He becomes an abstractionist whose works are logically difficult to understand, but somehow really interesting to look into.  

Henry Bateman

Established Australian photographer Henry Bateman is now in the country to showcase how creativity and technology have brought him to another level of craftmanship. With the aim to extract deeper meanings of images, he deconstructs photographs and transform them into new looks that challenge the mind’s expectations.

"I currently make abstract photographs, in that I manipulate my captured images looking for the inherent abstract elements of form, line, and color and enhance those elements," the 57-year-old visual artist recently told Picture Perfect.

Born in Melbourne, Victoria, this talented Aussie has spent his first months here in the Philippines shooting and ‘coming to terms with his new environment’ as he embraces the sights, sounds, and smell of our dear home.

He used to be with brushes until he got attracted to the possibilities of digital camera. He was just using the camera as ‘an instant drawing device’ for his paintings and design works. But then at the start of the third millennium when he was working on a carved painting for an Australian government department called Centrelink, he came in contact with a digital camera which he was given to play with. It was his first big experience for digital photography and its power to manipulate images. Too big he immediately got hooked and before he knew, he had dropped brushes for cameras.  

"It’s trying to see two-dimensionally in a three-dimensional world because when I work my images, I am looking to present them in the two-dimensional aspect of a print, whilst at the same time getting below the surface composition of the image to show what makes it tick," he pointed out, "Hopefully, I’d be able to create a conversation with the viewers that goes beyond the image in the frame."

With a Certificate in Fine Art at Claremont School in Perth, Western Australia, Bateman already has staged solo exhibitions including one at OW Creative Gallery here in Manila. Last year he put on a show called "Altered States II" at the Australian National University which illustrated his love for abstracts through the title alone.

Another challenge that keeps the foreigner’s camera focused is food photography. His stepson is a chef on the rise and he is somewhat obliged to take photos of his creations - something he enjoys doing. What he doesn’t seem to like is to join camera affiliations or contests since according to him, he is a hermit by nature. His work as an art reviewer is what gets him off the house.

In capturing things via the camera, he relies much on his sub-conscious to produce the photos he wants, "I don’t do photo shoots as such and I work more like a street photographer. I try not to think too much when taking my pictures. I just do it. I try to let my sub-conscious call the shots. Then, a bit like Garry Winogrand, leave them sit for a while before viewing them later with a fresh outlook."   

Presently using a Canon 350D, Bateman believes with the idea that "technology affects what you can do but then the name of the game is still working within the imposed limitations."   

Even getting better as he gets older, this Australian in Manila has found so much high in playing with art through photography. His shots take the viewers unto another world not seen through the original images his camera originally captures.

"When a family member says ‘You are an artist,’ a colleague says upon viewing a work for the first time says ‘Delicious,’ I know I have hit a nerve, they are moments to cherish."

Henry Bateman’s ultimate goal is to take the "photography craft" and turn it into full-blown art in its own right. What does he have to hold on to? It’s the freedom that digital manipulation allows him to have that makes him a happy, true-blue abstractionist.