stor m, in 1963 by Lee
Krasner. https://www.artsy.
net/artwork/lee-krasner-
another-storm
Before and After The Stor m, 2008.

The night has always been this dramatic. – TR
86 To m Reaume
⁀
Under The Arches, 2011. – TR

Which Way Is Up?
Looking at Saint-Séverin No. 3, a painting of a Gothic church
in 1909 by Robert Delaunay may answer that question.
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/1017
87 To m Reaume
⁀
So Li ttle Time,
So Much Time, 2008. – TR
88 To m Reaume
⁀
Happy Bir thday, 2008. – TR
89 To m Reaume
⁀
Still Life With Yellow, 2009.

The still li fe genre has to be
expanded and redef ined beyond the
rigid, traditional rules. – TR
90 To m Reaume
A Sur ge Of Ye llow, 2009. – TR
Gestures define who and what we are.
The ultimate gesture is presented in
Suprematism by Kazimir Malevich
in 1917. https://arthistoryproject.
com/artists/kazimir-malevich/
suprematism/
⁀
A Wa l k A l on g T h e Trai l , 2009. – TR
Transfor mations def ine nature and my ar t.
92 To m Reaume
⁀
g
i n
a w
D r
Tw o - s t a m e n e d S ed g e, Per igynia
in 3 aspects plus i ts subtending
bract (r ight), ink. – TR
O
ne person asked if I did
my botanical drawings (1)
from still photographs?
People don’t realize a still
photograph of a wildflower
has limited usable data, when working
at the above level of detail. Fresh plants
are needed. Numerous measurements
are made, and a low-power binocular
microscope allows for suitable visual
accuracy. Still photographs look detailed,
but are not ideal models. If detail is
needed, examine a living plant with your
eyes, not through some dead lens screwed
into a mechanical, computerized black
box. The art on this page is drawn by
holding and moving a pen and a camera.
The former (above) has well def ined
restrictions. Its shape must be duplicated
in the botanical tradition to help with
a plant’s identity. The pure abstract
photograph (to the right) is nontrad it ional
and has much more gestural passion and
freedom. It too is a demonstration of my
abili t y to draw. ♣
Light Dance # 3, 1982. – TR

A pure abstract photograph created
by drawing vigorously in a controlled
⁓ manner with a hand-held camera
facing a stationary light at night. It is a
1) Tom Reaume, 620 Wild Plants of North America, University negative image of Br ice Marden’s
of Regina Press, 2009. The 10,000 drawings for this botanical
book, created by the author from living plants in the field, are in Ha n Sha n E x i t from 1992.
the collection of the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa
93 To m Reaume
G reen Cor ne rs , 2007.
Sometimes our eyes need to abandon
the center of a photograph and wander
along its edges. – TR
⁀
A G reen Seep , 2007. – TR
95 To m Reaume
Poet ic Gr een # 2, 2011. – TR
A Selective Green, 2008. – TR
⁀
A Green Idea, 2009. – TR
98 To m Reaume
⁀
Gr een Along The Edge Of A

Road, 2010. – TR
99 To m Reaume
Uphill # 1–4, 2007. – TR
View the painting, Pintura, 1957,
by the Neo-Concretos
Willys de Castro.
Per p l exi n g Li g h t, 2005. – TR
In a way, this repeating white pattern resembles the
horizontal white clouds in the 6-panel landscape, Foldin g
Sc re e n wit h De sign of Mu sash in o Plain , by an unknown
ar t ist.
A New Element, 2007. – TR
⁀
The Second Volume, 2014.

A pure abstract photograph which is
mostly “out-of-focus” by still standards.
It is, however, per fectly usable as f ine ar t
in a mixed media show on abstraction.
– TR
103 To m Reaume
⁀
Corruption In Rome, 2010. – TR

