Douglas Hill

I’ve enjoyed making geometric art for at least 30 years, but this took on a sharper focus in 2004,
when I began developing tools to produce
Patterns of Reflection Geometric Art.
This technique starts with a photograph or other artwork. Carefully selected triangles or other polygons are cut from it and arranged in a new pattern,
so that at each edge, the piece of image is placed against its own reflection, like a kaleidoscope.
Unlike a kaleidoscope, the reflection patterns can be complex and of multiple shapes, with some areas of great order and other...

I’ve enjoyed making geometric art for at least 30 years, but this took on a sharper focus in 2004,
when I began developing tools to produce
Patterns of Reflection Geometric Art.
This technique starts with a photograph or other artwork. Carefully selected triangles or other polygons are cut from it and arranged in a new pattern,
so that at each edge, the piece of image is placed against its own reflection, like a kaleidoscope.
Unlike a kaleidoscope, the reflection patterns can be complex and of multiple shapes, with some areas of great order and other areas of disorder.
Many people make beautiful kaleidoscopic images but I think I have explored this realm to a degree unmatched anywhere else today. My interest is not in the math,
but in the beauty of the designs and their effects on viewers.

Let's look at how they're made. First I design an underlying pattern using a Computer-Aided Design program. Here it is a red outline, then
a black and white pattern, showing the reflected and unreflected panels.





Imagine it as a sheet of paper you want to fold up along the panel edges, so that each white panel faces up and each black one faces down.
My program does this folding to produce a "cutting template": the arrangement of shapes that need to be cut from a photograph to assemble the pattern.
Here is the cutting template for this pattern.





Then I select a source photograph, looking for qualities of color, form, contrast, texture and connectivity that will support the design.
This metal footbridge in the afternoon sun has been the source of many patterns.
In Photoshop, I place the template on the photograph, then resize, rotate and move it until it aligns with interesting features of the photo.




Another program cuts out the shapes and assembles them into the new pattern.
Here's a detail from the very center.





See how the seamless juxtaposition of the image and its reflection can make it look real and tangible
while abstract and geometric at the same time? Believe me, 99% of photographs would be ugly, dull or disturbing when treated this way.
It has taken years for me to learn to recognize the qualities that work well with this technique.
Have a look at the images in the source gallery.
Many are pleasing to look at, but most people would not have chosen to aim a camera at them.


I've kept you reading too long. If you'd like to read more about my work, and see many close-up pattern details,
please visit patternsofreflection.com. Meanwhile I hope you'll enjoy browsing my galleries.


If you choose to buy a pattern [thank you so much!], please send me an email. Imagekind doesn't tell us who purchases our work, and I'm always curious to know.