All posts filed under: reduced landscapes

My Jigsaw of Life’s pageant

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This morning when I woke, I was thinking about pictures – this is not unusual for me. I think about images a lot – and this morning I thought about what makes a good picture. I take pictures – not so many under Covid restrictions because I work mainly on the street – but how do I know it’s a good picture? Firstly, I suppose, you have to define what constitutes  a “good picture”, and as we are all different, then what makes a good picture to one does not to another; yes, it’s personal, as they say. There is no simple answer.

Boston 2018

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A picture taken in Boston, near to St Botolphs church, aka Boston Stump. This image was originally taken as part of a series  I was making about the meridian as it passes through Lincolnshire. However, it does have carryover to other series; for example the series on dumped furniture and another on reduced landscapes. The abstraction of what I saw appealed to me greatly. PDBarton November 2019

Reduced Landscapes:

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I’ve admired the work of the abstract expressionist artist, Mark Rothko for many years. His reduction of images to blocks of colour, mainly in the horizontal plane, appeals to me. The images are not complex; perhaps that’s the attraction. Though not specifically a landscape photographer I’ve produced many images in that genre. Most early pieces of my work are picturesque, over-sentimental, touristy pieces, but over the past 20 years, I’ve been attracted to stripping down the image, Rothko like, to bands or blocks of colour.