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| Image by Olga Karlovac |
Olga Karlovac's street and abstract photography are dark, contrasty and full of deep mood and intrigue. Her pictures are almost always blurry, almost like those shots you accidentally take when you forget your shutter speed is too long for the conditions. But there is something about the way she captures form, with recognizable (but not identifiable) human figures in mundane situations, that feels more like visual poetry than what most might consider "normal" photography. I have always been drawn to abstract photographers. Some of my favorites include Alexey Titarenko, who used long exposures to turn images of people into lines of haunting specters, and Trent Parke, who also liked long-exposure to create jaw-dropping street scenes that sometimes just make you ask "what the?" Karlovac, on the other hand, relied on intentional camera movement (ICM) to use the light that hits her film (or sensor, not sure if she uses digital or not) like paint brush strokes. Her images are not tack sharp. They are the opposite. In fact, a line I've heard attached to Karlovac is "the photographer who always took blurry photos." While some might find her work to be odd or not to their taste, I find it to be incredible, expressive and inspiring.
Here is a small collection of Karlovac's images to showcase her unique and incredible style:
So to go out an emulate her style, I put a ND8 filter on my camera and set it on shutter speed priority mode. How fast of a shutter depends on the focal length, lighting conditions, and the speed in which you want to move the camera. However, somewhere around 1/10 of a second has worked well for my taste. All of these factors can vastly change the outcome. One of the great pleasures I have found in attempting this style are the surprises and unpredictability that come with it. I might shoot the same subject multiple times in a row, feeling like I made the same camera movements with the same settings and the end results will look completely different. But the more I have attempted it, the more I have come to recognize what makes a good subject for this style and what it takes to come out with an image that does not just look like a blurry mess but a piece of art.
Here is a collection of my images that resulted from me trying emulate and learn from this unique approach to photography:
