STRANGE BEAUTY
Abstract Essentialist Portraits
STRANGE BEAUTY Abstract Essentialist Portraits By Jay Gard
© 2017
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Two Girls & a Boy
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Contents Foreword 4 Girls 8 Guys 80
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Foreword ‘Visually striking’ ‘Humorous and instantly pleasing to the eye’ ‘An art form anyone can enjoy and one in which anyone can participate creatively’ ‘Simplistic, superficial and completely lacking in skill or talent’ ‘Naïve, certainly, but not without a certain charm’ ‘An insult to any sense of aesthetic appreciation and a slap in the face of the genuinely talented photographer or artist’ ‘Blatant plagiarism’ ‘Utterly devoid of any originality’ ‘The effect of a display in a serious gallery with large scale prints would be nothing short of incredible’
Opinions will certainly differ over the artistic merit of abstract essentialist portraiture.
In a sense its weaknesses are part of its strength. You don’t need expensive equipment or processing software – you don’t even need a camera as you can easily use other people’s images (preferably with their consent, but it’s not essential) It is a truly democratic art form. Indeed it owes its origin partly as a reaction to the over technical but emotionally sterile portraiture that is the output of many professionals. The fact that you can use the most basic camera and free software and don’t even have to take your own pictures is the ultimate nose thumbing to anyone who thinks that any camera costing less than $1000 is beneath their dignity. It is punk to serious photography’s prog rock. 4
It is thought that the principle of abstract essentialism was first applied to a portrait as a result of seeing that a genre of ‘portraits without people’ had attracted some attention among more arty photographers. Abstraction more or less removed the person from the portrait. The technique was soon being used with landscapes and some critics believe that it is at its most effective in capturing the ‘essence’ of a time or place rather than of a person as the abstraction process can be too random or extreme to reflect the character of the individual subject. In landscape the principle of abstract essentialism is that by removing unnecessary detail and reducing an image to its essentials in the form of more or less abstract patterns something of the atmosphere of a time or place can be captured more vividly than in a traditional photograph. With portraiture the ultimate aim can be similar – to capture the essence of the person in an abstract form – but in practice it seems to be much harder to achieve with human subjects than with natural scenes and it is evident that in many works the real aim is purely the creation of a visually pleasing effect. Certainly with portraiture if the editing is sufficiently extreme little or nothing of the person remains – the abstraction has totally depersonalised them. Others have denied that abstraction necessarily destroys essence and point to the portrait series of swimmers in Strange Beauty 3 Aquatics where the physical body dissolves into splashes of water, in a way that seems utterly appropriate to the subjects’ identity. Similarly the portrayals of Lady Luck and the Young Lady with Death seem to capture precisely something of the essential nature of the subject. Beauty can be dangerous as well as alluring – by removing all hint of what should not be seen the otherwise forbidden can be safely enjoyed and appreciated. For the would-be glamour photographer the complete or almost complete abstraction of the model means that (virtually) everything is left to the imagination and thus any chance of offending the prudish is avoided. Whether this is an advantage or a disadvantage will depend on the on the viewing public and to a large extent on the model.
‘Anyone can take a bad photo. Anyone can make a great photo. No scene is too dull, no person too unattractive that they cannot be turned into a striking image with the simplest of techniques.’ (Jay Gard)
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While abstraction can certainly make the plain beautiful does it not also render the beautiful plain? Is it therefore only legitimate as a technique for making a silk purse out of a photographic sow’s ear, is that not to some extent its raison d’être? Abstraction robs the image of all its important detail – the details that are so crucial to individual identity but also to aesthetic appeal: the winsome smile or surly frown, the wrinkles of age and the smooth skin of youth, fine hairs, delicate hands, muscular physique, blemishes and distinguishing features, three-dimensionality, even gender – all are flattened out by abstraction. Does this rob a portrait of its real value? Perhaps it does but the original still exists to be enjoyed and appreciated and something new and beautiful in a different way has been added. It may be less beautiful than the original but it has still added to the sum total of beauty in the world so there is no cause to complain. Besides, is emotion often not stirred more by a hint, a mere suggestion than by the explicit or the obvious?
As to the degree of skill or artistic ability involved here too opinions diverge. Technically no skill is involved and the use of software means that there is a fundamental element of randomness but surely some element of aesthetic judgement is involved in deciding when to accept the result which the software throws up, when to adjust the settings and how to adjust the colours and contrast to produce the most pleasing, most appropriate or most atmospheric effect. In some cases several versions of the same original are presented – in a sort of Monet-esque attempt to capture the subject, not in different lights, but in different degrees of abstraction or with a different balance of colour. Generally the process works best with large areas of plain contrasting colour – small detail does not usually produce a pleasing effect, though there are exceptions; skin tones, expressive faces, plain backgrounds, bright clothing and strong lighting are evident in many of the images in this collection but there are also plenty where these rules do not apply and often the exceptions produce particularly interesting results. Several styles of abstract expressionism but only one is represented in the Strange Beauty. Perhaps a future volume will explore the potential of some of the others.
