Aaron Siskind is an American photographer who was first interested in studying English in New York City where he was born. It was 1933 when he decided to join a film and photography group in New York. Most of his work consisted of an abstract focus. When he first started this focus on abstraction, many outright said his work was useless and unprofessional which cause a protest on his work. He still continued to do abstraction and other artists, such as painters, reached out to him and he started to focus on it more. The painters said that they realized the space and specific arrangement of his photographs and his concentration to get the perfect shot. This motivation led to Siskind wining many awards for his photographs. "Siskind's work in the 1940s and 50s created a major force in the development of avant-garde in America." (1974 – 2021 International Center of Photography)
Avant-garde is new and unusual or experimental ideas, especially in the arts, or the people introducing them. This fits Siskind's work tremendously, mainly because abstraction in photography was not as big in the 1940s-1950s as it is today. Siskind created a new idea of photography and introduced it to the world. He took the negativity and pushed forward to become one of the most influential abstract photographers in America.
One of Siskind's photographs that really stood out to me was the one below:
I particularly like this photo because it gave me inspiration in some of the photos I took for my personal project final. I like this photo because the viewer has to really look and dive into it to figure out what the photo is. To me, I took this photo as paint chipping from a wall. I have a similar photograph for my final which is paint chipping off of a brick wall. I like his abstract photos because I really want the viewer to stop and figure out what it could be and the meaning behind it.
Another photo that Siskind took that is similar to one I have for my personal project is this one below:
This one is of a tree, but up close and black and white it might not look like that at first. I also took a photo of tree bark. Mine is very abstract just like Siskind's. I think abstraction in photography is one of the most interesting forms of photography. Depicting and understanding the true meaning behind a photo is what photography is and I think abstraction really helps push those limits when it comes to it.
Aaron Siskind's abstracted photography has influenced me to take the limits beyond his work. I took what he did with abstraction and created it with a twist. For my personal project I decided to create photos of natural things in life that were up close and abstracted. Instead of them being just black and white, I turned them into negatives and are creating them into cyanotypes. I think extending my knowledge and pushing the boundaries of what abstraction photography can be, I am taking black and white and transforming it into all blue.
I think my abstracted photos will transformed into a cyanotype will allow the viewer to dig deeper into the meaning of why I chose what I did to take a photo of and why I chose to make them blue. Siskind's photography has inspired me to create my own version of abstracted photography.
-Bronwen Lewis
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