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What is abstraction in photography?
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Costello, Diarmuid (2018) What is abstraction in photography? British Journal of Aesthetics, 58 (4). pp. 385-400. ayy037. doi:10.1093/aesthj/ayy037
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayy037
Abstract
There is confusion about what counts as abstraction in photography: art theorists class very different kinds of photographs as abstract, and common philosophical views of photography, if true, should cause us to doubt their very possibility. I address two questions here: ‘What is Abstraction?’ and ‘What is Abstraction in Photography?’ To the answer the second, I briefly consider a third: ‘What is Photography?’ so that the resulting account is not undermined by a poor theory of photography. In answer to my target question, I outline a schematic (and non-exhaustive) typology of kinds of work generically typed as ‘abstract’ in order to bring out some differences between them. I distinguish ‘proto’, ‘faux’, ‘constructed faux’, ‘weak’, ‘strong’, ‘constructed’ and ‘concrete’ abstraction, although the differences between them are not always clear-cut and there is room for debate about borderline cases. My goal is not to resolve all such cases, but to show: (i) that there is a range of broadly identifiable kinds of abstraction in photography; (ii) that images can be abstract in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons; and (iii) why certain images are not abstract, despite being widely typed as such.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BH Aesthetics T Technology > TR Photography |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Photography, Abstract , Abstraction | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | British Journal of Aesthetics | ||||||
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0007-0904 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 13 October 2018 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 58 | ||||||
| Number: | 4 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 385-400 | ||||||
| Article Number: | ayy037 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1093/aesthj/ayy037 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in British Journal of Aesthetics following peer review. The version of record Diarmuid Costello; What is Abstraction in Photography?, The British Journal of Aesthetics, , ayy037, is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayy037 i | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Copyright Holders: | OUP | ||||||
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