Similar to Wealth of Nations in 1972 by
David Diao. https://www.artsy.net/
artwork/david-diao-wealth-of-nations
104 To m Reaume
⁀
A Gestural Mirage, 2006. – TR
105 To m Reaume
⁀
S e e i n G
S
eeing is concentrated looking. enlightenment is necessary to survive. In the
Seeing is knowing. Our loss of wonderful movie H or se W h isper er (1998),
vision may be the result of mass Kr istin Scott Thomas leaves an easter n city
migration into “organized” cities. and dr ives to a wester n cattle ranch. She
There we try to determine the is confused as to which way to turn at an
name of a street, the distance to the next stop intersection in the country. When she finally
light and why we should visit art galleries when arrives at the ranch of Robert Redford, she
we can find great a r t so easily using Google complains about the lack of signs. Redford
A r ts & Culture. We are imperfect witnesses to rightly replies – there are plenty of signs,
our own failings. Ar t suf fers because of moving they’re just not printed.
too quickly. Our culture does not embrace
slowness. Yet, the slower you go the more you Seeing is about wanting and taking the time
see. to train yourself to be aware, curious and
inquisitive about for ms and
Academics raised in a city are patter ns. Seeing has to be a
woefully out of touch with the belief in how you see is the right
natural wor ld and its myriad of way to see, but not the only way.
smells, sounds, textures, colors Seeing and awareness probably
and movements, subtle to loud. dif fers the most between
We are still the same biological humans. How you train yourself
organism we were 3,000 years to see is important for your
ago. We have not mutated to personal development and as an
keep up with our machines, nor Wild Daisies and Leaves ar t ist. Pure abstract photography
should we. Urbanites foolishly of Grass, 2018 allows you to assess patterns,
grouse about rainy days, All abstract images are colors and groups of lights
forgetting moisture fuels plants based on for ms, colors and before you star t drawing with a
to bloom and set frui t to feed us. patter ns in nature. camera. Experience will allow
L
This is a photograph of
you to get the most from these
a fragment of evolution.
iving in a glass, steel, patter ns. ♣
Everything is changing.
and concrete, sharply- – TR
angled city where
everything has a name,
one is forced to become numb to survive.
Living on the edge of a great marsh, visual
106 To m Reaume
⁀
A Myster ious Landscape, 2006. – TR

Similar in spir i t to the painting, PH-1074,
in 1956 by Cly f ford Still. https://collection.clyffordstill-
museum.org/object/ph-1074
107 To m Reaume
⁀
Dark Mot ion # 3, 2004.

A pure abstract
photograph in 4
aspects (the new street
photography?). Which
way is up? – TR
There is a spiritual
resemblance to,
Super f icie 290, in
1958 by Giuseppe
Capogrossi. See also the
sculpture Ponte, in 1958
by Franz Weissmann.
108 To m Reaume
⁀
A Layer ed Li fe, 1988. – TR
109 To m Reaume
⁀
Innovat ion # 1, 2006.

– TR
110 To m Reaume
Looking At Par is, 2008. – TR
A bit scruf fy for a photograph, and as far
away from a manicured still as possible.
One viewer asked when I was in Par is.
It is similar in spir i t to PH-489, by
Clyfford Still in 1944. https://collection.
clyffordstillmuseum.org/object/ph-489
Red and Tan, 2003.
A simple, clean design with red
advancing toward the viewer. I admire
forward looking colors. – TR
In this vein, take delight in the
painting, Le forze della cur va, in
1930 by the Futur ist Tullio Crali.
https://www.art-bronze-sculptures.
com/694/oil-painting-le-forze-della-
curva-1930-tullio-crali
⁀
{ Similar }
A
couple of years before 2018, I pure abstractions in its Shape of Light. Tate’s
mailed a letter to several major ar t curators missed a great opportunity to use my
museums asking if they would be abstract images with paintings possessing a
interested in generating a show similar spirit. In this book I provide the names
of my pure abstract photographs of ar t ists and t itles of paintings that I think
paired with “similar” abstract paintings. One would work together with some of my images,
person responded by saying it would take and when available a web link or book t itle.
several years to organize such as show. Then You can locate them and decide for yourself.
in 2018, I discovered the Tate Modern had Curators (even at the Tate) must know of
done just that. However, the craf ty curators other paintings that would wor k well with my
at the Tate Modern decided not to include my abstract ions on a white wall. ♣
Beauty Emerging From A Cor ner, 1982.

An early successful pure abstract photograph that inspired me to keep going and practice
more gestures with a camera at night. – TR
One online comment revealed it was a still photograph of a safety pin. He didn’t get it.
A similar painting by Robert Motherwell, is Unt i tled, 1963. https://www.pinterest.ca/
pin/802274121093933302/
113 To m Reaume
⁀
Silent Yellow, 2009. – TR

This dazzling anti-still photograph is similar
to Georgia O’Keef fe’s, Red And Orange
Streak, 1919. https://www.pinterest.ca/
pin/798474208905456096/
114 To m Reaume
⁀
A Corner of Photography Lef t Behind, 2008. –TR

Richly detailed still photographs represent the presently
accepted curator ial fashion, organized around the
economics of the snapshot. Visit https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=w0ztlIAYTCU for an expanded
understanding of reality.
115 To m Reaume
⁀
Renegade Barcode, 1987. – TR
116 To m Reaume
⁀
An Af fair Of The Hear t, 1989.

