Art Cafe f/2 | History and Data | ARTISTS OF ART CAFE
powered by Doris Stricher (Curator | Coffee and Art Artist) & Ernst Koller
OPEN YOUR EYES OUVRE TES YEUX
APRI GLI OCCHI ABRA TUS OJOS
Artist's Statement | Explaining Your Art
Ulla Gmeiner
You are a painter, a photographer, a sculptor and an Opera singer in Germany, which activity would qualified you first, how would you introduce yourself?
Die Musik spielte die erste große Rolle in meinem Leben, da ich einer sehr musikbegeisterten Familie entstamme und so studierte ich Orchesterleitung, Klavier und Gesang. Seit meiner frühesten Kindheit aber war die Welt der Bildenden Kunst mir sehr nahe: ich zeichnete, malte, modellierte und war (und bin) fasziniert von der Kalligraphie. Ich liebte alles, was mit Papier zu tun hatte. Erst nach dem zeitintensiven Studium, vielen Konzertreisen und dem Engagement an die Oper wandte ich mich wieder intensiver der Bildenen Kunst zu. Heute kann ich sagen, daß sich beide Bereiche (die Musik und die Bildende Kunst) die Balance halten und sich gegenseitig inspirieren und beeinflußen. Das macht mich glücklich und auch dankbar.
Your involvement in opera singing and their mythological subjects don't let you indifferent, it appears in your art, both seems connected. Do you agree with this perception? What is your opinion about that?
Schon vor der Zeit an der Oper habe ich mich für die Mythologie und Psychologie interessiert und Themen wie Vergänglichkeit, Sinn des Lebens und generell die Entwicklung eines Menschen sind für mich von höchstem Interesse. Es sind weniger die Bühnenbilder, die mich inspirieren, sondern eher die Musik und die Menschen. Ich versuche die Töne der Musik in Farben umzuwandeln und Stimmungen darzustellen. Genau beobachte ich auch die Menschen auf der Bühne in ihren jeweiligen Rollen. Es liegt nahe, dass mich der Surrealismus fesselt..
When you start working, do you plan to developpe one topic in series, by using different tools in painting and/or sculpting?
Ich nehme mir selten ein Thema vor, beginne (in der Malerei) immer abstrakt und versuche dann, im Bild zu lesen und zu entdecken. Es ist quasi ein Dialog Mensch und Zufall. Diese unglaublichen "zufälligen" Strukturen, die beim Experimentieren entstehen, sind faszinierend und folgen einer geheimnisvollen Ordnung. Ich versuche im Dialog darauf zu antworten und entwickle so Figuren oder Situationen heraus, die der Zufall mir netterweise geliefert hat. Das ist auch immer der spannendste Prozess meiner Arbeit. Was die Skulpturen betrifft, so ist es immer eine gewisse Ausstrahlung oder Stimmung eines Menschen, die ich abbilden will. Einen wichtigen Stellenwert in meiner Arbeit nehmen die Assemblagen und Collagen ein. Ich hänge an alten Dingen, will Gefundenes bewahren und es auch würdigen. Als veränderte Objekte in alten Holzkisten kann ich Geschichten erzählen. Die Dinge umdeuten, ihnen Poesie verleihen. Deshalb nenne ich meine Arbeit auch die Kunst der poetischen Möglichkeiten (the art of poetic possibilities).
How do you work, how do you procede? What size are your paintings? Do you use oil, acryl, water color? Your photographies are they photoshoped or repainted by hand?
Ich verwende Acrylfarben, Öl und experimentiere ansonsten mit allen Materialien, die man sich vorstellen kann (vom Wachs über Eierschalen bis zur Verpackungsfolie). Immer wieder sind es auch Collage-Elemente, die auf meinen Bildern zu finden sind. Die digitale Grafik, die 2. Welt meiner Arbeit habe ich relativ spät entdeckt; unglaublich viele Schichten von Fotos übereinanderzulagern und so neue Welten entstehen zu lassen. Zumeist liegen diesen digitalen Collagen gemalte Hintergründe oder Zeichnungen zugrunde. Oft ist es aber auch ein Foto, eine Makroaufnahme, die überlagert mit anderen Schichten eine ganz neue Interpretation erfährt. Für diese digitale Bearbeitung benutze ich Photoshop. Ich entdecke oft auf dem Schrottplatz oder Flohmarkt wunderbare Stücke, die ich in meine Skulpturen einarbeite, aber auch neue Möbel verändere ich so, dass sie nicht mehr wiederzuerkennen sind. Ein Beispiel ist der "Triumphbogen der Vergänglichkeit", bestehend aus vielen Ikea - Tischen, die mit Asche, Staub, Acrylfarbe und alten Buchausschnitten bearbeitet wurden.
Do you exhibite in real life? Where?
Ich bin erst vor ein paar Jahren mit meiner Kunst an die Öffentlichkeit gegangen, seitdem stelle ich regelmäßig aus in Deutschland, in Europa und demnächst in Philadelphia.Vor einem Jahr habe ich eine Künstlergruppe gegründet und veranstalte im Mai einen großen Wettbewerb mit Ausstellung. Es gibt ein Atelier zu gewinnen. Mit einer anderen Gruppe gibt es ein Projekt, wo ich Gesang, Schauspiel und Bildende Kunst auf die Bühne bringen kann. Darauf freue ich mich sehr.
Why are you in flickr, what do you expect from this media?
Irgendwann bin ich durch Zufall auf flickr gestoßen. Ich habe viele wunderbare Freunde hier gefunden, kann täglich wunderbare Kunst in all ihren Facetten entdecken, werde motiviert, inspiriert und vor allem erfreut.
Rainer Schäffer
You are german and live in Germany. Could you tell us a little more about you?
I was born in January 1945 in the former Elbing in West Prussia, today Elbląg in Poland. I spent my childhood in Flensburg close to the Danish border. I experienced adolescence and also my student days in and around the city of Aachen (close to the Dutch border). From this I conclude to have become a "border crosser". Professionally, I ended up in Dortmund. Here I taught art, digital design and video editing.
Since when are you involved in photography?
At the age of 9 I was presented by my father with a used box camera for 6 x 9 cm roll-film. That sufficed to make the little boy happy. The pleasure in working creatively began with a manual Kodak Retina 1b, which I was given by my parents at the age of 14. My first contact with a SLR happened when I studied art in order to become a teacher. At the institute for sculptural work I was allowed to borrow a Practica L. From this date onward I was bound by the spell of photography. My first trip to Italy. Excited by the wonderful motives in Umbria and Tuscany I created photographies, sketches and watercolours that moodily tell of the landscape and the people there. From this time also stemmed my enthusiasm for the individual developing and enlarging of films. (For insiders: chair on the table, onto that the "Krokus" enlarger and the photographic paper on the floor.) This was my heyday of analogue photography. Working nightshifts in the express delivery clearance in the main station in Aachen in 1973, I earned the money for the legendary Olympus OM-1. At that time it was the lightest SLR camera in the world and respectively easy to travel around with. I had to fall in love with this camera and this love has not been disappointed up to the present day.
How do you work, what kind of cameras do you use?
I acquired my first digital camera, a Fuji FinePix F30, in 2006. She almost always accompanies me on the belt of my trousers and because she is much smaller than a SLR she offers totally different possibilities for approaching people. Digital photography required a great adjustment and an even greater discipline in handling the motives. The longing for a digital SLR became more intense and finally, in May of 2009, I presented myself with a Nikon D90. Because I almost never use Flash or artificial light, I need fast lenses: Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 EX DC HSM Makro and a 50-150 f/2,8 EX DC HSM II. With the fast "telephoto zoom lens"I managed to shoot some remarkable photos at indoor athletics events.
How do you print, on what and which size?
About your favorite topics? I noticed you like a lot abstract shapes well constructed with lines, the photos from your exhibition belong to an other way of perception, quite unusual in your art, how would explain that choice?
Actually there is nothing that has not been photographed. I feel challenged sometimes to find motives that nobody had a critical look at yet and I look for impressions beyond familiar viewing patterns. Often ist is also a game, a compensation, detached from the restraints of objective photography. The most demanding motives for me are people. Here I am on a quest for the truth behind the obvious. In only a few occasions I manage to capture the moment, with sensing an inner satisfaction after the shot and knowing that this image would have been successful. For example I can describe an incident from Siena, Italy, where I saw in one of the upper stories in one alleyway mushrooms, which hang out of a window to dry. When I looked closer I detected an elderly woman behind the window pane seemingly reading a book. At one point she had to break her stare at the book to think about what she'd read - that was the moment when I released the shutter. It is my favourite photo.
To which photographers, or painters do you feel close? To which category of photographers do you think you belong?
I cannot file myself here as well. However, I have recently visited an exhibition by Karin Székessy, whose works I like very much.
How would you explain your art, what are you seeking for? You mentionned Fontana, why?
I raise issues and then look out for appropiate motives. When I saw in Essaouira a crack in the wire mesh of a window, I instantly thought of Lucio Fontanas "Concetto Spaziale". With this thought my new theme was created, immediately.
Do you have any real exhibition projects, elsewhere than on the web? Why are you in flickr and what do you expect from here?
A friend recommended Flickr to me. I have gained some very interesting contacts. I have a mixed relationship to members with several hundred contacts. Quantity instead of quality often seems to be the motto. For the future I plan to intensify my "personal contacts".
Stefano Cipriani
Where are you from, where do you live?
Born, bred and raised in Rome, Italy
Are you a professional photographer or are you involved in another job?
As far as I can remember, I always had an interest on photography, which turned into passion as soon as I watched Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow Up”, although I was not actually interested on fashion or photo-journalism. As a student in Architecture I was more attracted by urban landscapes. I then systematically started to shot after purchasing my first SRL camera (a second-hand, solid and reliable Canon FTb) and discovering the ‘magic of the dark
room’ and the fascination of BW images after visiting an exhibition of Ansel Adams works, when I had a further emotional boast looking at one of the (if not ‘the’) most beautiful picture ever , ‘Moonrise in Hernandez’. I became even more stunned reading how he actually happened to shot that image. But, to answer your question, no, photography is just a ‘serious’ passion. For a number of reasons I eventually quit Architecture and ended to earn my living working full time for a national association.
How do you work, what kind of camera do you use?
I bring my camera with me every time I travel (vacation or business) and when strolling around in Rome on Saturdays/Sundays. I have always been a Canon user: I still have (but rarely use) the Old and New F1 (oh, how I love(d) these cameras!) and A1 bodies with a few lenses ranging from 20mm to 100mm. I sometime use a Mamiya 645 AFD medium format camera. Turning to digital, after a brief, starting period with a Canon 350D I’m now using a Canon 40D, mainly with a EF-S 17- 55 f2.8 IS.
Do you use others than photoshop?
I only use PS. Actually, that program has opened a whole
world to me. For many years, I exclusively shot black and white, for it was my only expressive means and believing that the tight, personal control of each step, from the shooting to the printing, was absolutely imperative. In fact, the eventual dismantle of the dark room led to an considerable slowing down of my photo activity, while, in the meantime, the rising of the digital cameras - not fully technologically developed at that time – did not attract me at all as they produced images not comparable in quality with the ‘chemical’ photography. This situation dramatically changed in 2006 when a friend of mine introduced me to the possibilities of PS in elaborating BW images. I became a photo addicted again (if you look at the early posting in my Flickr stream, you will see a lot of BW images, a few of the being old, scanned and digitalized pics). But PS permitted me to discover the color side of the world as well, so I started to express myself in color too, and 80% of my works are now in color.
About postprocessing, how do you manage this?
Getting back to my previous remark, I then felt the power the post processing gears have to ‘disintegrate’ the classic photography’s boundaries, generally meant as a reproduction of a given subject - but this could be a path leading to a quite long discussion - to open a sector where different and more interpretative elaborations, if wanted, are possible and at hand. Consequently, I see the subject as a starting element to reach a result which is still ‘photographic’ - as it is generated by the release of the camera’s shutter - but it might assume, because my own compositional idea and further processes, an independent valence like a painting or like every other given creative technique. To achieve this, I make a great use of textures: when walking around, I often take pictures of walls or any other surface I think could be useful as a texture or I pick some free textures offered by Flickr friends, as Skeleton Mess, Les Brumes and many others. I generally use for a single image not less than 3 or 4 different textures, differently blended, in order to reach the final result.
I noticed you love lines, architecture, are those your favorite topics?
As I said, being a former student in Architecture, I have a special ‘eye’ (and heart…) for this subjects. I seldom take pictures with people in it as I see people as an ‘accident’ in that urban situation (I like portraits, instead). But I see more than just lines. Generally speaking, I search for what, I guess, can be called ‘harmony’ and ‘balance’. Or, maybe, a search and interpretation for - as Flickr friend Rita Vita Finzi put it, when leaving a comment - a “melancholic, urban solitude”.
Could you tell us which are your favorite photographers?
I think you can understand, learn and develop a lot from looking at other photographer’s works. Ansel Adams (and his ‘pupil’ John Sexton) has been my ‘hero’ for his majestic images and the perfect BW tones. Edward Weston has thought me a ‘new’ compositional eye (have a look at ‘The Early Works’ a book published in 2007). Arnold Newman’s portrait of Igor Stravinsky is worth more than 100 lessons, as well as Richard Avedon’s BW portraits of the Beatles (1967) and his book ‘In the American West’. I also treasured a 1980’s book by Fay Godwin (‘Land’) where I learn how the most (supposed) ordinary object can turn into a stunning image. All of them have been my ‘spiritual guides’ and they’re still present in my mind, even now that I took other photographic paths, because their works are more than, say, BW landscapes or portrait images. To name just a more recent artist, I’d like to mention the works of Jesse Young and a book called ‘New York Polaroid’ by Maurizio Galimberti, a collection of ‘collages’ and elaborations which I really enjoyed .
Do you exhibite in real your art?
Never in the past. But I had the opportunity to hold two small exhibitions in the last four months which were quite satisfactory. I was just happy (and worried at the same time) to show my pictures and expecting the visitor’s reactions… Imagine my surprise when I was asked about their price! Actually, I did not even think about setting a price. In the end, eight photos went sold!. I was incredulous to learn that someone liked my work so much to even pay for that!
Why are you in flickr?
At the beginning it was just a place where I could show my images, but it was more just a personal pleasure than an occasion of confrontation. But it took just a little time to discover how the many images of the many other Flickr friends helped my photographic growth. I discovered a lot of truly inspiring works which have led me to try new ways, new images, because your creative and photo capacity do not necessarily need a top professional advice or example to burst out: you can pick up something from Ansel Adams and something else by a Flickr member’s work. Eventually, PS worked as a bridge from BW to color to me, but I guess that, if not for Flickr, textures were still way ahead of me.
Tell us more other things i forgot to ask you, you would like us to know.
Just a warm ‘Thank you’ to all Flickr friends and to you, Doris Stricher, for this excellent chance you gave me to showcase examples of my current works and to express my personal opinion on photography.
Jim Rowe
We would be pleased to know a little more about you. Where du you live, where are you from?
I live in Lakefield, Ontario, Canada
You are a painter, how do you work? What kind of size are your paintings?
I use the acrylic paint in washes on canvas. I will try to put the sizes in.
How do you get inspired? What are your favorite topics?
Most of my ideas come from automatic drawing, I just doodle and the images appear. My favorite topics are what is happening around me and how I feel about it.
Do you work every day? Do you have an other professionnel involvement?
I usually paint 7 days a week, I try to anyways. I am an outsider artist, I work in isolation, I am self taught.
Why are you in flickr? Where do you exhibite?
