The Dream Portraits series ( staged photography)

I believe portraiture can deal with more than the standard of the real world characters and faces. I wanted to depict fantasy characters out of a personal world and give out the feeling of a surreal dream and to create images of different archetypes and strange supernatural beings, both benevolent and dark in their inner nature and thus bring forth things that do not exist in the real perceived world but are nevertheless being photographed in it. Also, because using this technique transforms the image into something akin to painting, one of the ideas was to turn ordinary mundane materials ( clothes, props, masks) into fantastical objects made of light, such as the angel wings. A kind of alchimic permutation. The portraits from the series have masks, props (wings, other implements) and clothes made by me and my family and are staged in carefully picked natural spots or specific places to obtain different moods.

Photography has some major advantages for me: it lets me be the director of reality, just like in computer graphics, but in opposition to that, I can make my visions come true in images much faster, I can see the results as I release the shutter, and not after hours/days of render tests (though preparation will take time in photographing too). Photography is now a major tool in expressing my feelings and sensing the world, I do not earn my living from it but it consumes most of my time, I always try to expand it, explore, experiment, reach for more than the static image in this digital age - thus, the visual poems.

I like to build up things that will end up being photographed, kind of like land art. I used to create tableaux vivants inside the studio, with all the ephemeral plant life dying on me. In the Transience project and the Sparkle series my best build was covering two wings, 2 meter length each, with the special material, quite a challenge to set up. The wings had also been made in-house, by my and my mother's design and her crafty work. Making something new and unique and experimenting with that will be a fond memory.

The Magic of Venice Series

While at the Venice Carnival , all manner of fantastical characters were already before me and I had to dance in the crowd to be able to catch that moving impression and turn them into something more beautiful, at least to me, than their actual real aspect. The Venice carnival of old was probably a more mysterious event, with masks and costumes sometimes lost in streets all over the city - now it has lost some of that mood, because of tourism and everyone taking photos of all the costumes. 

Most masks you can meet only in the very center or at specific spots. Photographing with ICM has altered the regular image and created a world more beautiful than in reality, which in a way, was my goal. The river of many people in the sunset had its own kind of beauty. Costumes needed the sun to glitter and leave light trails with the ICM technique. I worked for 11 days, carnival time, took over 10.000 images with ICM and had an incredible experience.

It was really hard on my body and back because I had to run and make my way through the crowd to and fro, while moving my camera around like crazy - other photographers kept watching and trying to understand what exactly I was doing... and I was trying to hide all that as well... I discovered Venice was most beautiful in heavy fog and cloudy skies. Also, for the canals to be turned into pastels, that was most desirable.

The Sparkle Series (staged photography)

A most special series, The Sparkle Portraits move more into the abstract realm of photography and into the ephemeral and fascinating aspect of light as a particle and a dynamic wave, represented in the series by the light streaks and sparkle filaments of the various sparkle personas. Light sculptures I like to call them… I found a way to catch light on a specially chosen material in such a way that it resembles light particles in motion. Thus, I combined two motions at the same time, the motion of the photo camera and that of a moving character.

The results range from very abstract to a kind of light sculptures, from which sometimes a face can be seen peering through the streaks of light. By using different motions and poses, I tried to give a dynamic feel to the images as well as freeze the movement in time. The images seem to depict spirits made of light, as if transported to this plane of existence from another world, a world with less gravity and near to no solidity.

My goal was to photograph reality in a way that it no longer looks real, palpable, but more like we are made of mist, particles or light waves.
A photograph that depicts reality in an unreal way.

Water Abstracts

Sometimes one can see fine textures and action painting light streaks in the depths of the water element, forms and lines as if painted by Jackson Pollock. I have attempted to catch those illusory abstract forms in the running waters of the river, but to make them more unreal and fantastic I have used the ICM (intentional camera movement) technique and combined the movement of the photo camera its self, on a longer exposure, with the movement of the water flow.

The resulting images are expressionist abstracts and structures with a world of their own. The fine mesh of the gold foil textures sometimes seem to wrap around a river rock, dark hole surrounded by light bent and deformed by micro turbulence.

I have long since pursued the photographing of water using the ICM technique, before the large project Transience was born. It gave me a window for a more abstract work and gave rise to technical difficulties because of the very powerful degree of light reflected by the water surface, to be photographed at long exposure.

Walking with fisherman's boots along the river to catch pockets of reflecting light is a wonderful, childish activity I would do any time for the joy of it. The sound of water is all the music I need…

Fire Abstracts

Sometimes one can see visions in the depths of the fire element, shapes and creatures as are to be found in the mid-summer white clouds. I have attempted to catch those illusory forms, but to make them more unreal and fantastic I have used the ICM (intentional camera movement) technique and combined the movement of the photo camera its self, on a longer exposure, with the movement of fire burning. The resulting images are surreal abstracts and figures with a world of their own.

Now that I think about it, photographing fire exposed me to its warmth, photographing water made me aware of its coldness. I was closer to the elements or even emerged in them (the river) - to get closer inspired my work as well. Also, I think both water and fire had a similitude in form - I discovered faces and animal shapes in them both, though water was more akin to architectural and science fiction forms.

 

Sibiu International Theater Festival (seen in Postacards [wall]

Three years of FITS - from the festival I have carefully selected the street shows I wanted to attend and seemed to have better potential both storytelling wise and also from a purely esthethic value and the ability to ‘contaminate’ the resulting photographs with a mood which resembled a more believable fairy tale. I searched for the qualities that seem to bring those creatures, acrobats, fire jugglers, mirror people, giant birds, luminous horses, marching bands and Luminarium, to life.

 

 

 

Outdoor mystery (seen in Postacards [wall]

Railways,industrial scenes, the mountains and the sea, trees and flowers and moss, the open road as a theme, the mystery shrouded persona upon it. The persona is just an archetype for the personification of the unknown, it may appear in the city or in the wild or seeming emptiness of nature. The figure without a face, many times witnessed from behind, is an invitation for exploration and a reminder of the unique aliened position of the human being.

 

Polyptych

Inspired by the religious art of the triptych and polyptych of old, I thought most appropriate to use this photography that resembles painting in much bolder arrangements and styles, ranging from Byzantine to Art Nouveau to geometric to Moorish to oriental influences of frame shape and overall frame distribution.
The new polyptych compositions may resemble the stained glass windows of a church, a window from Gaudi’s work, a mandala or a gate of passage from an ancient book.

 

Images selected from a catalog of treasures are arranged in micro stories and meaningful juxtaposition and are enhanced by the use of the many shapes of the frames used in such a work, thus escaping the single fixed straight frame of a regular photograph, which never allows for much freedom in combination with other images. The polyptych digital plates may have a very high resolution and image quality which enables large format printing with very fine pixel density and low noise at a very clear level of sharpness because of processing with DXO at a base RAW level.