Although replete with details,
this diptych represents nothing
recognizable from our daily travels.
The gestures were repeated quickly to
build up layers of f ine streaks from a
string of stationary tiny lights. – TR
It has more texture than Two Blacks
and White by Ellsworth Kelly in
1991 https://artsandculture.
google.com/asset/two-blacks-and-
white/vwEStKIHqwBQOw
117 To m Reaume
⁀
Pixels Pixels
P ix e ls
S
ocial analysts decr y the r ise of
pixels in our lives. Cameras,
phones, and computers hold our You can throw all the pixels you want at this
attent ion most days, at work, image of the bumblebee; enlarge it to 2 x 3
play, and of ten in between. Yet it meters and hang it in the Amer ican Museum of
all depends on electr icity. Pull the plugs and Natural History in New York, and it won’t mean
we stumble in dar kness. Today, even nature shi t. Pixels fool us every day into believing
is photographically pixilated (below), which what we see is real or evidence. They are not
leaves me with an empty feeling about our even a par tial substitute for authent ici ty. They
relationship with the planet’s remaining life. lack almost everything that has any meaning in
my life. I took eight snapshots of this particular
Does a still camera improve our vision? For bumblebee; kept one. I miss its buzzing the
me it doesn’t. It is too fragmenting and devoid most, and its almost continuous movements
of feeling and other impor tant proper ties. It as it fed from the small flowers of goldenrod. I
produces a still, 2-D ar ti ficial miss it being alive.
shadow. A walk in a meadow or
woods reveals the many biological Watching the bumblebee visit
mutations over millions of years yellow flowers in sunlight was
that have lead to our present the highlight of my walk. As
ecology. While walking about, wildf lowers disappear from
pixels do not enter the big scene. landscapes, insects become fewer
They are replaced with scents, in numbers and mass due to our
breezes, sounds, and ever present over power ing need to subjugate
movements, all characteristics nature. Machines and pixels can’t
which pixels don’t inherently Half-black Bumblebee sustain us. ♣
possess or convey. visiting Grass-leaved
Goldenrod, 2018.
Pixilated at the edge of
a marsh in July. – TR
118 To m Reaume
Yellow Cl eavage, 2001. – TR
⁀
Deep Into The Hear t of Yellow, 2006. –TR
120 To m Reaume
⁀
Tangled Light, 1986. – TR
121 To m Reaume
Go In That Direction, 1991.
This perplexing small
photograph, like Wassily
Kandinsky’s 1922, Small
Wor lds IV, has no obvious
pattern, which causes the
eyes to move around the
rectangle looking at odd
shapes and curved lines while
trying to center on something.
– TR https://www.moma.
org/collection/works/67212
⁀
A Pur ple Haze, 1991. – TR
123 To m Reaume
⁀
Angled Yellow, 2009. – TR
124 To m Reaume
⁀
Brownian Motion, 2002.

Hidden movements. – TR
125 To m Reaume
A Clear Reality, 1989. – TR
Beyond The Orchar d, 1982. – TR
There are 3 symbols in the above image: a window frame (par t ial), a human stick
figure, and a blur red white dove at the top lef t similar to the dove in Batismo de
Jesus by José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior in 1895. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:Almeida_J%C3%BAnior_-_Batismo_de_Jesus,_1895.JPG
My title and image cast shade on John Szarkowski’s still photographs of knotted
apple trees in abandoned orchards, taken after he retired from the MoMA in New York.
⁀
F irst V ision Af ter Death, 1989. – TR
128 To m Reaume
⁀
Apian Way, 1986. – TR
129 To m Reaume
⁀
This painting is in
the public domain
in the United States
because it was
published before
1 January 1923.
(W ikipedia).
The or iginal is at
the MoMA, NYC.
Giacomo Balla, Street Light, 1910.

