Modart » Photography

Back to the Future

Maxi — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 09:56:08 +0000

Argentinian photographer Irina Werning is obsessed with nosing into peoples lives: “I love old photos. I admit being a nosy photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today… A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future.”

Luckily she knows to transform her obsession into beautiful and amazing photographs, like her ongoing series Back to the Future. Masterfully staged (like all her series by the way) she invited people to reenact childhood photographs. The result is as much comical as it is astonishing, how little some people seem to change.

Rear Views

Maxi — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 09:00:01 +0000

I guess we all wonder what’s happening behind our backs at least at one point in our life. Taking this literally you might just turn around to confront curious looks, but there are people that take this to the extremes.

Take the Rear View Girls. Two hot American girls, who integrated a camera into the back pocket of their jeans to film the reactions of passerby’s. Ranging from female evil eyes to horny male stares, there is little to no surprise in the caught reactions. It’s fairly entertaining though.

The project 3rdi by Iraqi-born artist Wafaa Bilal is arguably less entertaining, but a whole lot more extreme and interesting. Bilal is known internationally for his on-line performances and interactive works provoking dialogue about international politics and internal dynamics. For his current project, the 3rdi, Bilal had a camera surgically implanted on the back of his head to spontaneously transmit images to the web 24 hours a day – a statement on surveillance, the mundane and the things we leave behind. Bilal’s 2010 work …And Counting similarly used his own body as a medium. His back was tattooed with a map of Iraq and dots representing Iraqi and US casualties – the Iraqis in invisible ink seen only under a black light. Bilal’s 2007 installation, Domestic Tension, also addressed the Iraq war. Bilal spent a month in a Chicago gallery with a paintball gun that people could shoot at him over the internet.

Wafaa Bilal explains: “The 3rdi is just a platform for the telling and retelling of another story. A camera temporarily implanted on the back of my head, it spontaneously and objectively captures the images – one per minute – that make up my daily life, and transmits them to a website for public consumption.

“During my journey from Iraq to Saudi Arabia, on to Kuwait and then the U.S., I left many people and places behind. The images I have of this journey are inevitably ephemeral, held as they are in my own memory. Many times while I was in transit and chaos the images failed to fully register, I did not have the time to absorb them. Now, in hindsight, I wish I could have recorded these images so that I could look back on them, to have them serve as a reminder and record of all the places I was forced to leave behind and may never see again.

“The 3rdi arises from a need to objectively capture my past as it slips behind me from a non-confrontational point of view. It is anti-photography, decoded, and will capture images that are denoted rather than connoted, a technological-biological image. This will be accomplished by the complete removal of my hand and eye from the photographic process, circumventing the traditional conventions of traditional photography or a disruption in the photographic program. Barthes has said, “…from an aesthetic point of view the denoted image can appear as a kind of Edenic state of the image; cleared utopianically of its connotations, the image would become radically objective, or, in the last analysis, innocent.” It is this ‘innocent’ image that I wish to capture through the 3rdi.”

What sounds like a spectacular idea results in somewhat unspectacular pictures on his website. A lot of repetition and wearing hats make the navigation through the rear view of Bilal’s life extraneous and boring. In December he will compile the pictures into a physical exhibition in Qatar and I’m sure that the sheer amount of physical pictures will be as interesting as they will be spectacular.

I find surprising that, while both projects make use of a similar technique they aim to capture the complete opposite. While Bilal based his project on the urge to capture an innocent and objective on what he leaves behind -a non-confrontational point of view, as he says- the Rear View Girls aim to confront bum-enchanted-guys and give a point of view that is everything but innocent.

Zombietown

Maxi — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 15:00:39 +0000

Visual artist Alexander Basile and ArtyFarty Gallery present The Substitution, a year-long exhibition series highlighting four new and thought-provoking developments upon the fringes of the photographic arts, and Zombietown by Ale Formenti. Accompanying presentations and lectures probe into questions about realities, visualization techniques, exhibition situations, and the mechanically-produced image as such – The Substitution aims to show that non-mainstream photography is a whole lot more than documentary-style party pics and large-format snapshots.

Ale Formenti (*1976) grew up in a small town in Northern Italy and first picked up a camera at the tender age of 13. Ever since the 1990s, he has been photographing small-town life. He was even editor of photography for a skateboarding magazine for a while. Today, Formenti continues to live off the beaten path between Como and Milan, in that small town that he knows so well. The one he calls “Zombietown.”

