Nikolaeva E.V. Aesthetics of Infinite Recursions: Fractals as an Artistic Image in Photography

Abstract: The article is devoted to the evolution of fractal images in photography as an aesthetic means and creative paradigm in the art of the 20th century. The subject of the research is the means of representing the recursion infinity in analogous and digital art photography. In her research Nikolaeva defines parallels between fractal recursion in photography and traditional and post-modernist paintings (medieval iconography mise en abime, Salvador Dali's and J. Pollock's paintings, M. S. Escher's graphic art and advertising graphic design). Special attention is paid to the creative and cognitive meaning of fractal forms in different genres of photography. The aesthetics of recursion infinity is viewed from the point of view of the interdisciplinary approach that integrates the ideas of philosophy, art theory, art history, choas theory, fractality concept and computer technologies. Based on the analysis of a wide range of photographs made by both Russian and foreign professional photographers and semi-professional members of informatl art socieities, the researcher defines the following types of representation of fractal recursion in art photography: fixed fractal forms of the real world; fractals constructed by special photographic techniques; fractalisation of images bu using the digital post-processing; and algorithmic construction of fractal compositions. It is concluded that the first photographic experience of fractal recursions were deliberately performed by the anachronic method and the source of fractal images was the natural enviromment as it is. Later images of infinite recursion in photography became the result of the application of specific digital techniques and the 'fractal zone' of the search was shifted into the sphere of human nature and culture. 

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