A Futur ist who was the f irst to paint
a concentration of light from a street
et
lamp. Balla rejected traditional
subject matter, and painted a very
modern object – one of the new,
electr ic street lamps being installed
re
at this time in Rome, where he
lived. See Dr. Jennifer Bethke’s
ar t icle https://www.khanacademy.
org/humanities/art-1010/WWII-
St
dada/art-great-war/a/balla-street-
light
M y favorite painting, Street

Light, is saturated with colored
photons dar ting from an ar ti f icial
light which symbolizes the increase in
s
tempo and machinery in our lives that
h t
took place all through the 1900s. In
g
this well-lit darkness, I work to create
L i
my lens-based pure abstractions in
the war m night air. His light is mine,
to transfor m into a di f ferent kind of
photographic ar t.
130 To m Reaume
⁀
40 Shades of Gray, 1987. – TR
131 To m Reaume
A Light Kiss, 1988. – TR
Broadway and West 39 th Street,
2002 – TR
Mine is a light-filled Broadway
Boogie Woogie 1943, Piet
Mondr ian 1872–1944, by Douglas
Coupland in 2011. Acr ylic
and latex on canvas. https://
artsandculture.google.com/
asset/broadway-boogie-
woogie-1943-piet-mondrian-
1872-1944-douglas-coupland/
jgEBNwxFcGnsJA?hl=en
⁀
Evolution, 1986. – TR
134 To m Reaume
⁀
Why Not? 1988. – TR
135 To m Reaume
⁀
My Three Previous Li ves, 1982. – TR
136 To m Reaume
A Splatter Of Light, 2010. – TR
⁀
Green Landscape, 2006. – TR
138 To m Reaume
⁀
A Red Landscape, 2011. – TR
139 To m Reaume
⁀
Bir th of Science,
Death of Science, 1983. – TR
140 To m Reaume
⁀

It is analogous to the painting, Cretto G 1, by Alber to Bur r i
in 1975. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/cret-
to-g-1-alberto-burri/BgH2ncS1Nta3Mg?hl=en
141 To m Reaume
⁀
A Light Migrat ion, 1986. – TR
142 To m Reaume
This Is Ar t, 1995. – TR
The Fullness Of Summer, 1997. – TR
Civilization, 1984. – TR
The World According To Henry, 1984. – TR
Similar to Composition by Morton L Schamberg in
1916. https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Com-
position/A656BAEED06C1B66
⁀
A Growing Menace, 1983. – TR

A photograph similar in spirit to a
pencil drawing, Study of a Man’s
Forear m, c. 1908 (right) by the
Futur ist Umberto Boccioni, (in
the public domain). https://www.
metmuseum.org/art/collection/
search/485559
147 To m Reaume
⁀
A New Per spect ive, 1985. – TR
Similar in spirit to the painting, Vor t ice,
in 1914 by the Futur ist, Giacomo Balla
148 To m Reaume
⁀
Cleavage, 1985. – TR
149 To m Reaume
⁀
A Signi f icant Fo r m, 1988. – TR

A central f igure as in Gravur e Or iginal by Georges
Braque in 1908. https://artsandculture.google.
com/asset/gravure-original/kgGI4u60usXm1A
150 To m Reaume
⁀
Edge of Woman, 1982. – TR

One woman asked which par t of
her body was pictured?
151 To m Reaume
⁀
Between Rainbows, 1987. – TR
152 To m Reaume
⁀
Right Af ter Q, 1983. – TR
153 To m Reaume
⁀
A Surplus Of E, 1984. – TR
The Bewitched Mill by Franz Marc in 1913
has a similar texture in its water fall. https://
www.artic.edu/artworks/9021/the-be-
witched-mill
154 To m Reaume
⁀
The Sublime X, 1983. – TR

Similar to the Black Cross, New Mexico
by Georgia O’Keef fe in 1929. https://
www.artic.edu/artworks/46327/black-
cross-new-mexico
155 To m Reaume
⁀
Yellow Landscapes 1–8, 2002. – TR