“If you want to have a good time…don’t call me…” is what Formenti once said. Indeed, his rough style of photography has nothing to do with the Italy that most people are familiar with – carefree and plasticine. A place where political and social reality is blended into the background. Formenti’s images of the Italian underground, what Formenti calls a “grey area”, are brutally honest. His atypical motifs provoke as much as they disturb.
As part of the ArtyFarty Gallery exhibition series “The Substitution,” Formenti presents his photo collection ZOMBIETOWN. A haunting conglomerate of portraits, infamous scenes, pictures of racism, and even Berlusconi propaganda.

When Formenti refers to his subjects as “zombies,” he doesn’t mean fake, comic-book pushovers. Formenti’s zombies are the real, shadowy figures of a nation entirely blinded by the media. And because Formenti is able to capture the essence of these figures in an astoundingly clear and unambiguous way and present the shady side of Italy that has long been disregarded, his work can best be described in one word: progressive.

“Zombietown is 20 kms far from Milano (one of the most important cities in Italy) but we have nothing in common, no influences from the “big city” or Europe. We’re stuck in the twilight zone… just like all the country. Milano is fucked by fashion and stupid people… the disco. Sun shine so bright.” (Formenti)

Where: Arty Farty Gallery / Maastricher Str. 49 / 50672 Cologne / Germany

When: February 19 – March 12, 2011

Boombox Project

Maxi — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:00:09 +0000

Harlan Levey, the founder of the No New Enemies network and Harlan Levey Projects, and creative director of Modart, has been asked to curate a selection of photographers for Bite! Magazine. The fifth photographer on Bite! is Lyle Owerko and his Boombox Project.

Lyle Owerko is a photographer and filmmaker with a diverse roster of clients that include major brands, corporations and human rights groups. Known for his perception and knowledge of urban movements, his instinctually crafted visual images have found an incredible place in the lexicon of popular culture and journalism. In the morning that will stay with him forever, Lyle photographed the image that appeared on the cover of Time Magazine September 11, 2001 issue. His current projects seek to bridge ethnic borders in a manner that documents cultural groups for the betterment of the human condition.

Lyle was raised in Calgary, Canada, studied at The Pratt Institute in New York and currently resides in Tribeca with his girlfriend Shaundra and their dog Luna. For more information on Lyle and his work please visit his website.

They Smell of Wet Paint and Sweat

Maxi — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:40:04 +0000

Artist testimonial:
“When asked for an artist testimonial to this series, Just replied: “I don’t have any Info about my Series.” So here is an excerpt of his bio: The Berliner JUST documents the highlights of Urban Art and portrays artists who have become icons within the Urban Art scene. His work includes photographs of Brad Downeyʼs and Mark Jenkinsʼ inventions, monumental wall pieces of Blu, FAITH 47 and Nomad, radical performances of ZEVS, Doma and Dave the Chimp as well as gallery and museum shows of DAIM, D*Face and EVOL.

“JUST is part of this scene and this, he feels, is the reason why his unconventional photographs are so full of energy and passion. For more than half a decade the artist has been working on the streets himself, he knows his playground and the protagonists of that scene are his friends. This intimacy is the essence of his photographs. His photographs are lively; they symbolize the liberty on those rooftops and the aesthetics of those major cities. They smell of wet paint and sweat of a long night and they show the colour stains under fingernails and the coloured brushes in their vibrant beauty.”

JUST (1982) lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Oil Spill

Maxi — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 09:00:41 +0000

Harlan Levey, the founder of the No New Enemies network and Harlan Levey Projects, and creative director of Modart, has been asked to curate a selection of photographers for Bite! Magazine. The third photographer on Bite! is Zoe Strauss and her On The Beach series.

On The Beach documents the fallout (literally and figuratively) of the BP Gulf oil disaster in affected coastal states. Zoe Strauss (1970) lives and works in Philadelphia, USA.

Zoe Strauss over On The Beach: ”I think it’s an important thing to document; BP has effectively tried to prevent journalists from documenting a lot of the oil spill. My interest is not necessarily in the documentation of cleanup, but in the kind of longer-range anxiety that will result from what’s a long-term environmental disaster. The title for the project, On the Beach, is taken from a 1950s post apocalyptic novel written by Nevil Shute.”

