Abstracting with light: when less becomes more: find the hidden details of your subject and let them speak to the viewer.

The word photography comes from the Greek words for "light" and "writing." When I use light to express ideas in my photographs, I look for ways to make my subject more abstract, showing less of it, to force the viewer's imagination to fill in the details. If my pictures can prod my viewers to mentally create their own image on top of mine, I stand a better chance of expressing an idea to them.

In my first example (right), I use light to abstract an enormous bronze sculpture of a horse's head on a sidewalk in the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico. My goal was not to just describe the appearance of the subject--I wanted to express its beauty and power as a work of sculpture. I made this image in the early morning, when the interplay of light and shadow and the golden color of the light combined to help me interpret the bronze head as glittering metal. Using a long telephoto lens to narrow the zone of focus, and spot metering the subject to expose the highlights along the side of the horse's face, I bring out the facial muscles and arteries, as well as the detail on the bridle, to convey a sense of power. The bared teeth, a huge nostril and a glaring eye are all in deep shadow. They are there but not there, a tease for the viewer's imagination.

Tim May, a photographic artist living in Petaluma, California, made the second example (opposite, top left). He calls it "Goin' Home." He uses light to capture the strength and pride of a hardworking person without even showing him. May does so by using abstraction in an incongruous way: a shadow walking within a wall. The posture of the man carrying a large ladder on his shoulder is upright and strong, and is echoed by the three windows that surround him. The ladder also finds an echo in the horizontal tile roof that forms the top of the image. The brilliant yellow, intensified by the strong evening light, provides a stunning backdrop.

I shot the third example (opposite, top right) on a dock in Manta, Ecuador. I abstracted a fisherman with light and shadow to turn a mundane task into a powerful image. Backlighting makes this fisherman a symbolic figure, instead of describing his identity. The net creates a diagonal thrust, moving from the lower left-hand corner of the picture into his hands. The hoist behind him is tilted at the same diagonal angle, creating a rhythmic, repetitive flow of line that holds this picture together. In between, we see the shining tails of abstracted fish, giving context and meaning to the picture. My low vantage point highlights his abstracted body against the evening sky, leaving much to the imagination of the viewer.

I shot the final example (right) in a primitive room once occupied by a Chilean nitrate miner, a place abandoned to the dusty, heated winds of the Atacama Desert for more than 40 years. Its wooden walls are covered with graffiti, and there is not much left that speaks of either the man or the miner. I used light as abstraction here to make an image that asks questions rather than provides answers. Using my spot meter, I expose the brilliantly illuminated dirt floor at the base of the old wooden door. Everything in the shadows becomes dark, the graffiti disappears, and the image is reduced to a series of geometric shapes. Light seeps through the slats of the wooden wall, and a warming sun drenches the doorway and the worn paint on the old wooden door. These elements create a relationship in light and space that asks us to wonder about those who once actually lived in what has now become a ghost town. This haunted image asks viewers to slip back in time, and share this room with those who have long since faded into history.

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Send photos for possible use in this column to The Douglis Visual Workshops, 2505 E. Carol Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85028 USA.

Philip N. Douglis, ABC, directs The Douglis Visual Workshops, now in its 35th year of training communicators in visual literacy. Douglis, an IABC Fellow, is the most widely known consultant on editorial photography for organizations. He offers his comprehensive six-person "Communicating with Pictures" workshops every May and October in Oak Creek Canyon, near Sedona, Arizona. For registration information, call +1 602.493.6709 or e-mail [e-mail].

You can view Douglis' multi-gallery cyberbook on expressive digital travel photography at www.pbase.com/pndl.