Right now the only places I exhibit are on flickr and my own site, I found flickr last year, and joined up. In 12 months I had 30,000 visits to my site. My wife reminds me that is 30,000 people that saw my work and decided that they didn`t want to buy it. I am still happy just to get noticed. I would appreciate hearing about any other sites as good as flickr for exposure. I have information below my exhibit that should be of interest.
Mia de fleur
From childhood time visual was my way of communication, expression and painting. My father helped a lot giving me all kind of art materials he could find. I remember myself laying on the floor and painting with my fingers and big brush in other hand with watercolors. He had more than few cameras. I was free to take and play with the cameras. He taught me how to look and take shots. So I got familiar with it. I love film cameras and dark room excitement, but circumstances of life stopped me developing myself in that area. Thereof I can say that I started in 2006 when I got my first digital camera. On March of the same year I was invited on one exibit and performance of Bootoh Dance. I shot about 400 pics and get involved forever. From beginning I have had support on Flickr from friends. I call them "My Teachers". Yvees, George and many more are my source of inspiration. Later I find Photoshop is a very interesting replacement for Dark room. Thanks to Telzey and Paul Grand for ideas. I started to use it. Experimenting with lights and lenses makes me happy and euphoric. I can say I am in love with photography. Soon I am going to use film and dark room again, as different kind of printing, all by myself. My ideas come from real life. Subject doesn't meter more than story. I try to make story of everything, that's my way of seeing. If I have story as start, than I am trying to find subject that fit in and realize it. Camera or brush, there is no difference, they are tools as fingers, part of body...
Michel Lentz
Can you tell us where you are from, where do you live?
Born in Luxembourg.
What is your profession?
I studied mathematics and physics, I am teaching mathematics.
In your art, do you prefer to express yourself in drawing?
As I have no technique at all, and never studied painting, it is clear that drawing is for me the most secure way of expressing myself. Oil painting ist quite fascinating, but I am not so sure about the result and how I did what I do.
How do you work? Do you draw after life models?
I work only by memory, not even by photos. I have no live models. In the environment, I live in, this is completely impossible, and my studio is much to small for this sort of activities. On the other side, models are in some way problematic - you have to find a model 100% congenial and that's not so easy. Like making a film, duties and merits are then divided and the two parties are participating. So if a model does not ,,act'', you can have a 50% drawing at its best. On the other hand, not having a big studio is in some way a pity actually - I discovered that external factors are often decisive when doing art: in a big studio you will paint big paintings. And we all know that big paintings or drawings are not only an expression of megalomania (or the well known arrogance of contemporary art), but also a sort of dissolution of bourgeois frames and cliches, considering this, a big canvas will not any more be a big canvas, but another, an new sort of object, a new category of things, added to those already existing. For the rest, I am sometimes comtemptuous about contemporary art - there is no doubt that it is nowadays very difficult to make differences between good and bad art.
All your drawing have a very nervous line, are they quickly executed?
Very quickly indeed, on the other hand, I only keep one of ten or twenty drawings, the rest being rubbish and thrown away.
As quick as Delacroix said about drawing a riding horse?
Maybe - until now I never was on a horse's back. But I love Degas's paintings of jockeys.
No idea about the size of your drawings, are they as small as confidentiel?
The size is in general indicated below: most are A3, ca 30 x 43 cm, some A2 ca 60 x 43 cm, some 50 x 70 and the huge size monotypes are 100 x 70 cm.
Do you exhibite in real? What are your artistic projects?
No, in the restrictive environment I live in, this is not possible to exhibit without making a fool of myself. If I had not chosen complete isolation for me and my drawings - except Flickr people, nobody has seen them - they would not even exist. I tried to exhibit in other countries.
Why are you in flickr, what do you expect from Web 2.0?
Flickr is my only window on the world, in some sense, the small steady light at the end of a black tunnel. I don't think there will be much change about this. All I have to do, is to learn to be as stoic as Cezanne and as selfconfindent as Gauguin. I think that a modern artist is less present in his work than in the biography of a certain, interesting sort of selfconfidence. So paintings, drawings are only documents describing the history of this creative selfconfidence. Not on the contrary: like in Art Brut, a naive, unconscious creative selfconfidence is primary.
A lot of your work is censored by flickr, what do you think about that and how could you avoid this?
I do not even try to avoid this, as in my ,,real'' environment, drawing nudes is simply suicidal, I deliberately chose to restrict not only my nudes, but almost all of my drawings. In my direct vicinity people are dirtily laughing at all I do, draw or paint (,,why is this old fool losing his time in doing this?''), and I decided not to give these people any reason any more to laugh.
Donald G. Jean
Originally I'm from Dallas, Texas, but I haven't even been in the US since 1988. I've been maried to an Italian woman from Vicenza for the past 33 years and when I retired from the US Army 14 years ago we built a house in my wife's hometown, San Pietro in Gu (Pd). I love Italy, it's food & wine, its architecture, and its people, and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
Photography is a passion for me and I don't think I could ever really become a full-time professional because I don't want to devote a lot of time to operating a business.
I rarely print any of my photos and have never been exhibited in a gallery although I have had a few offers to do so.
I've been using Nikon camera bodies and Nikkor lenses for more than 30 years and until about 4 years ago only took family snapshot type of pictures. But all that changed when I started using digital cameras. The whole picture taking process became much easier and more immediate. By this I mean, I could instantly see the results in the LCD screen. I don't do a lot of post processing mainly because I don't know how to very well. I prefer to shoot hand held because it's more sponteneous but often use a tripod (Gitzo 1325 with a RRS BH-55 ballhead) when I want exacting detail and slow shutter speeds.
I shoot almost exclusively night scenes but I'm interested in any kind of scene that has interesting light and the potential for mood. As you can see from my photos, I almost always have people in my shots, especially people that are moving about. I think these are the most interesting shots.
My favorite photographers are all from the old school, people like Brassai and Doisneau, mainly because I love their scenes from Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. And I'm also attracted to the Pictorialist and Impressionist works of the early 20th century. But I also admire many photographers on flickr, Rui Palha being just one such example.
I have a love/hate relationship with flickr. It's great because it brings a lot of people with a common interest together, but it's also bad because it promotes stupid concepts like Explore, which is nothing but a joke and a waste of time. However, it would be impossible to create a photo sharing site that would fit everyones wants and needs, so I guess flickr is the best alternative around.
Walter Breidenbach
Walter, could you tell us a little more about you, where are you from, where do you live, what is your profession?
I´m living in Kassel, in the middle of Germany, in the international artscene well known because of the DOCUMENTA exhibition all 5 years. I earn my money with graphic design.
Why have you chosen photography to express yourself and since when?
I didn´t really choose photography. It happened to me. And I´m not shure if it´s a question of selfexpression.I never really was interested in photography. During my art study in the first half of the eighties I identified with being a painter and I was derisive about photographers. I began to work with photographie later after I let the artscene behind me and decided to work as a graphic designer. About two years ago a friend told me about flickr. And at this time I had contact with a modern dance group. And I had some time left for nonprofit work. So an exciting process began.
How do you work, what kind of photographic materiel do you use, on what support do you print?
I´ve never printed one of these images of my flickr stream. It´s a funny paradox situation: these images with scratches and textures which associate material (paper, metal) never existed in material, it´s a double pseudo in materiality of the image and the represented object. I mostly use this surface of a scratched metalplate as a layer in photoshop. There are two aspects why I prefer this. At the one hand the association of a heavy material and on the other hand the light reflected in the scratches.
Have you done exhibitions in real and what are your artistic plans for the future?
I´d done exhibitions between Kassel and Tokio during my time as a „free artist“. But I´ve never done as a photographer. But these are unimportant categories. I´m thinking about realizing (materializing) an exhibition, maybe with Michelle Brea and Thea Curtis (who are two of my favorites on flickr). The title would be „NOLI ME TANGERE“, meaning „don‘t touch me“, the Latin version of words spoken (according to John 20:17) by Jesus to Mary Magdalene when she recognizes him after his resurrection.
