As some of you know, one of my main offline pursuits is semi-abstract photography. I finally got my Jellyfish off to their first show, and now I'm starting to think about moving forward with some other things. Architecture was where some of my earliest abstract work was done, and also what I'm thinking about most now.

^{Montreal Botanical Garden, 2011}

One of the things I really like about abstract photography, particularly in architecture, is the ability to add realistic character to the negative space. This white wall is not quite a white field. The little stains below the window break the illusion of isolation just enough to make clear that what you're seeing is not just a window injected into a frame via the rule of thirds, but a window upon a blank white wall. The negative space is strong but also tangible.

^{Harriet Island, St. Paul, 2015}

Similarly, the varied textures of the stone here make this something more than a simple collection of shapes, as do the imperfections breaking the lines on the top and the top-left. This is what I'm looking for, and what makes it as photography more interesting to me than purely compositional abstract forms like painting or collage. There's an aspect of external entropy, coming from some force other than me, that lends a feeling of existing in real space to the work even though it is still very much focused on form.

^{St. Paul, December 2014}

Sometimes that organic element is more foregrounded, as here with the shadow of the tree impinging on abstract forms of the architecture. The topical contrast lends a certain frisson to the image: do you see the tree first, or the architecture first? Do you have to move back and forth between your perception of them, or can you integrate them into a meaningful whole? Where the red window subtly tricks you into perceiving the wall, here the tree is in some ways in active conflict with it.

^{Silverwood Park, St. Anthony, Minnesota, 2017}

And then sometimes the entropy itself is foregrounded and becomes the subject. These shapes would not have been of particular interest when they were first produced, but the effects of time and weather have turned them into something with a certain amount of power.

^{St. Paul Union Station, 2014}

Another way to accomplish this is by establishing and breaking a pattern, as in the photos above and below. This is a useful effect to draw attention in all sorts of photography, and as you can see these are closer to traditional architectural work than the abstracts above.

^{Quebec City, 2014}

Perfection is all well and good, but one of the things photography is very good for in abstract work is the organic and harmonious imperfection that draws attention to the perfect parts of the form. This is hard to accomplish from imagination, but in observation often the processes of the real world have accomplished it for us.

^{Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, 2017}