Being a musician as well as a photographer has given me privileged insight into how both disciplines inter-relate and how the skills and understanding developed in one area can be directly transferred and applied to the other.

Before I began my journey into photography, I wrote several repertoire books for beginner to intermediate pianists.

As a teacher, I’d become frustrated with some of the repertoire available for young piano students, so I decided to write some music of my own which would be both educational and fun to play. Over the course of six or seven years, I produced five books which were published and distributed by Willis Music and Hal Leonard, two of the world’s leading music education specialists.

Looking back now with a photographer’s eye, I can compare the important compositional elements I use in my abstract photography with the compositional techniques I found to be most valuable when writing my music. They actually have a lot in common!

Simplicity of Design

When writing music for younger children one of the biggest challenges is to achieve simplicity of design and acknowledge students’ limitations – their hand size, reading ability, co-ordination and concentration skills, and their musical maturity. So everything which is unnecessary, too difficult or too advanced for a student to understand or technically master must be removed or completely avoided.

I have found my photographic process of working to eliminate unwanted distractions, refining design concepts, reworking and striving to develop an innate appreciation of my subject matter to be very similar and equally stimulating.

In my photography, I value the singularity of purpose – the ability to make a single and powerful statement with an image. Presenting a clean, clear and simple design is part of that process of communication and capturing the heart and mystery of an object.

Likewise, in my music, refining a musical theme to its core components was always a challenge, but the reward was great when the emotion inherent in the melody was conveyed clearly and simply.

Creating Order and Understanding

Considerations of how to give order to the shapes, patterns and colours in an image correlate with the structural design of a piece of music. The presentation of thematic material, its reworking and restatement, recurring rhythmic motifs and phrasing all contribute to guiding the listener through the music in much the same way as a photographer uses visual cues to guide the viewer through an image – leading lines, use of symmetry, complementary shapes and colours and the controlled weighting of elements.

Balance and Proportion

Balance and proportion are particularly important within my photographs as often I’m relying on very little to create the shot – everything needs to be ‘in the right place’ and work harmoniously together to give the viewer a complete and satisfying visual experience.

Balance and proportion are also critical in determining the shape, length and contour of a melody and its implicit phrasing. An unbalanced phrase will sound lop-sided; likewise, a melody which lacks a sense of direction and purpose will leave the listener unsatisfied.

Enhancing Structure and Form

The use of ‘space’ within an image and the interaction of dynamic points of interest set against more restful areas are also extremely important in the construction of my abstract images and in controlling how I want the viewer to approach and interpret the shot.

Similarly, composers will often contrast sections within a composition to highlight structural points of climax and repose by increasing or decreasing the rhythmic rate of change, by altering volume or accentuation, or introducing new thematic material.

Clever and judicious use of depth of field and lighting can enhance or exaggerate shape and form, and help give prominence to certain areas within the shot.

In music we can make the same type of enhancements to a phrase by varying or highlighting texture and harmonisation, by altering the pitch of a melody, utilising and exploiting the different tonal qualities of an instrument at a particular range, and contrasting articulation, employing accented, detached or smoothly played notes.

Harmonious Union of Elements

Ultimately, whether we’re composers of music, or composers of images, we’re striving to bring together every facet of our composition into one harmonious union of elements, where the sum of our endeavour is greater than its composite parts. In doing so, we can engage and communicate with our audience at great depth.

You can find out more about my thoughts on the connections between music and photography in The Transformative Process and Music and Photography – how do they relate?

Jane Trotter is an abstract photographer living in Dunedin, New Zealand. Reimagining everyday objects found around the home, Jane transforms them into colourful and dramatic pieces of contemporary art. Her Fine Art Prints are available in sizes A4 to A1.

Persistence, exploration, experimentation, refinement of the learning process, and an individuality of interpretation are just some of the qualities which drive musicians and photographers to improve their art. For me, the parallels between making music and making a photograph are very strong and deeply ingrained.

This is the second in a series of articles I’m calling ‘In Harmony’, in which I investigate the parallels and cross influences of my musical background upon my abstract photography.

My first article in the series, ‘The Transformative Process’, looked at how an abstract photographer and a musician both ‘transform’ their raw material, and in the process, infuse it with their own personal interpretation, individuality and characterisation. In this article I’d like to explore the process or experience of making music and compare that with the experience of making an abstract photograph.

A ‘Hands On’ Experience for both Music and Photography

For someone who plays an instrument, music is as much about the ‘doing’ as the ‘listening’.  It’s literally hands on – it’s physical, tactile and all consuming. It’s a very active and engaging process. It’s called ‘Practice’.  But it’s something which I always enjoy.

I’ll quite happily sit for hours at the piano, working on and refining a piece. I gain great pleasure and satisfaction from overcoming the initial challenges and technical difficulties contained within a piece, and ultimately reaching a state of performance where I know I’ve achieved the best I possibly can.

I feel the same way about my abstract photography. I enjoy the process and experience of making a photograph. It is also hands on. The feel of the camera in your hand, its weight, the strap around your neck, the connection you make when you bring the camera up to your eye, the physicality of moving around an object, exploring its potential and discovering the best means of photographing it.

I can easily spend hours at a time in this pursuit too. In a way it’s a very personal and intimate exercise – much like practising an instrument – and one which also contains that great sense of pleasure and satisfaction when you achieve the shot you want.

Embrace the Learning Process

So, in both my music and photography, I enjoy the process as much as the final product. My musical background has taught me the value of patience, persistence and determination – qualities which photographers also need.

But more than that, it’s taught me the value of experimentation, flexibility of approach and to value the learning process itself. To achieve a satisfactory musical performance requires hours of work behind the scenes; hours of trial and error, of learning what works successfully and what doesn’t, and hours of refinement.

Photography is the same.  I work very hard at making my images and sometimes it takes a long time. ‘Golden Spirals’ is a case in point.

I’m very happy with the final result – but it was a real effort to get! (You can see the learning process I went through to achieve the final image in my Exposed #2 article.)

I created ‘Golden Spirals’ by turning a wire fruit bowl upside down. I’d often looked at this object sitting on my kitchen table and had always thought it held much potential. When I first began to photograph it, my early attempts yielded rather frustrating results. But I knew there was something there. I just hadn’t found it yet. So I kept trying, learning from my mistakes, refining my approach and finally, I created something I was happy with.

The Challenge and Incentive

I think one of the beauties of music and photography is that you can be completely humbled by your craft. You’re fully aware that you never stop learning – there’s potential in everything and always something new – whether it’s a new piece or new subject matter to photograph.

Exploring and being open to new possibilities of interpretation provides a challenge and incentive in both fields of endeavour and sustains our creative spirit.

Jane Trotter is an abstract photographer living in Dunedin, New Zealand. Reimagining everyday objects found around the home, Jane transforms them into colourful and dramatic pieces of contemporary art. Her Fine Art Prints are available in sizes A4 to A1.