What would you say about your work, how would you qualify your expression, and what are you seeking for?
It´s always the question about „what is an image“ with all these library filling questions of representation, appearance and reality and so on. Maybe my intentions have to do with the difference between seeing and touching. Two of my images in this ArtCafe exhibition are articulating this theme very directly: „noli me tangere“ and „Moses“. It has to do with desire and the impossibility of real satisfaction in any object of desire. There is an intersting text of Jean-Luc Nancy with the title „NOLI ME TANGERE“. It´s an interpetation of paintings about the biblical scene of Mary Magdalene‘s recognizing Jesus Christ after his resurrection. This subject became of a long, widespread and continuous iconographic tradition in Christian art from late antiquity until the 20th century. Nancy interpetes this sujet in connection with his deconstruction of christianity.
What do you think about flickr and what do you expect in there?
I never made such an intensive experience of what we call Beliebigkeit (randomness, arbitrariness, whateverism) in German as on the flickr portal. These millions of images. It´s interesting, seductive, with danger of addiction. Sometimes I´m thinking about letting these art and image things behind me and trying to become a good cook for my family and my friends.
Teodora Taneva
I am from Bulgaria and live in Sofia.
What kind of studies have you done?
I have studied master of clinical psychology.
What is your profession?
Psychologist and artist.
Since when do you do photography?
3 years.
How do you work? Do you use only digital or also analogic?
Recently I use only digital. I use tablet to paint directry on the screen.
For your creations do you use others than photoshop?
I use Photoshop mainly ,but recently use other programs like Bryce 5.5 and Corel Painter.
Do you exhibite?
Yes.
Which are your favorites topics?
Light and human soul.
Which are your favorites photographers?
Too many.
Why are you on flickr?
Love the community, love what people do here... I just love Flickr!
Zébulon Rouge
Could you tell us a little more about you? Where are you from? What kind of study have you done?
I live in a small village in the South of France. I grew up in Marseilles under violent lights, close to the sea, and the white limestone rock which appears like bone. I studied agronomy and am a landscape gardener.
Why have you chosen photography to express yourself and since when do you practice it?
I taught myself, and came to photography in stages. For years i had a rather conventional way of taking photographs, with a second-hand single reflex camera i produced matter for memories. In 2001 i bought a good quality compact digital camera for professional use in my projects of garden creation studies. A graphic designer friend taught me how to use Photoshop, this was a newer, more creative approach to images. Little by little i began reading books and magazines about photography, running round exhibitions, looking differently the work of photographer friends. My way of taking photographs and seeing was also changing, it was becoming captivating almost sensual. Something like touching with the eyes... Finally 3 years ago, i began using a good single lens reflex digital camera, and worked on the places where i found something magical, natural spots and disused industrial sites. Then i joined a group of 10 passionate amateurs, we swapped photos via email, with a new theme each month, getting different people from outside of the group to comment on them.Then 15 months ago i discovered Flickr...
How do you work? What are your favorites topics? Also, which are the photographers you admire the most?
I often have my camera with me, i can photograph in any place, any time, though i don't necessarily do that.It's adventure on every street and forest corner. Sometimes for fun, i mentally take pictures without a camera... It's astonishing how persistant these images can be.
Sometimes paintings, drawings or poetry inspires me, or dreams, memories that return. To respond to these impulses, i recently experimented with sessions in places where i know when the light is at its best, finding models and getting their permission, their participation for a simple production. I really like this way of working. It requires organisation, presents many obstacles, but it's exalting work, to get as close a possible to what on is looking for. I discovered recently Jorge Molder whose work denies a unique reality for the benefit of a world with multiple possible. Carrie Levy's portraits with naked models in their own house, who diverting their faces inviting you in the identification…Or still Bill Armstrong and his fabulous suggestion of color portraits. This summer in Arles city Nan Goldin's huge slide show really touched me. In this register i saw in museum art gallery of Stockholm the series Teenage Lust de Larry Clark on the teenagers lost of the 80s in USA, there also, an enormous emotion. Seen also works of Graciela Iturbide of Mexico and Romualdas Rakauskas of Lithuanie, incredible power in relations between the human and the nature. On Flickr I found many magnificent artists.
Your work on computer, do you print it and on what support? Do you have exbitions plans and other artistic plans?
Two years ago i began work on a black and white series,and a few colour shots,
on my office printer. It's very pleasing to make things materialise but my gosh! There's no mercy, especially if the printer is not great. I had to make several tests before obtaining a result which I found acceptable at the time and which today leaves me doubting. This spring, for my first exhibition, i contacted a professional laboratory, for 40/40 and 40/60 formats in black and white on thick Hahnemuhle paper, with aluminium backing. That's another thing, it lives up to it's promises but also reveals little weaknesses. There's a reason why a print is also called an "épreuve" (transl: arduous task/proof) in French! But the exhibition was a success and will be followed up. The desire is there to make new prints from shots that are building up and then exhibit.
How would qualify your work? What kind of meaning, of truth do you want to show, to tell? What are you seeking for?
I seek a strength of feeling capable of overturning. It's an attempt at writing poetry through photography, the forms of which are constantly moving outwards. Beyond representation. I wanted to obtain images which diffuse out of their frames, stories with multiple interpretations. Sometimes i use water and smoke as unpredictable revealers. There ephemeral architecture remind us of our own fragility, and at the same time, their existences eternally in change, making a prodigious gift, the mystery of the world. I have a weakness for weak light, those of the frontiers between day and night, those during eclipses. To make a good photo, I need to switch into a state of photographic trance, later comes the understanding, and in front of my screen I distill. My photos question reality. I agree with the definition of Jean Baudrillard; photography is our exorcism: primitive societies had masks, the bourgeoisie had mirrors and we have our images.
Why are you in flickr and what do you expect from this kind of possibility?
Flickr is a magic lantern for me, a crazy kaleidoscope of images, with the possibility of contacting the people who produce those images. I have been so lucky to be able to discover different views and cultures. The opportunity of perceiving the undercurrents in the way of shooting, and finding one's place, building a personal view. Flickr it is also the true nightmare which eats my time. I even tried to stop once, it is more difficult than to stop the cigarette!
Well, it's also a engine that drives, and especially, the possibility of showing one's production to a great many people.One can test one's work by exposing it to the comments of other photographers. And thanks to Art Café, a virtual exhibition space.
Elena Mariotti
Elena, where are from?
I live in the provinzia of Urbino in Italia.
What kind of studies have you done?
I studied art because of my passion for it and my preferences were photography and drawing.
So you made the choise of photography to express your feelings, what kind of advantages do recognize to this tool?
I think for me it's the best instrument to communicate my feelings, it's an axtrordinary way to change onselfs mood and to creat a kind of second life / world.
Which are your favorites topics?
People, life in general, every days life, those are wonderfull experimental grounds to express what i am thinking and feeling.
Which are your favorites photographers?
I love the french photography, specialy Cartier - Bresson and others - also like Salgado, Capa, Giacomelli, Man Ray... In general i like all those who express deep feelings in their works.
Do you exhibite your work and how do you print?
I would like to exhibite but I need to have more work done. I sometimes print my photos and do it on photographic paper.
Why are are you on flickr and what do you think about it, what do you expect from it?
One told me I have to show my photos on flickr and i made that choise to show my work. I like to be there , it's a very democratic way to show his work, the selection in there is about merit, quality and no filter, so it's wonderful.
What would you say about your work, how would qualify it?
I was always interested in how a picture can say things, a strong communication built on knowledge or quickly shot where you have the whole world represented. What i want to express is my world feelings of the human beings with joy, pain, eros and i represent all this with light, darkness, which i use carefully and after having thougt about it a lot.
Martien van Asseldonk
Where are you from?
I am from The Netherlands (Holland).
Where do you live?
I live from my suitcase, travel a lot as a management consultant. I do have a rented house in the Netherlands, where i regulary touch base to see my four children.
What kind of studies have you done?
