VISIONISSUE 14

by Vision Explorers

VISIONWelcome to

Ursula Abresch paints with light, color and motion. In her impressionistic

images she tries to capture not just what she sees, but the entire

experience of the moment: thoughts, sounds, smells and touch. Ursula’s

work is probably unlike anything else you have seen, and we are happy to

feature her in this first issue of VISION in 2015.

Joel, Sharon, Armand and Daniel

The Vision Explorers Team

2

CALIFORNIA CALLING

Image: Silk & Steel by Steve-Maxx Landeros

VISION EXPLORERS

Coming 2016

4

MOVING COLORby Ursula Abresch

5

I love colour!

I often use blues/tans or blues/browns. I like using

greens mostly by themselves, but also combined with

soft tans and golds. My most intense colours tend to

be the oranges, and I love blue/white.

I get most of my inspiration for photography from the

world of painters. I sometimes like to say that I use

my camera as my brush, that I paint with my camera.

I like to experiment and tend to work spontaneously.

My colours are often intense but also soft, gentle,

delicate. I would like my images to be seen as

elegant, graceful, stylish, concise, simple, succinct,

true, personal, feminine. Colour helps me to achieve

these qualities.

Previous page: “In Late Summer” by Ursula Abresch

Following page: “Door to a Parallel Universe” by Ursula Abresch

6

7

“Freedom” by Ursula Abresch

8

“Evensong” by Ursula Abresch

9

As a little girl in Valparaiso, Chile, I would walk

around with my father’s brownie camera “pretending”

I was making pictures. I was fascinated with that little

machine. But I never got to take any pictures.

When I was 17, I found a camera in a box of

discarded items that someone had given my mother. I

added babysitting money and traded this camera for

my first SLR, a Russian-made camera with one

50mm lens that I used for quite a number of years,

mainly to make pictures of places I visited, or things

my friends and I did together. Eventually I got access

to a small lab where I could make my own prints in

B&W. That was fun!

Though I was always passionate about photography,

I remember in particular the winter of 2003. I was

living in Ottawa, Ontario in Canada at the time, and

my husband gave me a Fuji Finepix point & shoot

camera. That winter was, as usual, cold and dark.

And I was rather sad. One day while walking by the

Ottawa River I thought, “All this: the snow, the murky

dark, the stark blue-gray everywhere. It is beautiful. I

want to make pictures that show how beautiful this is

— how beautiful winter is.”

That first digital camera opened a whole world to me.

10

11

The place where I currently live, British Columbia, has

become an important source of inspiration in my

photography. It is a subject for some of my more

representational images and also for many of my

more abstract images, in which I try to reflect the

essence of a subject or where I use a subject to

express emotion. I love exploring themes, subjects,

and places over and over, to get to know them

intimately, and to try and bring out the best in them

with my photos.

When I started getting serious about photography, I

found a couple of books by Freeman Patterson.

Working my way through his books was a strong push

in the direction I ended up going into, and that’s when

I began experimenting with Intentional Camera

Movement (ICM). But mostly I have followed my own

instincts — my way of thinking and seeing and feeling

— to end up where I am now. I study and look around

continuously, not only at the work and thinking of

other artists, but also technical books. I try to be very

good at the technical side of photography so that I

don’t have to worry about it and can instead

concentrate on the artistic part.

I am rather unplanned and experimental and allow

myself to try whatever catches my fancy at the

moment.

Previous page: “Moonrise” by Ursula Abresch

12

“Woman” by Ursula Abresch

13

“Evening Water” by Ursula Abresch

14

“There’s more to a moment than what you see with your eyes. There are the thoughts at the

time — the sounds, the smells, what you touch...and more. All these are real and

integral to my photography. It’s the sum that makes the photo.”

15

“Waves 1” by Ursula Abresch

16

It is so very easy to shoot a ton of ICM images, and

many look sort of good at first glance. But —and this

is a big BUT — as a quick Internet search will show

you, most ICM images are simply camera motion

studies at best. They say, “Yes, you can move the

camera and make a photo.” To go beyond that is

very difficult.

To me, the movement produced with the motion of

the camera has to underlay the story of the picture.

The most successful ICM pictures are made with

motion intended to highlight a particular

characteristic of the scene.

My style can loosely be classified as photo-

impressionism. Photo-impressionism is a tool that

allows me to get to the essence of what makes a

subject what it is. For example, a ponderosa pine

tree. What is it that makes a ponderosa a

ponderosa? What makes it “speak”, so to say? What

is the spirit of that tree that you could show as little

as possible of it and yet know, with certainty, that it is

a ponderosa?

That is an aspect of photo-impressionism that I like.

You can abstract subjects and provide much more

character than with a representational photo. Photo-

impressionism allows me to express feelings without

having to say a word. It allows me to put down

thoughts, dreams, and fleeting moments in time,

when a small change in light can make the

difference between utterly glorius and plain drab.

17

18

Perhaps more than anything though, the concepts of

photo-impressionism make me pay attention to

colour. I play with colour and use it almost as if it

were the subject itself, which, I guess, in a way, it is,

at least in photography. Light is colour.

I like my colours saturated but not shrill. Many of my

pictures aren’t all that colourful but use a limited

colour palette.

I composite images in-camera by using the multi-

exposure feature on Nikons. I also composite images

in post-processing by combining different shots of

the same subject/scene, or different shots altogether.

I do whatever seems right for whatever photo I’m

working on to get the feeling of the photo through as

strongly as possible. I tend to not like post-

processing filters and effects too much because

often they end up being a showcase for the filter/

effect rather than aiding the picture; but if they work

for a picture, I will use them. I enjoy all of it.

Previous page: “Evening Birds” by Ursula Abresch

19

“Arctic 2” by Ursula Abresch

20

Technical skills are essential, but it is artistic perception that finally makes the photo.

21

“So Gentle, So Furious” by Ursula Abresch

22

I choose images based mainly on my instinctual first

response extended over time. When I first upload

images from a shoot, I go through them quickly, and

some stand out right away because the composition/

light/colour/focus/feeling are right. I mark them. Later

on, maybe a week, a month, or half a year later, I will

look at them again and notice which ones I keep

coming back to. Those I will then spend time with

and look at them considering both my own emotional

and technical response and also how someone else

might see it and respond, emotionally and technically.

Sometimes though I will post images online very

shortly after a shoot, simply to get a feeling for how

others might respond to it. I like strong responses. In

the end though, it is whether or not I like the final

product. It is as simple as that: if I like it.

I’m happy with an image when I can’t think of

anything I would do differently. When I can look at the

image half a year down the road, or one year down

the road, and am still satisfied that it is right just as it

is.

Following page: “Bird Island” by Ursula Abresch

23

24

Previous VISION issues are now available at:

visionexplorers.com/magazine

Missed an issue?