Roger Newton is an artist whose work clearly resonates with me, with his production of large non-representational abstract images and utilisation of pinhole cameras. He is well known for creating non-glass lenses to refract and reflect light to manipulate his images. Newton, in his artist statement, says that “by designing and fabricating my own lenses I can control the quality of the light collected, the size and shape of the image field, and the colors in the scene. This allows me to work more directly with fundamental problems in the processes of seeing and perception, and ultimately the ontological problems of the thing and or scene depicted” (Foundation for Contemporary Arts, n.d.)1
Roger Newton pushes back against the traditional photographic systems to explore the ‘looking’ and expand the question of representation. His work, an abstractness that pulls against the composition that leaves the viewer to make sense.
The properties of the components he uses have dramatic affect on the images directly. Non glass lenses made of oil or homemade film emulsion glued onto plywood. This photographer is a good example of the experimentation that abstract photographer can utilise to produce images.
This process would be further research to conduct in the abstract process. I do have reservations for my own practice as the simple chemistry is predominantly black and white which I have not explored in any great detail.
References
https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/1996/roger-newton/press-release
Figures
Roger Neton: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/roger-newton-1721-c-fe74dcd8c9
