A Beautiful Mistake
RHYTHMUS ABSTRACT PRINT COLLECTION by Martin Osner
Several years ago, I started playing around with abstract impressions using multiple exposures in-camera. I accidentally discovered this technique while shooting landscapes in the Swartberg Mountains [Watch video].
A few months later, I was in Ashton on a farm shooting for my Abandoned collection [Watch video], which I have since completed.
One morning the light was not ideal for outdoor photography, so I decided to walk around the farm to look for other opportunities. Just for fun, I decided to try and photograph a grove of trees using the same multiple exposure technique as I had used previously, but this time shooting straight into the sun.
To change things up a bit, I decided to use more exposures than before and include one out of focus exposure to soften the impression and a textured layer to pull everything together. I found the result to be captivating but impossible to repeat.
I spent the rest of the morning and most of the following day playing around with the technique, which finally yielded six compositions I was happy with.
Garry Winogrand, an American photographer, said, "I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed." It certainly comes across as an obscured statement, but in truth, this is the very appeal behind photography. Due to exposure, contrast, depth, distortion, compression, and colour, the photographic process delivers different results from reality.
Since being released, the Rhythmus collection has proved popular with interior decorators and designers. Art photography is a subjective medium, but I am continually reminded that experimentation and uncontrolled mistakes can sometimes yield the most exciting results.