Abstract art is comprised of many different styles. Abstract expressionist, made famous by Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, emphasized the process and emotions behind spontaneous brushstrokes or splattering of paint on to the canvas. Color field painting, such as Mark Rothko’s rectangular areas of color, is another subset of abstract art. Attempting to imitate an abstract expressionist painting with a camera though has always seemed a bit pointless in my opinion. If that’s what you want, why not learn to paint? After all, the camera lens was invented to capture sharp details, the purpose of which was to represent reality. I prefer to approach the subject with what’s called abstract realism, a style which combines elements of both abstraction with features of recognizable subjects. By converting to black and white, and eliminating background context, I’ve reduced this photograph of a yucca to lines and contrast. It’s arguably abstract, but still a photograph capturing sharp detail.