My students will vouch for me... I LOVE the work of Minor White. I am completely obsessed with one of his photographs taken in 1959. I first saw it about 20 plus years ago. I'm drawn to the image because it seems like so many objects to me at the same time. I spent years knowing it was algae on a rock, but wishing it was really the side of an elephant. At this time Minor White's work closely paralleled the work of the abstract expressionistic painters like Jackson Polluck. The literal subject matter is irrelevant. There is no reference to scale or local. In abstraction, the image should not refer to the real world and if it does the subject matter should be difficult to decipher.
For the last two decades, I have taken likely thousands of images of rocks trying to recreate something close to White's 1959 photograph. The image was taken on the Oregon Coast and sadly enough I drove right past Shore Acres State Park this past August and had no idea I was so close. Just this last Friday at Leo Carillo Tide Pools in California I believe I got fairly close. The image is not nearly as interesting as White's but at least I am no embarrassed to exhibit it. I realized that the deep crevices in the rock are key. The crevices make a hard inanimate object look more fluid and flexible like fabric or skin.
Minor White
Nice entry Wendy. I'm enjoying your blog. If you like texture, go to the Big Island. A'a and pahoehoe is an environment perfect for abstraction.
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