Well - electronics, then I worked 3 years fro Philips in Netherlands - married in 1980, went to Kenya with my wife, worked there 1981-1985 as a manager of a vocational training centre for streetkids in the slums of Nairobi. We got 2 children there. Wasn't easy to re-adjust back home, we worked for 11 years in Sri Lanka and got 2 more children. Seperated i did a PhD (1998-2001), became boss of an internationl NGO in Kabul (2001-2003) and here after I work as a management consultant, often (but not always) dealing with emergencies.
What is your background in photography?
I bought my first very cheap camera when i was 14. Tried out crazy shots. I did have a feel for drawing and art. I was a very sensitive kid, i suppose, but growing up on a farm - working was better appreciated. I had a period of doing oil-painting in Kenya. I also sometimes write some stories in newspapers. Furthermore i made a movie with youth in my home village in the seventies. When i started earning a salary by Philips in december 1978 i bought my first professional camera. On the next sunday morning i walk through the frozen field and made my first artistic shots. In those days slides were considered to be more beautiful and artistic and the coming years in Kenya and Sri Lanka. I did more with slides than photos. Fotos (and later videos) were more for documenting the endless number of birthparties and trips. I was emotional low in 1997 - 2001 and seperated i did my PhD. That opened up again in 2001 and shortly afterwards 2002 i bought my first digital camera. After 2003 i started traveling a lot for my work and photography gained some momentum. Over the years i had learned slowly by doing. I like to have the blue sky as background and i love the strong emotional impact of hands.
I photograph that what talks to me, makes an emotional impact. A frame, colour combination (face + background etc.), kind of pop up out of my environment. I than just point and shoot. Mostly people, but then a bit deeper in their soul. I do most of the time interact while shooting.
What kind of camera do you use?
Canon EOS 450 D digital
Do you work with photoshop?
Yes, but slightly. Sometimes i think that the camera is just off track and then i help it a little bit.
Have you exhibite your photos and do you plan to show your work in art rooms in the future?
No, i do not exhibit, except on Flickr. Yes, like to do so. I sold one photo to be put on the cover of The Kite Runner in France (paperback-edition). I do get frequent requests, but give them away free of charge most of the time. Tries stock-photo's for a few days and gave up. Much work, less money, much focus on technical quality. That is not me, i photograph just for beauty and art and as a challenge to get beauty out, truth - untold truth, shock and touch hearts. There is a bit of permanent anger in me with all the superficial lifes many people live, and what they take for granted and small worlds and small groups and all that. Life is too short and precious to waste like that.
Do you print your photos and on what?
Not anymore. Sometimes enlarges beautiful ones.
What are your favorite photographers?
Don't know, i do like certain styles, but I am bad in remembering names. There is a Dutch one, Martien Coppens, who photographed farmers and traditional houses, all black and white, and i like the way he tried to bring the souls out.
Why are you in flickr and what do you expect from that possibility?
Well, i started with Facebook, but that is not the right forum for fotosharing. Then my son mentioned Flickr and I enjoyed it from the start.
Gideon Ansell
Where are you from?
I live in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. I’m from New York city originally.
What kind of study have you done?
My background is in music - jazz and experimental music mostly, but i’ve been a user interface and visual designer for many years. That’s where i got my training in the visual arts.
Why have you choosen photography to express your art and since when are you shooting, working photos?
When i was growing up almost everyone in my family. My father, mother and brother were professional photographers. So I’ve been around photography all my life, but with that many photographers cluttering up the place i went into music instead. I only started to make pictures in earnest about 18 months ago when i discovered flickr.
How do you work?
In music i’m very used to building pieces from many, many different tracks of real instruments and samples. I work exactly the same way with the images i create. They are typically composed out of many layers. I use textures from industrial sites, images of people, sky, water. I frequently re-photograph images by viewing photos on the computer screen and shooting them off the screen. This gives me a flat, oversaturated, pixilated, otherworldly feel that works well when i layer them together. I'm pretty much visceral. I try things and if they touch me I go with them. If they don’t, i hit delete.
Do you use a lot photoshop?
In every image.
What are your favorites topics?
The images i create are composed out of our collective memory of the last hundred years - of the joy, pain, ruin, discontent, fear and hope we all carry with us. I construct these composites using elements at once familiar and dreamlike to arrive at a state that feels half-glimpsed, half-remembered. Beauty and desire are a common thread in my work; as is the keenly felt longing for emotional connection. We often live lives apart and disconnected. This tension is one. I find myself drawn to explore frequently.
Do you print your photos and on what kind of support?
I have a pretty good semi-pro printer that does images up to 13x19 inches. I’d like to go bigger at some point when my budget permits. My images are high enough resolution to go up to 4 feet.
Have you done and do you plan exhibitions of your work?
I’ve had a few local shows in boston and in online magazines like plateform. I’m always looking for new venues, both virtual and physical.
How would qualify your work? What are you seeking for? What do you want to tell in your shots?
I work in this medium because i need a place to explore, explain and expand on how i experience life… as an overwhelming wave of sensory input, external and internal, dissonance and harmony, thrash and purity… filtered, dismembered, remembered and spun into a uniquely personal pastiche. In all of my work i cross and blur those artificial boundaries we build between waking and dreaming, thought and emotion, sensuality and intellect. Somewhere there on that continuum is the sweet spot, balanced precariously, but still attainable.
Why are you on flickr and what do you think about it?
Flickr has introduced me to the most amazingly talented group of artists imaginable. In addition to making many great friends i’ve been able to view and learn from some of the best photographers and artists in the world.
Which are your favorites photographers?
All my favorite photographers are here on flickr. This is not to demean the work of many noted and talented photographers, but one thing you discover in a site like flickr is that often the only difference between famous artists and unheard of artists is exposure. museums and galleries are fine, but they offer only the thinnest sliver of the exciting work that is available everyday on flickr.
Gabriel Magri
Where are you from?
Buenos Aires, the capital of an empire that never existed.
What kind of study you did?
Technical school. Psychology (3 years and gave up), Philosophy teacher later (actual job)
Why have you choosen photography?
I love art. More than anything. I'm a frustrated painter. I've tried but I failed. I have a little patience... One day I tried with the camera... And I fell in love with her. Its spontaneity, that's why it captivated me. The same happens with music. I love jazz and any improvised music. The camera so must by like a saxophone. Spontaneous composition. Question and answer, that's my aim.
How do you work?
Like a sybarite... "laissez faire, laissez passer"... very little plan. Although the preconceived plan in fact exists... and if the question is about materials or technique. I started photo studies in 1990 and I used always films. In 2005 i bought my first digital. Now I have 3 digital cameras. I'm always using and one 120 mm Yasicaflex plenty of dust i'm planning to use again. But I feel very comfortable with digital format, i don't believe neither in absolutes nor in purism...
Do you use photoshop?
Yes, but mainly as I used the dark room in the past. I touch contrasts, levels, shadows, etc... and apart from that, for adding textures sometimes, but no more. It's difficult for me to take distance from the essence of photography.
Do you print, on what?
Yes, I print. A laboratory does it for me. Regular photo paper.
Do you do exhibitions, where?
I'm trying to get some energy for it. There's a curator waiting for me since April...
How would you qualify your work?
I'm half classic, half experimental. Both extremes are in me. I can't help being a mad, anxious, unquiet child but at the same time i never forget and stop admiring the referents of photography art...
What are your purposes?
1st, be happy. 2nd, never feel an artist at all. Want to be, yes, but never be it. That day i will be dead. 3rd, forgetting bad gestures of bad people.
Which are your favorites photographers?
Uhhh... i'm very eclectical. William Klein, Lee Friedlander, Boris Mikhailov, Daido Moriyama, Moholy-Nagy, Moholy-Nagy! …and Franco Fontana, Giacomelli, Koudelka, Saudek, Eugene Richards, Witkin... too many! In general i don't like advertising or graphics or any influence of market rules in art work (except using those rules for ridiculizing and destroying those rules)... i love art... and of course, never but never i can't forget Steichen or Margaret Cameron or Atget, they are in my unconscious, or better in my super-ego.
