What if photography wasn't just about capturing reality? What about transforming it, turning the ordinary into something dreamlike, expressive, and full of emotion?
For a while now I have felt the need to explore new mediums in my creative process. It seems like representation-oriented photography is just not enough anymore, something else is needed to convey my sentiments. I was also looking for something that would get my hands involved, I wanted to add textures, layers, colors, and experience a physical change.
Double up. Take the iconic Taj Mahal. To me this building has such duality – the lightness of the white marble and radiant beauty of the countless gemstones embedded, and the inherent darkness of mortality, death. How can I express this?
My rendition is a layering of multiple exposures of the building. The added layers have low opacity, looming large behind the building. Keeping the image in medium to dark tonal values symbolizes the fatality of death. But, while death is such a strong and final event for one person, the life of other people goes on. You can see the many small figures strolling past the building, busy with their day-to-day lives.
Slice and Dice. The origin of this piece is a photograph of palm trees reflected in a pond, a common sight in Florida. In fact, if you think Florida, you think water and palm trees – they are ubiquitous. However, this idyllic Florida is slowly giving way to more and more housing developments, and it pains me to see the landscape destroyed by it.
To create this work, I cut a copy of the reflected palm trees into multiple strips and rearranged them on top of the original. This beautiful land is being chopped up by relentless development, taking away paradise – a warning to the viewer that what is lost will be lost forever.
Wrap it up. Chinese New Year was coming up just I was browsing through images of a past trip to China. The picture that caught my eye was of the big Olympic stadium in Beijing, a venue for the lunar new year celebration.
I made a black and white print, covered it in Saran wrap, and painted over it. The beauty of the wrap is the texture it creates – all these random wrinkles add irregularity and depth. A few splatters of paint and glitter gave it the festive look. Once everything was completely dry, I rephotographed.
Tear it up! Headshot photography is the bread and butter for many photographers. No major arrangements are made, and the person is literally taken at face value. But there are so many facets and angles that are lost in such two-dimensional representation. I tried to express this by tearing the already printed headshot into strips and then stuck each strip into a beer glass. After carefully arranging the glasses on a table so the camera could see a complete face, I retook the shot.
Collect and gather. Postcards from Venice, or rather postcards from the mental edge after hours of assembling and layering a multitude of my Venice snapshots. Sometimes playing with an idea will send you down a major rabbit hole, and you spend countless hours and days trying to accomplish something that is fermenting in your head. When finally completed, the results feel gratifying.
Spill some ink! The building above, named Portland Towers, is home to the German embassy in Copenhagen. They were constructed as storage silos for cement, and later converted into office buildings. The style brings to my mind the brutalist buildings during Stalin's time.
Bt creating a dull grey print, folding the paper and adding a few scratches, I aged the image. Adding a partial yellow layer and a random paint splatter distressed it even more. When I look at it now, I can see one of these sad monuments from the Soviet era.
Erase and add. Even tranquil images occasionally scream for additional treatment. I wanted simplicity, quietness, contemplation. A photograph has many details, many small things that don't necessarily add to the story. The idea here was to simplify, take out what is not needed. Once this was done, I created a painterly feel by adding soft charcoal strokes.
Where am I going with all this?
I want to show that photography—or perhaps more accurately, hybrid photography—goes beyond simply documenting a scene. The same moment can be interpreted in countless ways. Through different techniques and varying levels of manipulation, emotion can be heightened and meaning more powerfully conveyed.
Dodge and burn—one last piece for the road. Lilies floating in a pond, carefully lightened and darkened, desaturated, given a subtle tint, and then selectively overpainted. An evocative image, don’t you think?
Summarizing all the above, I had lots of fun!
I hope you found this topic interesting and inspiring. If you want to see more of my work, check out my website and follow me on Instagram. Previous issues of my blog can be found here.
Please feel free to share this blog with anyone who might be interested. I welcome new subscribers.