See the painting, Ver melho cor tando o
branco, in 1958 by the Neo-Concretos,
Hélio Oi t icica.
156 To m Reaume
⁀
Rec l i n i n g , 2011. – TR
157 To m Reaume
Along The Edge, 2004. – TR
Angular like Roy Round’s photo-
graph of Julie Kent in Giselle
A Serious Mark, 2007. – TR
A Splendid Landscape, 2002. – TR
The Realm of the Possible, 2014. – TR
Once Upon A Time, 1985. – TR
⁀
Index I m a g e s , P e o p l e a n d Te x t
Humans 70
Symbols moving 6 , 7
tosser 63 Hunt Institute 5
2-D images 85
Canadian Museum of Nature 5
A Christ 70 I
Christians 53
Ability to Draw 93 Collections 5 █ IMAGES
“abstract” 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 23 , 43 , Create 7 , 8 , 9 , 16 , 24 , 27 , 43 , 85 ,
130 28 septembre 1984 84
57 , 58
Creativity 43 , 63 40 Shades of Gray 131
Abstract 3 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 13 ,
Curatorial Fashion 115 A Clear Reality 126
14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 23 , 38 , 43 ,
Curators 8 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 23 , 36 , A Corner of Photography Left
46 , 57 , 58 , 72 , 74 , 75 , 84 , 86 ,
39 , 43 , 46 , 53 , 57 , 58 , 85 , 113 Behind 115
93 , 103 , 106 , 108 , 113
A Drift of Yellow 71
confusion 43
names 15 D African Evening 21
After Ansel Adams 58
paintings 6
Dance of life 55 A Gestural Mirage 105
photographs 6
Dancers 9 A Green Idea 98
pure 3 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 13 , 15 ,
Direct Light 15 A Green Seep 95
16 , 17 , 18 , 23 , 24 , 27 , 38 , 43 ,
Drawing 6 , 8 , 9 , 22 , 52 , 85 , 93 , A Growing Menace 147
46 , 63 , 72 , 74 , 75 , 84 , 86 , 93 ,
106 , 147 A Layered Life 109
103 , 108 , 113 , 130
Drones 13 , 14 A Left-handed Structure 22
Abstractions 6 , 8 , 9 , 13 , 15 , 23 ,
A Light Kiss 132
24 , 27 , 57 , 63 , 113 , 130
Abstract Photography 6 E A Light Migration 142
All We Can See 20
lens-based pure 6
Electronic Devices 13 Almost Dawn 59
outside-the-box 6
Evolution 6 , 8 , 53 , 70 , 106 Along The Boulevard 30
still 6
Experimental 6 Along The Edge 158
Academic Article 85
Extinction 70 Alpha-Pi 72
Academics 106
Ambition, Side View 78
American Crow 57
Anticipation 8 F A Mysterious Landscape 107
An Affair Of The Heart 117
Anti-stills 9 , 17
Fine Art 6 , 13 , 46 , 58 , 103 An Appropriate Green 9 , 10
Art Gallery of Ontario 13
Freedom of Movement 8 A New Element 102
Artificial Lights 17
Free ebook 7 A New Perspective 148
Artistic Limit 7
Angled Yellow 124
B G An Offering 72
Another Storm 86
Gesture 83 , 91 Apian Way 129
Biological Mutations 118
Gestures 24 , 84 , 91 A Purple Haze 123
Botanical Drawings 5 , 63 , 93
Google Arts & Culture 106 A Red Apple 23
Botanical Tradition 93
Group f64 23 A Red Landscape 139
A Secret 83
C
H A Selective Green 97
A Serious Mark 159
Camera 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 13 , 15 , 17 , 23 ,
Hand-drawn Process 9 A Short Cut 80
24 , 27 , 43 , 53 , 57 , 63 , 82 , 85 ,
Hand-held Camera 6 A Significant Form 150
93 , 106 , 113 , 118
Historical Comedy 8 A Splatter Of Light 137
hand-held 6
History 13 A Splendid Landscape 160
164 To m Reaume
⁀
A Surge Of Yellow 91 Glissement 10 Nude Descending a Staircase, No.

