Image Deconstruction: Diffuse Landscapes in Photography

Impressionistic Landscapes - Images by Aaron Fahrmann

A recent photography project under development is my impressionistic landscape imagery. These images are photographic deconstructions of landscapes created to break images down to their basest patches of light, shadow, and color. While technically not an art-science project, I had considered shooting this type of imagery for a many years, but only recently embraced it. I needed to build a sufficient library of traditionally-made imagery before I could confidently make this change. It has been liberating.

These images are distinctly disadvantaged in the online and electronic world—they suggest no distinct place, no product, no activity, not even defined landscapes. These images actually look much better printed on paper than they do online—an uncommon and welcomed trait for this project indeed. The locations are ambiguous and could exist anywhere. They tap into anyone’s memories of virtually any landscape within the same visual language subset. They pick at our basic recognition of shape and color combinations but also contain subtlety of form to create their mutable reality.

It is this expressly non-digital feel, and non-traditional use of the camera that is so attractive to me in this age where the general public expects the camera to face-detect, autofocus, expose, color enhance, and correct their photos. My images oppose the expected results provided by technological crutches.

While there is an indication of subject matter, there aren’t areas of sharp definable spaces beyond the impression of transitions between color areas. I use digital technology, but the basis of the final product is visually non-digital, non-commercial, non-stock, non camera-enabled.

I started to call these impressionistic landscapes, but in reality, they are the diffusion of landscapes into component colors, shades, and tonalities. The images emphasize the importance of composition in photography. The camera becomes, once again, a tool for artistry, rather than just a crutch for the masses to use in surveillance, online auction sales, social networking, “citizen journalism,” or stock imagery.

While it sounds like I am a Luddite, I am actually the opposite. I sell stock imagery, have an online presence, and have several blogs. I use image editing technology, scanners, digital asset management programs, and digital camera technology. I feel, however, that the reflection on, and the exploration of progress requires a nostalgia for the artistry it originally supported. This type of grounding experience can provide necessary real-world footholds for transitions in thought creation and better use of existing technologies. It is a means of exposing what is really important and useful in technology in opposition to that which creates false confidences and uncommon results. This project both embraces the imaging technology and simultaneously deconstructs the intent and commonly embraced visual language of the imagery. If nothing else, I hope you enjoy it as a departure from the daily bombardment of traditionally created online imagery.