100 years after...
SNIPPETS

Some snap-shots from Russia almost 100 years after the Russian Revolution...

 

© Chris Dematté.Fine Art Photography _ www.chrisdematte.com

Work in Progress

PROJECT "FRONTLINE"

A few weeks ago I started with my new project called "Frontline". The background of this project is the WW2 Battle of Moscow, which took place  (according to official history) from Sept. 30, 1941 to April 2, 1942. Today it is seen as the largest battle between two armies of all time. Combining the totals for both sides, German an Soviet, approximately seven million troops were involved in some portion of this battle. Of this seven millions, 2.5 millions were killed, taken prisoners, missing or wounded bad enough to require hospitalization, 1.9 millions of them on the Soviet side. At some points the German Army reached the outskirts of Moscow but was stopped about 25 km from the Kremlin, today a car drive of about 20 minutes (if there is no traffic). The Battle of Moscow marked the first time Hitler's armies failed to triumph with their Blitzkrieg tactics and the German army never completly recovered from that defeat which is seen by many contemporary historians as the ultimate turning point of WW2.

Along the frontline of this battle there are today a lot of memorials and monuments remembering the heroic fight of the Red Army to stop the Fasiscts. With my project I want to document some of them. Seeing photography as a meaning of expression of one's feelings I am planing to "manipulate" my pictures in a way that they express the emotions I had while making the pictures. Here are first test to try out how to achieve this...

 "Alley of the Heros", Ruza

Near Ruza

Near Ruza 

Near Mozaishk

Near Mozaishk 

Monument to the "Sibirian Defenders of Moscow", Snegiri

The "Stop Line" at Snegiri

Monument to the "Defenders of Moscow's Sky" , near Moshaisk

The "Panfilov Warriors", Nelidovo

Monument to Zoya  (Zoe) Kosmodemyanskay, Dorokhovo

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...

NIGHT SHADOWS

"Walk-by-shootings". Shadows caused by street lights.

Work in progress

RAPID EYE MOVEMENT #3

Creativity is making mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep...

More from my current project "Rapid Eye Movement".

Thanatos

Safe Haven

Work in progress

RAPID EYE MOVEMENT

Don't ever let anyone steal your dreams.

Some new works from my project "Rapid Eye Movement".

Darwin's Chamber 

Escaped

Work in progress

RAPID EYE MOVEMENT

Some new works from my project "Rapid Eye Movement". It's about dreams, psychology, fears...

The disappearance of childhood.

Nocturnal visitors #I

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...

AD ASTRA II

Space Oddity

Yuri Gagarin Monument, Moscow

Monument to the Conquest of Space, Moscow

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles

I'm feeling very still

And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

Tell my wife I love her very much "she knows"

Ground Control to Major Tom

Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong

Can you hear me, Major Tom?

Can you hear me, Major Tom?

Can you hear me, Major Tom?

Can you "Here Am I floating round a tin can

Far above the Moon

Planet Earth is blue

And there's nothing I can do.

[David Bowie, Space Oddity]

Black & White
IT'S A GREY GREY WORLD...

Trying out some black & white conversion methods. Consistent with weather and mood...

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....

NO TIME FOR A REST…

Working on my archive I somehow found quite a lot of bench pictures. Most of them quite empty. Seems that not many people have time for a rest… 

 

 mtc….

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…