Thanks for your comment anon. This image is called "Intra 4" , and represents pretty well my artistic philosophy. It's a photograph, and what I hope it achieves visually at first take, is the effect of an abstract painting. It's like a colour- field Rothko, but contemporised. The second visual take is the most important one for me, and the one that brings the piece into the 21st century, and sets it apart. Through the final art format, it is clear to the viewer that the work is a photograph. But it's not what you expect from photography. Where's the People, Place, Things? Its smooth and flat, which are characteristic of photography, but the subject matter is Abstract. There is a world of abstraction, that we don't generally see in the "seen" world. My work is an attempt to make those moments visible, and free photography from its shackles.......

Abstract Photography - why?

My name is Michael Banks. I'm a Photographic Artist - in other words, I use a camera to create Art. My Photographic Art is Abstract - and the desire to push what you can do artistically, with a camera, is what drives me creatively. Photography was invented around 180 years ago, and as soon as it appeared, it liberated Painting, to be able to become an abstract art-form, but at the same time, gave itself this restrictive responsibility to be the recorder of the seen world. So Photography is usually about the stuff around us - People, Places, Things. Practically all photography in the world falls into one of those categories. But not mine. I'm looking to liberate Photography from this representational role, and to fully explore what I believe is the hidden potential of Photography - its potential to be totally Abstract, to make visible the invisible, and to be pure Art.