A Surplus Of E 154 God Laughing 39 , 58 2 52
A Time of Pink 16 God Thinking 41 Obsessive Motion 11
At The Green Edge 73 Go In That Direction 122 Ocean Park No. 67 43
A Walk Along The Trail 92 Gravure Original 150 Once Upon A Time 163
Batismo de Jesus 127 Gray Landscape 64 One Gesture 82
Beauty Emerging From A Corner Green Along The Edge Of A Road Opening White 55
113 99 Perplexing Light 101
Before and After The Storm 86 Green Corners 94 PH-235 69
Between Rainbows 152 Green Landscape 138 PH-489 111
Beyond The Orchard 127 Guernica 53 PH-1074 107
Birth of Science, Death of Science Half-black Bumblebee 118 Píhuamo Valley 81
140 Han Shan Exit 93 Pintura 100
Black Cross, New Mexico 155 Happy Birthday 89 Poetic Green # 2 96
Black Through White 28 Homage to Bernd & Hilla Becher Ponte 108
Broadway and West 39th Street 47 Portrait Of God Spinning 40 , 53
133 Homage to Duchamp 52 Portrait Of The Artist 2
Broadway Boogie Woogie 1943, Piet Homage to Jeff Wall 44 Reclining 157
Mondrian 1872–1944 133 Homage to Motherwell 49 , 50 Red And Orange Streak 114
Brownian Motion 125 Homage to Rothko 46 Red and Tan 112
Canada Geese 24 Homage To The Futurists 48 Renegade Barcode 116
Civilization 145 Homage To The Snapshot 51 Right After Q 153
Cleavage 149 Homage to Turner 45 Right Before Dawn 68
Cloudburst 81 HP13-1113 42 Saint-Séverin No. 3 87
Come Closer 77 Image X 12 Scontro di situazioni n.4 58
Composition 146 Imagine This 54 Seated 37
Composition grise et rouge 43 Innovation # 1 110 Shows As He Goes 38
Consequential 32 Interrupted Landscape 65 Silent Yellow 114
Corruption In Rome 104 Julie Kent in Giselle 158 Small Worlds IV 122
Cretto G 1 141 Just For You 3 So Little Red 18
Dark is Outside 25 , 26 , 27 Le forze della curva 112 So Little Time, So Much Time 88
Dark Motion # 3 108 Light Dance # 1 161 Space Baby 14
Deep Into The Heart of Yellow 120 Light Dance # 2 141 Still Life With Yellow 90
Detio största, nr 3. Ynglingaåldern. Light Dance # 3 93 Street Light 130
Ur Grupp 4 43 Looking At Paris 111 Study of a Man’s Forearm 147
Dorsal Aspect 24 Madonna with Child 53 Superficie 290 108
Edge of Woman 151 March Of The Curators 36 Suprematism 91
Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 110 Milk 4 , 53 Tangled Light 121
49 Moonrise 29 The Beggar 69
Emily in the Greenhouse 13 Morning Mist 66 The Bewitched Mill 154
End of A Creative Day 79 Mostly White 20 The Fullness Of Summer 144
Evolution 134 Murillo, Gerardo 81 The Milkmaid 53
Extinction 70 My Brief Regret x 3 35 The Pleasure of 40º 84
First Vision After Death 128 My Three Previous Lives 136 The Portrait of Alessandro Manzoni
Folding Screen with Design of Nadar Elevating Photography to Art 64
Musashino Plain 101 13 The Realm of the Possible 162
For Many Reasons 5 Near The Entrance 34 The Second Volume 103
Friday Morning 61 Neon Nails 17 The Sublime X 155
Garage Door 57 New Leaves 8 The Unfolding 31
Genesis 67 Night Wing 59 The World According To Henry 146
Gesture # 44 76 Nocturnal Orbits 19 This Is Art 143
165 To m Reaume
⁀
Three x Two 56 Brooklyn 13 DaSilva, Vicki 23