Emmanuel Smague
Tell me about yourself. Where you are from, background...
I am 40 years old, I live in Lannion, in Brittany (France). I am a music teacher and every school holiday, I am free to indulge my passion for photography.
How did photography begin for you? How long have you been shooting?
My photo work falls into three periods. From 1987 to 1992 i traveled to Turkey and took colour and black and white shots ( Nikon FA and F3 bodies, 35/55/105 and 180mm lenses). From 1992 to 2005 i continued to travel, but without a camera. For me, traveling is only a pretext to discover and meet people, it is no longer my priority as it was during this earlier period. Since 2005 i purchased a Leica M7 equipped with a 35mm lens. It’s during the summer of 2005, onboard the Trans Siberian, that I returned to photography and started to work exclusively in black and white. A trip that for me was very important, as it was the first time I was traveling with the idea of working on a photographic subject – the Trans Siberian. Since then, the selection of my travel destinations is directly linked to a subject. However, for me, photography remains a pretext and not a goal, a pretext as I said to discover and meet people.
What thing or things have inspired or influenced you the most in your photography?
Painting. I do think i look at things as a painter, more than a photographer.
Do you have any formal photography or art training?
Only the user’s manual for my camera.
Children and schools play a role in a number of your photos. Is due to your being a teacher?
There is no connection with the fact that I am a teacher. What I like most with children is their spontaneity. This is what I also find in older people, especially if they have become “big kids” again :)
What has caused you to mainly choose to do you work in Iraqi Kurdistan, Georgia, Central Asia and Mongolia? What’s the story behind these locations?
As I said earlier, I choose destinations thinking of photographic subjects. My presence in Iraqi Kurdistan stems from a cultural exchange between Kurdish and Breton musicians. This exchange allowed me to meet an interpreter who opened doors for me and helped me visit refugee camps. Flickr has also allowed me to be warmly welcomed in a Georgian village and to discover their daily life. Since my trip on the Trans Siberian, I have had a desire to discover former Soviet republics and the countries influenced by this gigantic empire.
Have your projects in these locations been funded by any organizations or are these done mainly on your own?
I work independently from any organization. However, in the future, I would see working for an NGO or a photo agency as an accomplishment. Current distribution of my work is limited to exhibitions and sales through my website. In September-October 2009, my work on Iraqi Kurdistan will be published by Éditions de Juillet.
What projects are you currently working on?
In April 2009, for two weeks, I will move into a village that was not evacuated 45 kms away from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, to produce a body of work that will parallel work done in villages that were evacuated following the tragedy.
How often do you shoot?
I am not one of these people who shoot a lot. For me, pre-visualisation before shooting is very important… Learning how to look at light, how to compose your image… after that, it is just a matter of giving commands to your camera. But you must also keep in mind that anticipation and chance can be on your side.
How would you describe the photos you tend to personally appreciate?
If I had to keep only one photo in this album, it would probably have to be this picture taken in a refugee camp in Northern Iraq. With photography, you can convey an emotion; a photo can tell a whole story just by itself. Whoever looks at it can then tell his or her own story. Photography is also a delightful cocktail of patience and speed. And if the person I am photographing can become my accomplice, then it is for me a moment of pure bliss:
I noticed you use a Leica M7 with Summicron 1:2/35mm ASPH. Is this your main camera? If so how did you settle on this setup?
Yes, this is all I use. I am always trying to be close to my subject and this is the reason why I work with a 35 mm lens. I chose the Leica m7 because it is robust, simple and unobtrusive.
Do you mainly shoot areas close to where you live or do you frequently explore other areas?
Since 2005, I take pictures only when traveling. But starting in May 2009, I will work for most of a year near home, in an extended stay hospital and I will work in parallel on older people still living independently in rural areas.
You’ve used both color and black and white… What caused the choice of one over the other?
My photographic work is currently focused on black and white. I find it conveys emotions better, as colour, in my humble opinion, is more oriented towards aestheticism.
And for the last question, what photographers have influenced you most and why?
To mention only the main ones : Bresson, Koudelka, Salgado Agoudjian and Sluban. Their outstanding humanist work have always inspired me.
Flickr: www.flickr.com/people/emmanuel_smague/
His Personal Site: www.smague.fr/
www.flickr.com/photos/emmanuel_smague/497676970/
www.flickr.com/photos/emmanuel_smague/2977854114/
www.flickr.com/photos/emmanuel_smague/2526815201/
g_art
Where are you from?
Canada.
What kind of studies you did?
My background is in architectural technology and I currently write construction manuals for architects, but I daydream sometimes that I will quit my job and focus on my art full time. I have always enjoyed drawing and I wanted to be a commercial artist in my youth. I was always interested in the arts, and studied music, commercial art, graphic art and photography through my high school years.
Why have you chosen the photographic Art?
I tend to work long hours at the office, so I only get small windows of opportunity to work on my art. Digital art allows me to create my artwork in a shorter period of time, and it has the added benefit of no clean up after.
Do you use Photoshop or other?
I mainly use Photoshop to create my digital artwork, but I also like to use Inkscape. Inkscape is a vector type graphics editor, versus the raster (bitmap) type graphics editor such as Photoshop. Inkscape offers a different range of digital possibilities than Photoshop for graphics type artwork. I like to integrate my Inkscape artwork with my Photoshop art. I am self-taught, and still learning the use of Photoshop and Inkscape, and am still exploring the seemingly endless possibilities of both programs.
Do you have plans, exhibitions plans?
I have no plans to exhibit my work at this time. I am passionate about my artwork, but currently it seems more like my hobby, so I don’t really think of it in those terms. But who knows, it might be something I pursue down the road as I refine my art and digital drawing skills.
Why are you on flickr?
I sometimes have problems with insomnia, so started web surfing in the middle of the night, and came across Flickr by accident while on the internet. I saw some of the photography and artwork and I was immediately hooked. Since discovering Flickr, it has become my alter ego and an outlet to express my artistic side.
What are your favs photographers/Artists?
There are many wonderful and talented artists on Flickr that I admire, appreciate and follow their work.
How would you qualify your work?
My work varies in nature. I like to experiment with colour, pattern, texture and form, so I guess I would call my artwork digital abstract. My art is primarily a multilayered fusion of figurative and abstract elements.
Osvaldo Pieroni
"I live in Calabria, South Italy, in front of the Strait of Messina, the mythical place of Scylla and Charybdis. I am a university professor of environmental sociology and my main activity is teaching and writing books. Photographer for over 35 years, creating images is my second job. I am interested in people, on their expressions, feelings, immediate situations and street photography. In composing the images I put attention to space, to the balance of forms and lights, to the “punctum”, where the observer will direct his gaze. Sometimes I’m working on objects apparently only graphics, still-life and landscapes, but also over the form are the expression and the sense of the image that move my interest. The digital processing and the post-production on computer have replaced the hard work of the old dark room and offer now great scope for creativity. I use very often selfmade layers to enhance the light of my compositions, following the ancient lesson of the impressionist painters.
From a professional point of view I’ve made covers for books and CDs, I have published photos on various paper and electronic journals. I realized exhibitions, especially at the Centre of Arts of my university and elsewhere.
I participate from a couple of years actively to Flickr, which offers good visibility to my work and allows me to be in constant contact with other photographers. Flickr is certainly a place of learning, exchange of views and a good showcase."
dominique's
Where are you from?
I was born in Montgeron/ France and have been living in the USA since the late 70's ( mostly in San Diego )
What kind of studies you did?
Schooling in France Bac level~ New York Institute of Photography in 1977 ( i lived there for awhile ) plus a lot of self studies.
Why have you chosen the photographic Art?
Because it is the best way of expressing myself and especially since the advent of digital photography, the most immediate for me.
Do you use Photoshop or other?
Whenever i need to, but i do not have photoshop~ I use paintshop pro and various softwares ( fractal explorer recently ).
