September Peer Critique Challenge: Abstract Body
- Aug 17
- 3 min read
Judge: Lori Pond
Photography has always been about more than recording what we see. Sometimes its greatest power lies in revealing what we don't immediately recognize. This month's Peer Critique Challenge invites you to explore that very idea with a deceptively simple theme: Abstract Body.
At first glance, photographing the human body as an abstraction may sound easy. After all, couldn't you simply photograph an arm or a hand and crop it tightly?
Not so fast.
Our September judge, Lori Pond, has issued a challenge that reaches far beyond clever cropping. Rather than prescribing a list of rules or visual formulas, Lori invites each photographer to discover a personal interpretation of the subject.
"Seeing the body as an abstraction can be an easy assignment... I am challenging image makers to come up with their own vision."
Those few words contain the heart of this challenge.
Abstract photography asks us to stop thinking about what something is and begin thinking about what it becomes. A shoulder may transform into a sweeping desert dune. The graceful curve of a spine may resemble an ocean wave. Fingers can become architectural forms. Shadows can erase identity while revealing emotion. Texture, light, shape, rhythm, repetition, and mystery become the language of the photograph.
The goal is not to document a person.
The goal is to create an image that makes viewers pause and ask, "What am I looking at?" before they realize it is the human body.
To spark your imagination, Lori recommends studying three legendary photographers whose approaches to the human form could not be more different.
Francesca Woodman explored the body with haunting poetry. Working almost exclusively before the age of twenty-two, she created dreamlike photographs filled with motion, blur, disappearance, and emotion. Her figures often seem to melt into their surroundings, leaving behind images that feel both fragile and timeless. Rather than photographing the body as an object, she transformed it into atmosphere and memory.
André Kertész, particularly in his celebrated Distortions series, embraced visual experimentation. Using funhouse mirrors, he stretched, compressed, twisted, and reimagined the human figure into surreal shapes that are at times elegant, humorous, unsettling, and astonishing. His work reminds us that abstraction can arise simply by changing the way reality is viewed.
Finally, Edward Weston approached the nude with extraordinary precision. Through careful lighting, exquisite composition, and intentional cropping, he transformed the human body into sculptural landscapes of curves, lines, and flowing forms. Many of his photographs omit faces entirely, encouraging viewers to appreciate the body as a composition of shape rather than identity.
Each artist demonstrates that there is no single path toward abstraction.
One relies on movement.
Another on distortion.
Another on simplicity.
Yet all arrive at images that encourage viewers to experience the familiar in completely unfamiliar ways.
As you begin creating your submission, consider asking yourself:
What happens if I eliminate every clue to scale?
Can shadows become the subject instead of the body?
How close can I move before the photograph becomes something entirely different?
What emotions can shape alone communicate?
Can light transform skin into stone, silk, water, or landscape?
This month's challenge is less about technical perfection and more about curiosity. It rewards experimentation, bold thinking, and the willingness to step outside conventional portraiture.
Meet Our Judge: Lori Pond
Los Angeles visual artist Lori Pond is widely recognized for photography and mixed media works that explore profound themes including life and death, good versus evil, the impermanence of existence, perception, and experimental photographic processes. Her lifelong passion for photography began with a Polaroid Land Camera while working on her junior high school newspaper and has evolved into a distinctive artistic voice influenced by photographers including Aline Smithson, JoAnn Callis, Richard Tuschman, Keith Carter, Lori Vrba, Dan Burkholder, and Joanne Dugan.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including the Griffin Museum of Photography, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Gallery 825, and numerous other respected galleries and institutions.
We encourage every member to spend a little time exploring Lori's remarkable portfolio before beginning this challenge. Her work beautifully demonstrates how photography can move beyond documentation and become visual storytelling, emotional exploration, and artistic discovery.
Visit Lori's website:https://loripond.com/
This promises to be one of our most thought-provoking challenges of the year. There are no right answers, only new ways of seeing. Push your imagination, embrace experimentation, and don't be afraid to surprise yourself.
Sometimes the most compelling photograph isn't the one that reveals the subject...
It's the one that invites the viewer to discover it.
Happy Shooting!
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