Thursday Morning 60 of Modern Art 46 , 57 Daumier, Honoré 13
Tree 75 Tate Modern 57 , 113 de Almeida Júnior, José Ferraz 127
Two Blacks and White 117 Museums 4 , 6 , 38 , 57 , 113 de Castro, Willys 100
Two-stamened Sedge 93 Delaunay, Robert 14 , 87
Under The Arches 87 N Demeny, Georges 23
Untitled 78 , 113 Diao, David 10 , 104
Uphill # 1–4 100 Nature 4 , 5 , 7 , 8 , 16 , 58 , 63 , 70 , Diebenkorn, Richard 43
Upper Left 7 85 , 92 , 93 , 106 , 118 Dorfman, John 74
Vermelho cortando o branco 156 Night Habitat 9 Duchamp, Marcel 52
Vortice 148 Nude 52 Fisher, Andrew 15
Warm Rain I 43 Fisher, Morgan 23
Wealth of Nations 104 O Franke, Herbert 16
We Can Choose # 1–3 3 Galassi, Peter 85
Wednesday Morning 62 Opinions and Fashions 23 Glover, MIchael 58
Weeds 57 Other-worldly 85 God 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 53 , 58
White Over Red 17 Gravenhorst, Hein 16
Why Not? 135 P Grundberg, Andy 57
Wild Daisies 106 Harvey, Cig 13
Without Yellow There Is No God 42 Painting 8 , 13 , 14 , 23 , 46 , 52 , 58 , Haven, Kathleen 57
Wonder Woman 38 64 , 69 , 72 , 74 , 78 , 85 , 86 , 87 , Hayez, Francesco 64
Yellow Cleavage 119 100 , 107 , 112 , 113 , 130 , 141 , Jäger, Gottfried 16
Yellow Landscapes 1–8 156 148 , 156 Judah, Hettie 58
Your Undivided Attention 33 Paintings 84 Kandinsky, Wassily 14 , 74 , 122
… Karsh, Yousuf 38
Inspiration 5 , 43 █ PEOPLE Kelly, Ellsworth 117
In-the-box thinking 6 Koyama, Taisuke 15
Adams, Ansel 23 , 58 Krasner, Lee 86
L af Klint, Hilma 14 , 43 Kupka, František 14
Apicella, Olivier 14 Leibovitz, Annie 38
Lack of Awareness 53 Arbus, Diane 38 Lewis, Wyndham 57
Library of Congress 38 Bailey, Oscar 57 Louis, Morris 72
Lights 6 , 8 , 9 , 17 , 23 , 27 , 106 , Balla, Giacomo 130 , 148 Ludwig, Jens 63
117 Beaton, Cecil 16 Magritte, René 38
artificial 9 , 10 , 17 , 118 , 130 Bethke, Jennifer 130 Maine, Stephen 42
Los Angeles 17 Biles, Simone 63 Malevich, Kazimir 91
Lyrical Abstraction 43 Black, Robert 74 Marc, Franz 154
Boccioni, Umberto 147 Marden, Brice 93
M Bogdanova, Sofia 63 Marey, Étienne-Jules 23
Braque, Georges 150 Mavlian, Shoair 57
Machines 118 Burri, Alberto 141 Mayer, Grace 57
Memory 9 , 15 , 18 Burtynsky, Edward 13 Mead, Ray 20
Method 9 Callahan, Harry 57 Mondrian, Piet 57
Methodology 13 , 53 , 63 Capogrossi, Giuseppe 108 Morgan, Barbara 23
MoMA 4 , 57 , 85 , 127 , 130 Carus, Titus Lucretius 70 Motherwell, Robert 49 , 113
Movement 4 , 34 , 63 Claude, Georges 17 Murillo, Gerardo 81
Movements 6 , 9 , 23 , 31 , 53 , 63 , Coburn, Alvin L 23 Nowell, Iris 20
106 , 118 , 125 Costello, Diarmuid 15 Oiticica, Hélio 156
Museum 13 , 27 , 57 , 58 Coupland, Douglas 133 O’Keeffe, Georgia 114 , 155
American Museum of Natural Crali, Tullio 112 Parmentier, Michel 84
History 118 Curtis, Edward 38 Picasso, Pablo 23 , 53
166 To m Reaume
⁀
Poliakoff, Serge 43 artistic limit 7 transformation 18

Pollock, Jackson 57 at night 6 vortographs 23
Reaume, Tom 74 avant-garde 57 what is abstract? 15
Redford, Robert 106 captions 38 , 57 x-rays 9
Rexer, Lyle 14 community 6 , 8 , 13 , 23 , 70 Pictorialism 23
Rothko, Mark 46 complicated 16 Pixels 53 , 118
Round, Roy 158 confusion 43 characteristics 118
Rubin, Marty 23 creativity 43 Pretense of Abstraction 23
Ruby, Karine 63 democratic 23 Psychology 15
Rulkens, Paul 6 documentary 13 , 63 Pure Abstractions 9
Schamberg, Morton L 146 documentation 7
Schwabacher, Ethel 43 documents 13 , 85 R
Scott, Kristin 106 drones 14
Senise, Daniel 78 editing 63 Rich Detail 13
Sherman, Cindy 38 electronic devices 13
Siskind, Aaron 15 experimental 6 , 7 , 8 , 57 S
Stern, Rudi 17 fine art 6 , 13 , 46 , 58 , 103
Stieglitz, Alfred 13 , 23 Seeing 4 , 106
fragmenting 118
Still, Clyfford 69 , 107 , 111 Shape of Light 57 , 58 , 113
gesture 83
Stojković, Jelna 15 Snapshot Aesthetic 23
gestures 9 , 27 , 42 , 47 , 63 , 113 ,
Social Outsiders 53
Strand, Paul 13 , 57 117
Software 3
Szarkowski, John 127 Group f64 23
Thomas, Kristin Scott 106 habit 6
Truitt, Anne 59 history 4 , 5 , 13 , 15 , 17 , 23 , 57 ,
T
Turner, JMW 45 58 , 63 , 85 , 118
Tate Modern 57 , 113
unknown artist 53, 101 human psychology 15
Ted Talks 6
Vedova, Emilio 58 journals 53
Toronto 13 , 27
Vermeer, Johannes 53 layered 12
Transformation 18
Wall, Jeff 4 , 8 , 9 , 17 , 43 , 44 , 53 lens-based 6 , 7 , 13 , 16 , 20 , 23 ,
Weissmann, Franz 108 43 , 63 , 130 U
Welling, James 15 Lyrical Abstraction 43
Wiesing, Lambert 16 memory 9 , 15 , 18 Unknown Artist 53 , 101
Wonder Woman 38 opinions and fashions 23
Yesil, Nihal 15 photograms 9 , 57 V
Yeung, Sunny 23 Pictorialism 23
… portraits 38 Verbal Enhancement 85
Photograms 9 , 57 pretense 15 Viewfinder 6 , 9
pure abstract 5 , 7 Virginia Prize 13
█ PHOTOGRAPHY re-understood 63 Vortographs 23
richly-detailed 6 , 7 , 13 , 43 , 44 ,
35 mm negative 7 , 40 53 , 70 , 85 W
“abstract” 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 23 , scale 16
43 , 57 , 58 scruffy 111 Well-lit Darkness 130
aerial 13 seeing 106 What is abstract? 15
aerials 13 , 14 snapshot 9 , 23 , 53 , 115
aerial views 13 snapshot aesthetic 23 X
anti-still 3 , 27 , 43 , 63 , 114 still 3 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 9 , 13 , 14 , 15 ,
art 3 , 6 , 9 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 17 , 23 , 16 , 23 , 27 , 38 , 43 , 53 , 57 , 58 , X-rays 9
43 , 46 , 52 , 57 , 58 , 63 , 72 , 74 , 63 , 74 , 75 , 85 , 90 , 93 , 103 , 106 ,
85 , 92 , 93 , 103 , 106 , 112 , 113 , 111 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 118 , 127 Y
130 , 147 stylistic diversity 8 Youtube video 3
167 To m Reaume