Do you have plans, exhibitions plans?
Eventually yes...i am moving to an area of town that has quite a few Art Galleries, so i will explore those very shortly.
Why are you on flickr?
Because of the immediate feedback and exchange from very talented Artists and for the daily inspiration and friendships too.
What are your favs photographers/Artists?
Brassai, Annie Leibowitz,Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Jean Michel Basquiat , Lisa Solberg , Gerard Stricher etc... too many to list... I like a lot of Artists and a lot of different styles.
How would you qualify your work?
" Nouveau Pop " ...Colors... colors and more colors... and i am always looking for a pleasant and unique composition too.
CARLO TARDANI
Where are you from?
I am 'maremmano' from Follonica Toscana, Italia
What kind of study you did ?
I've studied in Public Professional Italian Institut
Why have you choosen the photographic art?
I do photography since longtime just because it is my way of expressing feelings, emotions...
I don't work on photography I just take photos in a natural way. I think photoshop is a very precious instrument when used without abuse. I like analogic but the digital art came to open many other ways to comunicate.
Do you have artistic plans, exhibitions plans?
I don't have plans for my artistic future because I do photography by passion.
I've participated in several urban exihibitions at my city.
I am in Flickr because it offers a large and diferent kind of public to interact.
Who are your favorites photographers ?
My favourite photographers are Gianni Berengo Gardin and Josef Koudelka.
Srecko Lebinec
First of all, i am sorry for my bantu-english, and you will understand that that is the reason for my short answers. My name is Srećko Lebinec. I live in Varaždin, Croatia. I worked as a journalist for years,mostly on radio, but also in the newspapers and tv, and now I work in Council for electronic media in Zagreb. Photography is my love since childhood days, and that means from the 70s. I stopped for some time, while I was leading school for animation, and making animation movies with children. I started again with digital camera, and I loved it, especially when I saw that I could change classic "dark room" with incredible possibilities of Photoshop. Of course, i think all the technical things are here just to help photographer to bring the most important thing out the motive. I published some of my photos in some journals, and exposed it on few group exhibitions.
BRANCOLINA
I was born in Italy, but most of my life I’ve spent in Belgium (Antwerp), where I am working as an architect. I’ve always liked photography, but only since about a year ago I started taking photos in a different, more serious way. Big reason for this is the encouragement and inspiration that I got via a few friends that I met on Flickr and discovery of groups Rhizome and Cream of Fugu. Thanks to Flickr I’m now addicted to photography and I don’t leave anywhere without my Canon PowerShot G9.
I work very spontaneous, on some kind of visual impulse that occasionally switches on while my eyes are exploring the surrounding. I have a great visual curiosity and some kind of difference will often make me stop to have a look, but there are a few specific situations and themes that attract me: contemporary architecture, urban geometry, linear abstracts, reflections, shadows&shades and minimal details with a strong character. As an architect my mind has been trained to work with geometric forms and I am very keen on well composed images. I often like to explore possibilities of perspective deformations and illusions in order to create my own vision.
Regarding Photoshop, I think it’s the absolute must for contemporary photographers. Not all photos have to be processed by Photoshop, but it is definitely a great technical help in correcting/improving of framing, contrast, color or sharpness.
Digital art is not really my favorite style, but there are, of course, always exceptions to the rule and some of the works that I’ve recently seen on Flickr and internet I do respect. There are plenty of possibilities to create a beautiful image with Photoshop tools like layers or various filters, but most of those images somehow stay locked in pure aesthetics and I often miss some kind of deeper sense behind it.
When I joined Flickr in January 2008 I just wanted to upload some photos that I could easily share with my friends instead of usual posting my e-mail. Little by little I started to meet some interesting photographers and I discovered a few groups where I could find very inspiring images. It certainly helped me to develop my skills by seeing how other people rated my works, I learned a lot from comments and suggestions that I got from Flickr friends. I am also administrating my own group Shadé that is specialized in photos with interesting shadows and shaded surfaces.
I am definitely planning to further develop my photographic skills in both technical and artistic way and right now I am working on my first photo book that is going to present my ‘abstract architecture’ works. It should be ready somewhere in October. There are also some plans for my first photo exhibition in Antwerp, but that will be for the winter and in cooperation with one more Belgian photographer.
OLIVIER GILET
Where do you come from?
From where I am.
What kind of studies you did?
Theater
Why did you choose photgraphy?
No choice
How do you work ?
Fast
What do you think about photoshop?
It's my third hand.
What do you think about digital art?
A today's tool.
How do you plan your artistic future?
A lot of work and contacts.
How do you print and on what?
Mainly on transparent film or canvas with Epson 9800.
Where else do you expose your work?
Galleries in Belgium, Holland, France.
Why on flickr?
Very good tool to promote and create contacts.
What are your favorites photographers?
Weston, Sudek, Francesca Woodman, Ralph Gibson, Kertesz, Alvarez Bravo
Anne Clements
Where do you come from?
I come from Ireland but I live in London.
What kind of studies did you do?
I studied History and Spanish at university, Trinity College Dublin. When it comes to photography I am self taught.
Why did you choose photography?
As a television director I have worked with film and video cameraman for 25 years, so I became influenced by their work. I was always looking through their lenses and became obsessed about the way things, places and people look on camera. As a director I never had time to take photos myself so only started seriously three years ago when I bought my first digital SLR to take on holiday to Chile. Since then photography became a passion.
How do you work?
I work in many different ways. When I travel I get up early to photograph in the early morning light and try also to catch the evening light. I also like to work at home in my kitchen or living room with concepts using two soft daylights and reflectors. I also set myself projects to do. For example my "A-Z of Cockney rhyming slang images" is just being exhibited in London.
What do you think about digital art?
That's a broad question. I think it's a wonderful revolution. I love being able to switch on my computer and see what others are doing instantly.
How do you plan your artistic future?
I would like to get a book published of my Cockney rhyming slang images and I would like to continue having exhibitions with new projects. But I am also just as happy to continue taking photographs for myself!
How do you print and on what?
I was given an Epson R2880 printer for my birthday two months ago. It produces wonderful prints up to A3+ (super). I print on professional semi-gloss paper and on professional luster paper.
Where else do you expose your work?
- Three of my photographs are being shown at the moment at an exhibition in California and have been published in an American University Arts Review.
- Two other photographs have also been chosen by the London Independent Photographers for an exhibition in Hoxton/Shoreditch in East London this summer.
- 27 of the photographs in my Cockney Rhyming Slang series are now on shown in my first solo exhibition at The Old Joanna Gallery, 90 Church Street, Marylebone, London NW8
Why on Flickr?
Everything started for me seriously in photography when I joined Flickr on the recommendation of a friend two years ago. Looking at other people's work inspired me to develop my own. Flickr is a great way to find out how other people see and judge your images. There are some wonderful groups on Flickr, like Art Cafe, which runs very inspirational exhibitions with seriously talented photographers and artists. I enjoy looking at other people's work and it can be a real boost to be appreciated by people you admire. However I think there is a danger of becoming competitively obsesssed with awards etc. Flickr is dangerously addictive! But it's great fun. My favourite photgraphers are Cartier Bresson, Julia Cameron, and Bill Brandt.
Augusto Rosa
Where do you come from?
I was born and raised in Brazil, have lived abroad the last 25 years, Barcelona and Mount Desert Island (US)
What kind of studies you did?
I’m an architect with specializations in historic intervention, Gaudi’s architecture, scenography and PHD studies in architecture and cinematography
Why did you choose photography?
I started to take photos in 2007. I’m an architect who used to paint in my free time, now I’m an architect who takes pictures in my free time. Painting wasn’t giving me the satisfaction to fulfill my artistic expectations, so then decided to try photography and have never stopped since; I found this media to be the best way to express my aesthetic view of the world.
How do you work?
