Honorable Mention / 2017 / Book (series Only) / Fine Art

Book proposal "The Nothing That Is"

  • Photographer
    Richard Laurence Davidson, United States

I propose to publish a book of my abstract photos that are generated in
camera and without any digital manipulation. The book is entitled "The
Nothing That Is". The book contains abstract images derived primarily from
2 sources: old windows in my kitchen, and reflections off car surfaces.

The title refers to the creation of camera abstractions (refracted from old
windows in my kitchen) that are not photographs of any object that has a
concrete existence. They are generated solely in camera, without using any
digital program or manipulations whatsoever. I refer to this as
photographing "The Nothing That Is" (from Wallace Steven's 1921 poem
"The Snow Man").

The book also contains photographs of striking abstractions that I observe
as contorted reflections of buildings in car surfaces. These contorted
reflections arise because of the changes in surface planes in car surfaces.
As above, the images are not at all digitally manipulated.