Abstract Photography

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Pure Abstract Photography

2nd Edition 2020

© 2 0 2 0 (2 nd E d it ion) b y Mr. Tom Re au m e (b 1944)

R e se a rc h , te xt, la you t, a n d de sign

S o f twa re – I n De sign & Ph otosh op E le ments

F ro nt Cove r – J u st For You ( 2 0 0 6 )

B a ck Cove r – We Can Ch oose # 1 –3 (2007)

A 7-minute Youtube video on my ar t

D e dic a t e d t o my b rot he r Fra nk lin.

Uncomm on Ph otogr aph s f or t h e u n c o m m o n c o lle c t o r.

UNITED STATES Born – Windsor, ON, Canada, 1944

█ Botan i cal Drawings

Upper Lef t, 1985. – TR

Wh y P u re A b s t ractio n ? Human anticipation is quite powerful. We count

Metho d horns, screeching tires, homeless drug

Obsessive Mot ion, 2003. – TR

Hi sto r y by Cig Harvey, (Harper’s Magazine, May 2019,

3 Ar t i cl es so many types of “abstract” photography exist.

A Time of Pink, 2005. –TR

The strength of photography

White Over Red, 2014.

So Little Red, 2005.

Mostly White, 2007.

A Pre t en se of A b st r a c tio n his vortographs are not pure abstractions,

A ll photographic pictures are fake; some on historical photography, or “abstract”

From pure abstraction

Black Through White, 2004.

Along The Boulevar d, 1982.

The Unfolding, 1983.

Consequent ial, 2013.

Your Undivided Attent ion, 2012. – TR

Near The Entrance, 2013.

My Br ief Regret x 3, 2012. – TR

March Of The Curators, 1984.

I too enjoy creating portraits of cultural icons.

Shows As He Goes, c. 1905. Por trai t of a First

God Laughing, 2001. Is this

Por trait Of God Spinning, 1996.

God Thinking, 2002. – TR

Ethel Schwabacher, Serge Poliakof f, Hilma af Klint, Richard Diebenkorn,

Homage to Jef f Wall, 2004.

Homage to Turner (a seascape), 2012.

Homage to Rothko, 2002.

Homage to Ber nd & Hilla Becher, 2009.

Homage To The Futur ists, 1984. – TR

Homage to Mother well, 2005. – TR

Homage to Mother well, 1986. – TR

Homage To The Snapshot, 1986. – TR

Homage to Duchamp – Nude Ascending To Heaven, 1985. – TR

I can speculate trend-setting still

NOTE – The catalogue for the Shape of Light

I decided to test the temperature of the water

Almost Dawn, 1986. – TR

Thur sday Mor ning, 2008. – TR

Fr iday Mor ning, 2008. – TR

Wednesday Mor ning, 2008.

A n anti-still photograph is bor n from more

Gray Landscape, 2013.

Right Before Dawn, 2013. – TR

The Beggar, 2008.

This photograph, Exti n c ti on , (2008), was

An Offer ing, 2010. – TR

One of the interesting things