I have my camera with me all the time, I do not plan anything until something catches my eye, and the only composition comes from the moment that the camera is in front of my eyes. I normally do not take more than one or two shots of a subject, even if the technical aspect suffers from it. All my work is a diary of what is around me on my day by day routine. I like to think I have an eclectic view of the world; I like to read others’ “realities” within the normal world around us, whether it’s man made or natural surrounds. My only goal is not to be pragmatic, ever!
What do you think about Photoshop?
I’m not against it, and I have used it, not to modify the essence of the picture but to enhance color, saturation and crop - very basic tools.
What do you think about digital art
It is 2009! It is the future, it is the most revolutionary canvas available to man kind!
How do you plan your artistic future?
I’m very absorbed by architecture as my living, of course, but photography is taking more and more of my time and interest, I look for a balance between them.
How do you print and on what?
Paper so far, I’m experimenting with canvas right now
Where else do you expose your work?
I have not had an exhibition yet, though I have participated in online magazines, and had some architectural pictures published in magazines. My first solo exhibition will come this summer in the US and also I’m working on a photo book.
Why on flickr?
I enjoy looking around on Flickr and I like to exchange comments with my contacts. I try my best to create original work uninfluenced by others’ photos, while at the same time it’s subconsciously impossible not to be influenced or inspired by all the great artists posting on Flickr. Flickr is a great network to exchange and learn, it challenges oneself. I’m happy to be part of it.
What are your favorites photographers!
César Augusto
Where do you come from?
From Porto, Portugal my sunny country.
What kind of studies you did?
I studied electronic. Never art but the art was always in my eyes and in my heart.
Why did you choose photgraphy?
Because since very young I felt that this language it was the best one to show my feelings.
How do you work ?
Using one way simplest, sometimes classic and another digital using photoshop.
What do you think about photoshop?
It is a fantastic tool for our expression.
What do you think about digital art?
It is a direct eye to the future.
How do you plan your artistic future ?
My future is now. I doesn’t know to look it in another way.
How do you print and on what ?
I print, when necessary, in a printer
Where else do you expose your work?
In a gallery of art and a coffee of my city.
Why on flickr?
Because flickr is light and very fast until the eyes.
What are your favorites photographers !
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray,Boris Mikhailov, Herb Ritts, Horst, Jean Claude, Jean Gaumy Gautrand, Gabriele Basilico, Sena da Silva,Paulo Nozolino, Nils Slavin, Nan Goldin, Manuel Álvarez Bravo,Alfredo da Cunha etc…
Olli Kekäläinen
Where do you come from?
I'm from Helsinki, Finland
What kind of studies you did?
I don't have any studies of photography - nor art in general.
Why did you choose photgraphy?
I have always had a need to express myself visually.But being too impatient to learn to draw or paint it was natural to choose the photography.
How do you work ?
Usually I use camera just as a tool for collecting material for Photoshop work. I sit in front of my desktop browsing hundreds of photos. I have taken and trying to create something new, something I haven't done yet - or at least find out a new angle for something. I have already done. Sometimes I of course shoot more traditional photography that does not need much Photoshop work.
What do you think about photoshop?
To me photography is meaninginful just with Photoshop.
What do you think about digital art?
Just haven't consider it a lot....
How do you plan your artistic future ?
I don't have specific plans. Just going to do same as have done so far. And indenting to avoid mental stagnation.
How do you print and on what ?
I have Epson Stylus Photo R2880 (A3+) printer. I print currently on Epson Premium Glossy Photo paper.
Where else do you expose your work?
At exhibitions approx. once per year here in Helsinki (small galleries and libraries etc)
Why on flickr?
Why not? Flickr is most excellent place for obtaining feedback.
What are your favorites photographers
In fact I don't have any - when talking about photographers outside Flickr. I have never been particularly interested on the history of the photography or photography as a contemporary art. At least I haven't been very systematic in my interest.
Dibujos de Molina
Where do you come from?
Buenos Aires - Argentina
What kind of studies have you done?
I've studied at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (National School of Fine Arts), I am a Sculpture teacher.
Why did you choose photography?
Because it is a quick means of expression in which I can articulate well my own times, and I feel comfortable creating!..
How do you work?
I'm intervening photographs during these days after I've printed them on canvas, I'm working with assembles and concrete objects (ready made).
What do you think about photoshop?
It's just one more tool
What du you think about digital art?
Another means of expression
How do you plan your artistic future?
work and work and work...
How do yoiu print and on what?
making huge prints, on paper, and on canvas...
Where do you expose your work?
At different cultural centres
Why are you on flickr?
Because I can show, see, and meet myself through the image itself with people from all over the world...
Which are your favorites protographers?
Many, many... Robert Frank, Man Ray, Moholy Nagy, Henri Cartier Bresson, W .Eugene Smith, Josef Sudek, Fontana, Rene Burri, Luis Gonzalez Palma
noisette
Why have you choosen photography ?
I made this choise because it's like writing with light and i like this kind of writing!... -j'ai choisi la photo car la photo c'est " écrire avec la lumière " et moi, ça me va !..
When have you started with shooting?
Around 12 years old, I think it was the first time i hold a camera in my hands
-depuis que j'ai eu dans les mains un appareil photo vers l'âge de 12 ans je crois...
What kind of knowledge do you have in photgraphy?
I started to learn it at school and in photo clubs, then more seriously I did a degree to become a professionnal in developping in a very traditional way.
-formée en autodidacte d'abord dans les clubs photos des MJC, ensuite j'ai fais un CAP photo ... professionnelle en tirage-filtage " à l'ancienne" je me suis ensuite peu intéressée au numérique ...
How would you explain your work, what would you say about it?
My work is a team work "noisette-nature" I know what nature gives to me and she is generous, I give her what she misses, a human eye, a feeling, an history
-mon travail c'est vraiment un duo " noisette*-nature*" je saisi tout ce qu'elle m'offre et je la trouve très généreuse , je lui donne ce qui lui manque : un regard humain c'est à dire une sensibilité , une histoire...
Do you plan exhibitions?
No exhibition plans.
Do you print your photos?
I don not print my photos. I need an other camera, reflex with a macro objektif...to work better like I feel it. I would like to do more macro, more blur, more sharp with catching the beauty of small litle things. Then I will do prints, for the moment I am not satisfied of my prints results.
-non, je n'imprime jamais mes photos pour l'instant..et je ne fais pas d'expo non plus -j'aimerais avoir un appareil reflex avec un objectif macro ... vraiment !
un reflex pour pouvoir faire le net et le flou comme je le sens d'abord..
ensuite un macro pour avoir les moyens de saisir ce que je vois :
souvent je trouve de très très belles choses dans de tous petits détails ..mais
à l'agrandissement tout est flou , ça ne passe pas ! si un jour je résous tout ça alors oui , je ferais des tirages ... mais il faudra que ce soit très très bon car je suis très exigeante sur la qualité technique en photo..
What do you think about photoshop?
I have to learn it, it's fabulous tool. I saw nice photos done with it and also very awfull things, but that's an other problem! -"il faut vraiment que je m'y mette" ...mais je ne l'ai pas encore fait .. je pense que c'est un outil fabuleux ! j'ai vu de très belles choses faites avec photoshop , de très laides aussi hélas ... mais ça ça ne vient pas de l'outil lui même !.
And about digital art?
I am very far from this but for sure it offers a lot of possibilities. -je me sens assez loin.. c'est quelque chose qui offre des possibilités infinies il me semble mais je ne sens pas cette diversité..
Which photographers do you admire the most?
They are a lot, I only will give some names:
-beaucoup beaucoup alors je n'en citerai que quelques uns:
Werber Bischof ,Edward Weston, André Kertész que j'aime beaucoup, Izis, Robert Capa , Edouard Boubat , Ansel Adams, Cartier Bresson etc etc etc etc.......
Why are you in flickr?
I like it, that's it! -cet échange là me convient tout à fait ..
Link: Art Cafe f/2 Curator and Artist Doris Sticher. A sensitive artist with a big heart for artists.
