Each year, I wait enthusiastically for the Outdoor Photographer Landscape Masters issue to arrive. The Grand Masters of Landscape Photography - Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Elliot Porter – provided the classic images of landscape photography for a generation of photographers. Building on their legacy, the images of contemporary landscape photographers - Jack Dykinga, David Meunch, Tom Till, James Kay, Freeman Patterson and Carr Clifton - inspire me to try new perspectives and techniques to improve and expand upon my own creative processes.
However, these are not the only Grand Masters that have influenced how I see the landscape and create images. As a student of art, I have been inspired by the works of Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollack, Wassily Kandinsky, Claude Monet and other artists. I have drawn from their work ways of seeing the world that I can bring to my photographic image making. These Grand Masters used line, color, contrast, texture, and new perspectives to offer visions of the world that broke from realist and representational art forms.
In the first example, I have drawn upon the work of Georgia O’Keeffe to look at the sensuous forms of flowers from a macro perspective. O’Keeffe expressed her artistic vision and feelings through harmonious arrangements of line and color. She synthesized abstraction and realism to transform her subject matter into powerful abstract art forms. Her contoured forms suggest subtle transitions of color and texture.
I often use a macro lens to discover patterns in the petals of wildflowers. I sometimes blur the focus of my lens to call attention to the symmetry and gentle patterns found inside these flowers.
Wassily Kandinsky, one of the first artists to be associated with abstract art, did away with traditional notions of subject matter, moving beyond representational art forms. He used colors and shapes to produce a psychological effect through his paintings. I enjoy photographic images that contain subject matter that is not readily identifiable. In this next image, I used the reflections of a clear blue sky to add dramatic effect to an ice on a small stream in Southwestern Colorado.
Jackson Pollack used “action painting” techniques, for example spilling and splashing paint to create his masterpieces. His artistic style forced the viewer to consider not only the image but the process that led to final painting. His style was raw, requiring the viewer to consider his ideas directly rather than through recognizable subject matter. I have long been fascinated by lichens and how they often remind me of Pollack’s work. The lichens shapes and forms on rocks throughout the Southwest deserts have an abstract quality that I try to capture in my images.
Another artist that has continued to inspire me is Claude Monet. His paintings of water lilies and his backyard gardens set the foundation for the Impressionist movement. I was particularly moved by the reflections he painted from his garden pond. This image was taken in autumn to accent the fall colors in a still backyard pond.
Additionally, I used a soft focus to capture the muted tones of these gold poppies in the desert southwest. Reminiscent of Monet’s work, I tried to follow the Impressionist movements philosophy of expressing one’s perception before nature.
Another artist who’s work influenced, not only how I created images, but what subjects I photographed, was Thomas Moran. Moran went along with John Wesley Powell on his expeditions down the Colorado River through Grand Canyon. His painting Chasm of the Colorado is a powerful image that inspired my work along the North Rim. I waited many days for a summer storm to create the image featured here.
Thomas Hill, and other American artists, have influenced my vision of Eastern US Landscapes. This image of a farm and countryside in southern Vermont typifies Hill’s artistic style.
Another of Hill’s famous images is of Vernal Falls in Yosemite. His images, and of course those of Ansel Adams, drew me to this photographic wonderland.
Barnett Newman’s abstract art inspired me to simplify my photographs to basic elements of design, including line, dot, shape and texture. This image of a crack in the sandstone in Zion National Park, features a simple line much like Newman’s Onement 1.
I am constantly working to expand my perspectives and add new dimensions to my creative processes and photographic vision. I have been inspired by famous landscape photographers and painters alike. I include classic images from painters and graphic designers in my notebook to help me find new ways of looking at subject matter when I am in the field. New ways of looking at nature often leads to new ways of envisioning my photography.
Dr. Frank Serafini
www.backcountryimages.com
