Finally, I am glad to announce the launch of my new book with the title Nature [‘Abstract]. The book has 88 pages, which means it contains the largest collection of my photos, yet.
The book can be ordered from here.
This was a project long time in the making. If you have followed this blog for a while, you might recognise some of the photographs and be familiar with some of the ideas expressed there. Still, there is quite a bit of recent and new material there.
The first working title of the book had been “Lost in Seeing”, which to me described well the process and mood that led to these pictures. I have described this in an earlier blog post. Since then, however, I though a lot (and yes, it hurts – don’t try it at home) about the phenomenon of “abstraction”. And now I think calling something “abstract” is not an observation but a judgement.
In the end it all boils down to how evolution has shaped our perception – and how we use language to describe the world we see. For me the “joy of seeing” always kicked in, when I could take a glimpse beyond these limitations. This, however, made the result in our terminology rather abstract, containing mere form, pattern and shade.
Behind this is another outlook on reality. But I don’t want to mystify this. It is in fact “energy” as a physical phenomenon that we see in this dimension. And while energy is a quite concrete part of reality we don’t see it directly. But energy is the driving factor (sorry for the cheap phrase) of all that is visible in the pictures in the book.
While I worked on the book, I had the chance to visit an exhibition of František Kupka’s work. There, somehow, many pieces fell into place for me as he played quite spectacularly with the depiction of energy and space.
Finally, we often connect “energy” with something forceful, even violent. Think of thunderstorms and flashes of light. But there is something quiet and peaceful emanating from the workings of energy in nature as well. And I hope the book will demonstrate this aspect of energy to you.