I have mentioned that I have been working on what I have been calling the Photominimalism Project and today I have put up a Photominimalism Gallery highlighting a first set of photographs from this project.  These are images of strands of seaweed, drenched, wet, or dry taken on the beaches of Kennebunkport, ME in May may also be found at the bottom of this page.

Minimalism as a form in both music and visual art describes work that sets out to strip the subject of non-essential forms, features, and concepts thereby exposing its essential identity. As an artistic movement it evolved in the mid-twentieth century and is strongly associated with prominent artists including: Ad Reinhardt, Tony Smith, Donald Judd, John McCracken, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Larry Bell, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella. My son taught me to appreciate this kind of art, given me the gift of his love of this body of work.  And I must say that there is something very exhilarating at encountering  the quintessence of a subject.

A couple of years ago, I walked among the flotsam at tides edge at the beach and I was struck by the minimalist nature of little strands of seaweed perhaps joined perhaps with a shell in the sand.  It reminded me so much of minimalist work.  Of course, I do break the rules here.  Not every image is stripped of detail.  Indeed, some of my subjects revert back to a love of fine detail, like a photograph by Edward Weston.  But I am not going to apologize for that.  Each image stands on its own merit, either is appealing or is not. Such is always the case.

Finally, I should point out that I use the term photominimalism in the concept of minimalist art.  More often the term “photominimalism” refers to a technique in artistic photograph where “more is better. An example would be my recent image of a weathervane.  The subject is essentially enveloped by an expanse of blue sky.  But that was not my purpose here.  My purpose was to delight in very simple things, as if the seaweeds lying in the sand were a form of writing or a graphic in the sand.  They have no more meaning than that, and I hope that you will enjoy them.

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