DRAWING WITH LIGHT

The word "photography" was created from the Greek roots φωτός (phōtos), genitive of φῶς (phōs), "light" and γραφή (graphé) "drawing", togehther meaning "drawing with light"... 

FENCED IN

Waiting for the appropiate weather for my next project (I would need snow, but here in Moscow no sign of it at the moment) I a playing around a little bit with some technics I am planning to use.
Night photography, available light, hand held, some texture added. Yes, my next project is more on the dark side...

IN SEARCH FOR THE WHITE RABBIT

I was always attracted by Surrealism and mysticism. I always wanted to do a project in this direction. Planning a new project. About dreams, psychology. This pictures are actually not a part of this project but just "finger exercises" so to say. I still have to learn a lot more in Photoshop...

FallOut #1 

Lost Soul

Looking for the White Rabbit 

Heaven's Gate #1

More to come...

ART AND NATURE

Art objects and installations at Nikola-Lenivets, Russia.

Nikola-Lenivets is located 200 kilometers away from Moscow, in Kaluga region by the river Ugra. A part of the territory belongs to Ugra National Park, which is a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Nikola-Lenivets is a modern project - the only place in Russia that presents landscape installations and land-art objects created by leading Russian and international artists, many of which have become iconic figures for modern art. 

2014
LOOKING BACK

2014 is almost over. And with up to +16°C here in Austria there is anyway no chance to make some decent winter pictures. ;-) So time to look back. Looking back to quite a turbulent year. A lot of traveling again. Started a few new projects. Changed camera system. Got married...

Here is so to say a (small) summery in pictures of 2014.

Into the Abyss

Started the year with my "Sphere" Project. A picture per day for half a year (or so)

February. Exhibition at the KUNST 2014 in Berlin, Germany.

Ocean born

March. We went to the Fotofest Portfolio Review in Houston, TX, USA. And did some pictures for Vika's Project "Life loves Death" in the beaches of Galveston.

April. Added some pictures to my "Ghost" series.

Enchanted

May. Going east. We drove to the Ural, visited Magnitogorsk, Arkaim and a lot of other nice places, crossing the border between Europe and Asia quite often.

Monochrom

June. Back in Moscow. Spent a lot of time in Gorki Park and rambling the streets...

Helix

July. Went to Arles again. Attended the Portfolio review. And spent some times at the beach too...

August. Moscow. Early morning in an empty park. The doll was just sitting there. Quite spooky...

Lost again.

September. Commuting (by car) between Austria and Russia. A opportunity to add some pictures to my "Lost" series...

October. The beauty of small things...

Tolerance

November. Started with my new project. "Tolerance".

December. Lets see where to the year 2015 will lead us...

Work in Progress
TOLERANCE

Tolerance is another word for indifference. 

[W. Somerset Maugham]

Individuality. Habits. Features. Tradition. Beliefs. Needs. Desires. Preferences.

This is what defines us as a personality. That is everything what is valuable for us. We are ready to fight for our right to be what we are, to love what we love, but… we do not exist in a vacuum. We are social creatures, living in a society full of individuals different from us. So we meet other categories:

Society. Socialization. Law. Norms. Rules. Realities.

We consider our preferences like doubtless value, but we dependent on society. Sometimes our personal characteristics are in accordance with the demands of the society, sometimes they are protected by the society, but the rest? This very important rest starts the story of compromises, our attempts to fit into existing rules and to convince ourselves that we really need it...

Tolerance.

The credo of contemporary society is tolerance for other people's peculiarities, even if this is creating a detriment of our own interests. The tolerance is strictly protected by laws, regulations and the public opinion. Set of institutions controlling its observance. But nothing, adjustable and guarded so carefully, can be a symbol of the real Tolerance...

The symbol can only be the case where the Tolerance is so natural and beneficial to all participants that there is it no need for regulation or protection. In our society there exist such a thing. A place where all of us forget about all the differences - language, nationality, family status, religion, the cost of insurance, political opinion, education level, age, social status. We do not care who was there before us and who will come after. We become tolerant to everybody because we all are human being...

[Text: Viktoria Dematté]

m.t.c....

BACK TO THE ROOTS…
...or "The (re)discovery of slowness"

Battered, neglected for many years. But still working without objection: My RB67 equipment

Don't get me wrong. I'm really enjoying the work with digital cameras. A lot of possibilities which one could achieve with film only in a very complicated way - if at all. But sometimes I want to go back to my roots. 30 years ago, when i finished photo college in Vienna, digital photography was something we didn't even dream about. We had to do it the "hard" way. Large format camera, hidding behind the black cloth. Days after days in the darkroom, inhaling all this nice chemicals. Box after box of Ilford Gallery paper gone just to get one exhibition-worth picture… We had a lot of fun… And I would never have expected that i once would see working with my "old" cameras (still have my Nikon F4 and F5, my Sinar, my much-loved Mamyia RB67) as "experimental"…

A "hybrid", so to say. Mamyia RB67 meets Fujifil X-T1...

Yesterday i took my RB67 out of its case for the first time in years. Dusted it of, cleaned it. I did a lot of pictures, mainly landscapes, in the past. And I am pretty sure that I will use it quite often in the future. Depending how easy i can find film material and a labor…

Here some examples of what i did with the Mamiya, many years ago…

Film developing, fine art printing, toning, all done by myself.

From the Scotland portfolio

From the Lanzarote portfolio

BEACH MUSIC #2

A different beach, a different sea…but the same feelings.

July 2014. Saintes-Maries-de-la-mer, Carmague, France. 

ZEN PHOTOGRAPY

Playing around with textures and some filters. Trying to transform the feelings at the moment of exposure into the final picture. At the end the bottom line of creating art. At least for me…