Psychoanalytic Analysis of Empty Space in Abstract Photography Based on Potential Space (Case Study: Uta Barth)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Master Student of Art Research, Department of Islamic Art and Research Art, Faculty of Art, Ferdows Higher Education Institute, Mashhad, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Dramatic Literature, Faculty of Art, Ferdows Institute of Higher Education, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Master of Photography, Department of Photography, Faculty of Visual Arts, University of Art, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Abstract art flourished as an essential part of modern art and significantly impacted artists' works in various fields, leading to the emergence of multiple pieces. Although these works differ in appearance in different media, the aesthetic features of abstract art can be seen in all of them. But at first, the relationship between photography and abstraction was paradoxical. Because the photograph, as a representation of the real world, always had a reference to material value. With the advent of modernism in photography, abstraction especially entered art. Abstraction in photography manifested itself in abstract forms, and in the first decades of photographic modernism flourished. This research will focus on the Empty Space in these images to analyze abstract photography. The studied perspective is a psychoanalytic analysis of the subject to achieve this. In this research, the psychological aspects of abstract images are addressed, and in this context, the relationship between abstract photography and the world within the artist will be determined. To explain this relationship, many concepts such as Empty space and potential space, abstraction in photography, and especially space in the image need to be explained. Next, the research will use the psychoanalytic concept of potential space to move to the psychoanalytic study of abstract photography to provide a model for reading abstract images. Finally, the research uses the connection between abstraction, psychoanalysis, and photography to seek the concept of Empty space in abstract photography with a psychoanalytic reading. The work of the contemporary German photographer Uta Barth will be examined as a research sample. Uta Barth's focus and study are on translating photographic perception into human perception. Barth often chooses specific and unknown subjects for photography that bear little resemblance to the real world; Such as the deformation of white curtains in the rays of sunlight or a negative image of things. These themes are abstract and distorted in his works. Accordingly, selecting this photographer as a research case will help study the concept of Empty space in abstract photography from a psychoanalytic perspective. The present research is descriptive-analytical, and the method of collecting information is the library method, and in the analysis, a qualitative approach is used. Also, to achieve theoretical foundations based on psychological theories, a psychoanalytic reading system of the image is explained. Then, the theoretical framework is mounted on a research case, and the works of Uta Barth are analyzed as an example. This study shows that the space in Uta Barth's works is the same urban and interior landscapes that have a psychological effect on him; therefore, he encounters them. In them, he expresses his subconscious fantasies and desires by internalizing them; he enters them in the form of visualization. And strives to achieve integration with them. It can be said that Bart's work, like that of Winnicott, is an actual play. It starts with his performance with the space around him, the real world, and turns into a game between the iconic aspects and the photographic index.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Fine Arts: Visual Arts
Volume 27, Issue 4
November 2022
Pages 5-18

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