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Are these images purely superficial and aesthetic without deeper meaning of any sort? Clearly not. A number of different meanings can be read into these works. Most of all, surely, they encapsulate the often wholly random nature of existence and of beauty – though perhaps the randomness is only apparent as beneath the random image is a nonrandom original. Again an obvious reading is that in these pictures we see the dissolution of beauty, of personality, even of existence itself. When we look at a beautiful scene, a beautiful object or a beautiful person too long and too intently the beauty seems to disappear. The Buddhists use the illustration of the chariot to prove the truth of their doctrine of non-existence; take the chariot apart and nothing is left, no one piece is the chariot, the chariot does not exist. Multiple images, multiple personalities: who is just one simple person? We are all pluralities, truth is plural, beauty is plural – one version of something is never enough to capture its essence. But is the symbolism the same in every case – simply more or less appropriate for each image? Is there any room for symbolism in a process of radical abstraction? There is colour, but perhaps in this respect the critics are right. Is it therefore a relentlessly depressing message? Does the vibrant colour and humour belie a dark reality? We know that beauty fades as also does life and may well ask what then is left of them but we also know that youth is not the only kind of beauty and can hope that this is not the only life, that the dissolution of the body is followed by the resurrection of something finer and more glorious. Beauty dissolves into something else – something strange but beautiful in its own rather different way. That seems to be a message of hope rather than of despair.
Most of the images in this collection are the work of Jay Gard, a selfproclaimed pioneer of the style. They are designed to please; no offence to any person living or dead is intended and it is hoped that no breach of any copyright has been committed. Judge their merit for yourself.
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Girls
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Girl with white skin
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Girl in Evening Light
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Girl in a White Shirt
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African Lady
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Young Lady
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Girl in Middlesbrough
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Young Lady in White and Blue
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Girl in a Black Dress
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Girl in Trainers
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Girl in a Yellow Bikini
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Girl with Graffiti
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Young Lady in Period Dress
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Lady Luck
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Girl in a Black Cloak
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Wood Witch
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Goddess of the Earth
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Young Lady with Death
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Girl with Long Hair
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Girl with Long Brown Hair
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Girl Taking a Selfie
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Woman in White and Red
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Woman in White
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Mad Woman in White
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Woman in White and Pink
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Lady with Red Lipstick
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Lady on a Couch
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Lady with Dark Hair
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Lady with Golden Hair
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Lady with Long Gold Hair
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Young Lady in a Bedroom
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Lady with Ivory Skin
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Mermaid
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Girl with Trees
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Girl in Blue Jeans
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Girl in a White Bikin
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Guys
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Youth in Purple
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African Youth
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Boy in a Shadow
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Boy in a Shadow (2)
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Boy in a Shadow (3)
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Boy in a Shadow (4)
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Man in the Snow
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Goth
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Man in Red and White
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Man in Red, White and Black
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Man in a Woods
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Man in Brown and Purple
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Man with Two Heads in Brown
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Man with Two Mouths
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Man with a Red Body
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Sikh Gentleman
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Man in a Green Shirt
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Tribal Youth
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Youth Taking a Selfie
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Youth Taking a Selfie (2)
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Young Man with Red Hair
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Man Taking a Selfie in a Mirror
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Selfie with Flash
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Selfie with Flash (2)
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Young Man in Bed
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Young Man in Bed (2)
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Young Man in a White Shirt
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Youth in Blue Jeans
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Youth in Blue Jeans (2)
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Man in Jeans
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Man in White Shorts
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Young Man in the Dark
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Young Man in the Dark (2)
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Man in Bed
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Man in a Red and Grey Shirt
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Youth by a Wall
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Young Man by the Sea
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Youth Taking a Selfie
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Youth with Dark Hair
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Boy Listening to Music
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Man in Red and Pink
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Young Man in Black
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Man in Blue and Pink
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Man in a Black Shirt
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Man in a Bedroom
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Man in a Blue Shirt
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Man in a Light Blue Shirt
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Man in a White Shirt
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Portrait in Gold and Red
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Selfie in Gold and Red
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Portrait of a Man
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Portrait of a Man (2)
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Portrait of a Man (3)
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Harlequin
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Man on a Bed (Red)
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Man on a Bed (Yellow)
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Man on a Bed (Orange)
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Man on a Bed (Green)
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Man Taking a Selfie (Blue)
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Man Taking a Selfie (Orange)
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Youth in Blue, Pink and Grey
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Young Man in a Grey Jumper
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Two Youths
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Portrait of a Man in Green, Pink and Blue
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Man with Pink Skin
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Strange Beauty
Abstract Essentialist Portraits
$25
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