Spotlighting work that aims to do more than capture a moment in time, The Edge of Vision exhibition at the Louisiana Arts and Sciences Museum offers a rare glimpse into the world of abstract photography.

The exhibition opened two weeks ago and runs until April 14. The artwork featured in the exhibit includes various photographic media such as still images, videos and installations by 20 different international artists.

The exhibition’s purported goal is the exploration of the possibilities that abstract photography offers, leading viewers to discover “metaphoric suggestiveness, psychological engagement and optical possibility,” according to a news release.

Exhibition curator Lyle Rexer said he hopes the pieces in the exhibition change the way people think about photography, both abstract and traditional.

“The kinds of references that we usually cling to in photography are, for the most part, absent here,” Rexer said.  

Kristine Thompson, University assistant professor of photography, said abstract photography “allows us the chance to rethink our assumptions about what photography is and how photographs are made.”

Thompson will be leading a walk-through of the exhibition Feb. 28 as part of LASM’s Art After Hours event. She will provide insight into many of the pieces and discuss the history of abstraction in photography as well as the different processes artists have used since the inception of the medium.

“The work in the show takes the most fundamental aspects of how photography works, light and time, and explores that in a variety of ways,” she said.

Thompson explained abstract art does not aim to depict subjects in a recognizable way, but instead offers a “chance to look at an image without the specific associations we have with something familiar.”

“With the abstract image, there isn’t something more recognizable to latch onto for meaning or understanding,” she said.

These abstractions, according to Thompson, “require viewers to slow down and perhaps work harder to understand what they’re seeing and how it was created.”

Some of the artists featured in the exhibition employ cameraless processes such as using photographic paper to record the effect of light. Thompson explained that the process allows artists to record the condition of light in a particular time and place.

“The work in the show takes the most fundamental aspects of how photography works, light and time, and explores that in a variety of ways.”
Where: Louisiana Arts and Sciences Museum, 100 River Road Street 70802
When: Now through April 14
How Much: Free with Student ID, $7.25 without