Waste Management

Maxi — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 15:00:12 +0000

Harlan Levey, the founder of the No New Enemies network and Harlan Levey Projects, and creative director of Modart, has been asked to curate a selection of photographers for Bite! Magazine. The second photographer of choice on Bite! is Vincent Skoglund and his Waste Management series.

“One of Sweden’s most respected photographers, Vincent’s remarkable depictions of the then emerging snowboard scene, set his name on the world map in the early 90’s. Since then he has received numerous honors, been featured in galleries and art fairs, while professionally covering various areas of fashion, action sports, music and art.

“Regardless of the subject matter or nature of the work, there is a strong recognizable style: photographer as narrator and not simply silent observer. This is the case, whether the image was taken on location or in the studio; whether he was occupied with a massive landscape or a minute still life.” (Harlan Levey)

Vincent Skoglund abut his Waste Management series: “To me, the dump is intriguing. It’s one of the most interesting places I have been to. Garbage inspires me. The randomness is so vast. Colors and materials are in different states of decay, coming together, to be piled into a new context. I rather spend any Saturday walking around a dump, than in a big shopping mall. New stuff bores me, I prefer things to be used or broken. I like it how a product’s life ends, it makes me wonder about what happened along the way. Why did this particular thing get thrown away? What is the history of all these things in decay? Every human is involved in making waste. An endless stream of products is made from nature, used briefly and inevitably gets shredded, buried, burned, or made into new raw materials. I let them live a little bit longer by rearranging bits and pieces. It smells. It’s noisy. It’s dusty. It’s in decay. It’s alive. It’s dangerous. It’s fantastic!”

Tradition of Fearlessness

Maxi — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:00:40 +0000

The photographer Elle Muliarchyk was born in Belarus and grew up between Vietnam, Prague and San Francisco, until one day she decided to move to New York to become a supermodel. Feeling creatively limited by her modeling agency she sought revenge by sneaking into designer boutiques and creating her own fashion shoots in dressing rooms worldwide, wearing the most expensive dresses. While she often got discovered, kicked out and nearly arrested, her intriguing -almost sublime- imagery and guerrilla approach received international media coverage after an expose of her work appeared in the New York Times Magazine.

Since then Elle expanded her work to photographic and film assignments, always keeping in touch with her ‘hit and run’ approach. One of her most recent film projects includes Psychic/Dossier, wherein a model visits various psychics in New York in different disguises. The dramatically different readings the model received show how we can literally ‘design our fortunes’ through our appearance.

It seems that, in most of her projects, Elle seeks the border between the dramatic and the insane. Staging one-person-fashion shoots in the middle of the night in dodgy areas in London (Bella Freud) and sneaking into churches dressing statues in haute coture (Begotten) are only tips of icebergs from her vast expanding oeuvre. I wanted to know more about Elle and asked her for an interview.

Was there a particular moment in your career as a model that triggered your desire to take matters into your own hands?
Even before I started shooting myself in dressing rooms I teamed up with photographer friends and organized, modeled in, art-directed and sometimes styled shoots for magazines. I had to do it in total secrecy because my modeling agency would have freaked out. They demanded total control – over the clothes I wore and even what/how much I would talk at the casting.

Fashion and art are so different and yet weight so heavily on each other. Where is the line, where fashion becomes art?
At first I wanted to answer like this: Fashion blurs into art when you don’t give a damn and just do it for your own selfish satisfaction, when you feel ‘obsessed’, when you can’t help it.
But realistically, it only works this way, if you want to have a communication with yourself only – the sound of one hand clapping. At this point fashion and art have two identical functions – vehicle and commodity – both playing with aesthetics and the ‘hotness’ of the market. Both reflect the mood and the ideas of the world today. Both are seasonal, trendy and for sale.

I think people who see the Berlin Wall between fashion and art are conceited and live in a century-old mentality. I tell them – get over it!

