Abstract Photography
Photography that emphasises form, colour, texture and pattern over the identification of its subject.
In depth
Because a camera necessarily records something that was in front of it, photographic abstraction works by removing context — extreme close-ups, unusual angles, deliberate blur, reflections — until the subject can no longer be named. The tension between recognisability and pure form is the genre's whole subject.
Examples in practice
A detail of peeling paint at close range reads as a colour field until its scale is disclosed.