I propose and exploration of abstraction of form by the use of light and water during rainy days, mimicking the vision of those who lost visibility. The basis of this project and its main inspiration was my vision without my glasses. I am near-sighted, which means that objects near me are visible but objects that are far away becomes blurry. I can see the general shape of an object, person or place but it’s outline adopts a blurry edge rather than a clear edge.

I wanted to replicate that effect in photography but many of my initial idea landed on blurry images which leaves out part of the aspect I wanted to replicate. I wanted and aspect that was clear in the foreground and another that was not in the background. While driving to Stony Brook I could see the water droplet crystal clear but the background was warped I particularly focused on light because this effect was strongest in the Street lamps.

I took pictures from the front window of my car in certain spots around Longwood that utilized materials that emitted light and turned off the wiper, allowing the windshield to collect water droplets and for those water droplets to move downward.

Hence it inspired the pictures for Project 2: Message/Abstraction. I liked the abstraction of light. Additionally it evokes a sense of emotion, a sense of melancholy and sadness because of water association with tears and of joy or hope because of the light. It was an interesting dichotomy that I felt when I viewed these pictures. Beyond wanting to evoking a sense of pathos in my audience I found the sense of pattern created by the water was visually interesting to me. No image is exactly the same due to the water droplets being in constant motion.

Some references and inspiration was from Dada artist, André Kertész Martinique January 1, 1972. In particular the left part in which a figure is pictured through a frosted window. It evokes an idea of what I wanted.

Photos I used as reference points:

Photo by Steve Gilchrist.

Photo by Burst.

Photo by Thijs van der Weide.