How does your time as a model influence your work and where is it still relevant?
Although it opened many doors for me in the beginning, it only made it harder later on. It totally messed up my head in terms of achievement and reward. On one hand, when I was a model, I received many things I didn’t earn, like constant acceptance and approval (something every normal person works so hard to get). I walked around in a constant morphine-like state. On the other hand, when I DID work very hard (to the point of risking my health and sanity) climbing higher and higher up the ‘ladder’ of editorial levels and finally I saw myself in Vogue…. Nothing happened! I didn’t get credit for the hardest things I’ve achieved!

It’s still hard for me, even now, to be proud of the things I have achieved as and artist. I would much rather be a gay boy now – it’s much more helpful career-wise!

How do you read the relationships of aesthetics and emotions?
Even though at the first impression my work is all about the ‘cool idea’, the aesthetics’ effect on emotion is number one for me. I remember when I was at the Chicago Art Institute. I was standing in a room, which displayed the largest collection of Monet’s Haystacks in one space…ever. I was crying like a baby. It was so powerful. And I had no explanation for it. My absolute dream is to create images that stand on their own, that would make someone cry or laugh, no questions asked,

How did the danger, you were seeking in your first series (Bella Freud, Saints, Psychics), influence your aesthetic?
It helped me to connect with my gut instinct even more! When I got something that I thought was kinda cool I had to say ‘basta’ and move on. Otherwise I would get either arrested or mugged. It’s so easy with digital photography to get trapped in trying to achieve the perfect shot. I think the dangerous circumstances give me a taste of an ‘analog way’ – I have to trust what’s in the camera and I can’t go back.

I was very intrigued by your series 4 Sale, especially the picture with the wolf and the old man. Can you tell me about the process and the idea behind that project?
Myself and three other female artists decided to work for a year and use each others bodies in any way we wanted to create whatever work we wanted. As it happened we were all naked in the end. The idea behind my series was recreating the sketches I made of the crazy sexual dreams I had when I was a teenager. Yes, I had seen the wolf and the old man in my dreams exactly as you see in the photos!

The old man is my favorite too! I immediately recognized him from my dream, when I was casting old men for my Phillip Lim short movie last summer. He was a sort of ‘God’ in the movie – an untouchable magical creature. So I felt horrible asking him to be in a nude picture. I though “Oh my God, I can’t corrupt him like that…” But I asked him anyway… Anything for the arts.. haha!

What did you learn from your Psychic/Dossier series and what did you hope other people learn from it?
The idea was actually NOT to expose the Psychics. I wanted to show that your future’s forecast can change dramatically based on who you THINK you are! You can affect your OWN future and your life in the most powerful way. For the ‘beginner’ clothing is a powerful tool to help establish a comfortable confident territory of the person you want to become. Clothing is like a car: you drive it to the place you wanna be. But a Hummer, or a Maserati, or a Beetle, or a School Bus – all will give you a different kind of fun on the road!

SOMNAMBULI (Psychics experiment) T Magazine Exclusive from elle muliarchyk on Vimeo.

Read more of the interview on No New Enemies.

Have no fear. We’ll keep you posted.

Just

Janina Hübner — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:29:33 +0000

The Berliner JUST belongs to one of the most eminent photographers of the Graffiti and Street Art Movement. In outstanding photographs JUST not only documents the highlights of Urban Art but also has been portraying artists who have, since he started around 10 years ago, become icons within the Urban Art scene.

Part of his works are records of some of Brad Downeyʼs and Mark Jenkinsʼ inventions, monumental wall pieces of Blu, FAITH 47 and Nomad, radical performances of ZEVS, Doma and Dave the Chimp as well as gallery and museum shows of DAIM, D•Face and EVOL.

Being part of the scene and his dedication for it are some of the reasons why his unconventional photographs are so full of energy and passion. For more than half a decade the artist has been working on the streets himself, he knows his playground and the protagonists of that scene are his friends. This intimacy is the essence of his photographs. His photographs are lively; they symbolize the liberty on those rooftops and the aesthetics of those major cities. They smell of wet paint and sweat of a long night and they show the colour stains under fingernails and the coloured brushes in their vibrant beauty.

JUSTʼs photographs can be found in books and exhibition catalogues as well as various magazi- nes and newspapers such as ART, Modart, Backspin, Zitty, FAZ, Spiegel and The New York Times. He is the silent observer of the urban cities as he is part of it, but at the same time invisible. Armed with spray cans and his camera his conquers the urban jungle and only leaves a trace with his pictures and graffitis.