I superimpose the silhouetted woman walking her dog, along with a shadow of a palm tree, upon one of the many historic Art Deco structures in Miami Beach. There are almost a thousand historic buildings here, earning it a designation as a US Historic District. I abstract this image twice over in order to convey its mood and atmosphere. I only describe a small part of the building in the background – including just enough of it to define its design by stressing the shape of its windows and how they conform to the building’s curving corner. The yellow and green colors are very important to the scene as well – they symbolize the seemingly carefree atmosphere of this touristic destination. The silhouette and the shadow are important abstractions, in that they indicate the relaxed, tropical feel of the place, but do not describe the subjects themselves. I leave much to the imagination here, and that what abstraction is really all about.

Rather than make a postcard view of this picturesque castle, I moved my vantage point in order to place the sun behind its crenelated tower and exposing on its glowing edge to create an abstracted silhouette. I used a 24mm wideangle lens to include the spidery overhead tree branches and take advantage of the thin clouds. The resulting image allows the viewer’s own imagination to fill in the details. The Knights of Rhodes originally built the Palace in the 14th century. After this Greek island fell to the Ottomans it was used as a fortress. The Italians occupied Rhodes in 1912, and rebuilt the palace into its present grandiose medieval style as a summer residence for King Victor Emmanuel III and later for Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

This visitor seems to be patiently waiting for the day to end. I moved my vantage point in order to place his head between the leaves of an overhead tree, and backlight him with the reflected sunlight bouncing off the building in the background. The backlighting throws him into a silhouette, creating anonymity, and transforming him into a symbol of all who must wait.

I use back lighting to silhouette a woman on her way into the Scottsdale Library, gesturing forcefully as she carries on a cell phone conversation. I place the silhouetted figure against a setting of bold geometrical forms – the woman’s silhouetted fingers extend just below a concrete wall, and are echoed by the rectangular facing rising on the wall behind it, as well as the bowl-like shade on the lighting standard at the left edge of the frame. A black triangular shadow extends behind her, echoed in turn by another triangular shadow in the upper right hand corner. These triangular shadows reinforce the abstract thrust of the woman’s silhouette and carry its effect throughout the image.

As we departed from this Mogosoaia, seat of Wallachia’s government in the late 17th century, I turned around and looked back down the long entrance path towards the palace’s two story gate. There were two tourists on top of it it, one of them framed in an arch, having a conversation. I made a number of images as they talked, and prefer this one for its gesture. A bowed head and outstretched hand suggests deference, reasoning, and humility. The figures become symbolic because I abstracted them with backlighting, making them into silhouettes. The leaves from surrounding trees also become silhouetted, and blend into the scene. Meanwhile, the sun has gone down, leaving a pale peach colored glow in the sky as a background.

The tourists have gone home. Oatman is left to its few residents. One of them sits on the steps of its shuttered hotel, smoking a cigarette. I use my vantage point to abstract him, reducing him to a hand, leg, and foot. The hand falls into silhouette against the tattered yellow wall. On the window behind him are pictures of the town’s semi-wild burros, which wander the streets looking for handouts. A small poster warns against feeding carrots to baby burros – some have choked to death on them. Shortly after I made this image, the man tossed aside his cigarette and vanished, leaving the hotel to the famous ghosts reputed to stalk its halls.

This is one of several larger than life bronze sculptures created by Arizona sculptor John Henry Waddell in the 1970s. It reaches towards a tree in front of the Herberger Theatre. The entire group of sculptures is called “Dance,” yet this particular figure appears to be celebrating nature itself. It seems to be reaching into the huge branches just beyond reach. By exposing for the sky, I create abstract silhouettes of both the tree and the figure, allowing shape and gesture to speak instead of detail. (To see an image I made of another silhouetted figure in this statuary group in 2007, click on this link:

http://www.pbase.com/image/77956421 )

Raptors swirl around one of the many towers of this mosque, the largest in India. Its courtyard can hold 25,000 worshippers. I abstract this mosque by not only shooting only a small part of it, but also by silhouetting the subject I’ve chosen. To me, this single tower, festooned in lights and circled by birds of prey, expresses the feelings I had at the moment.

Fronting Albuquerque's historic Old Town Plaza is San Felipe de Neri Church, built in 1793. Shooting with the help of a setting sun illuminating the façade of the church, I waited until a man entered the fenced area at right. Using my spot meter, I exposed for the brightest part of the image, which turned all of the shadowed areas black, including the shape of the man. When the man was framed within the triangular portion of the composition, I made the picture. As a silhouette, the man is no longer a particular individual, but becomes instead a symbol of all who have come to this church over the centuries.

Shooting this spectacular sunset together proved to be a bonding experience for our group of photographers standing on the edge of a cliff looking over the New Mexico desert. Although the sunset was a lovely subject in itself, I thought that a shot stressing the photographic camaraderie at day’s end would make a more humane image. I hung back, and used spot metering to expose on the sun itself. This exposure deepened the color of sky and turned the photographers into a group silhouette. It abstracts them, removing their identity as individuals, yet it leaves each with a symbolic role to play in the image. The key figure is the man in the hat who gestures towards the sun, pulling all of us along into the image with him. It is he who brought them here, and in a sense, his gesture invites all viewers to join the group as well. The other three photographers support his gesture, each in their own way. The woman at left appears to be listening; the man next to her is working on his camera, while the fellow at far right is intent on shooting. They are a group of humans that have come together to witness and enjoy nature at its most beautiful moment. (Two other scenes from this evening at El Malpais follow.)

Alone on a precipice, this photographer seems overwhelmed by the natural spectacle before him. For once, the adjective "awesome" seemed utterly fitting. The emphasis here is on the sunset itself, while the silhouetted figure of the photographer gives it both context and a sense of scale incongruity. He becomes a symbol of man’s continuing efforts to somehow grasp the essence of nature, while in fact, we can only stand back and admire what it can do. This is just such a moment – for the tiny photographer out there on the edge, and for all of us.

They came from behind us, riding hard, seemingly from out of the past. They galloped into a blaze of color, and vanished around a curve in the dirt road. The late afternoon sun illuminates each rider in a different way. The woman is an example of rim-light – her hair seems to glow at the edges, as if she is on fire. She echoes the explosion of light coming from the brilliantly colored tree in the background. The man, along with his horse, is still in shadow. Because he is seen against the light, my exposure makes him into a silhouette. He is less defined and tries to catch up. But he can’t. I like the contrast between riders. It increases the power of juxtaposition: dark vs. light, ahead vs. behind, female vs. male, and all of it emerging from a cloud of dust, riding towards the beauty of the natural world.

I found this man having breakfast at a pancake house in the town of Farmington, New Mexico. It was a cold sunny morning, and its big windows were rich in golden condensation. For this customer, it seemed a place for dreams as much as a place for pancakes. Metering on the window, I was able to remove all detail from his face, creating a silhouette. By abstracting him in this way, we are less likely to think of what he may look like, and more likely to think about what might be going though his mind. His hand to chin gesture and the angle of his head suggest that he may be daydreaming at this moment. The faint vision of a building in the steamy window adds context for such dreams. And the golden color implies that his thoughts are perhaps more positive than negative.