Artist Interview : My Photography Over the Years
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| Split-Image Dream |
If you wish, you can first take a peek at my portfolio.
Q: In a nutshell, what is it about your photographic artwork that you try to capture?
A: I use the human figure to evoke moods, suggest stories and explore personas, so as to create timeless, magical worlds that convey a sense of indomitable vitality.
Q: What settings do you use, and why?
A: Many of my photos explore a person's intimate bond with their environment, especially Nature - a spiritual source of energy that gets absorbed and re-radiated by those who inhabit it, explore it or dance in it. Sometimes, the interaction involves other elements, often surreal - including unusual structures, fire or moonlight. I'm also fascinated by the extraordinary fluidity and mystical quality of the underwater environment.
Other photos focus more closely on the body itself - how it creates form, light, texture and movement, or how it creates contrast with its surroundings.
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| Moonlit Climb On Tower |
A: For starters, there's something of a minimalist approach. Stylistically, my approach is to introduce elements, such as garments or color, only if they serve a purpose.
More importantly, my vision is to look beyond the "masks we wear"; nudity is just the first step in shedding those masks. My shoots have been described as art therapy by many past models over the years, in part because I don't care about "posing" as much as about discovering people's True Inner Personality.
As an artist I admire put it, "In taking off your clothes, you are metaphorically revealing your soul." The shoots are a psychological process to drop down those guards we carry, and attain the freedom to be reveal the real self. It's at that point that interesting art creation really starts!
Q: So, psychology and energy play a key role?
A: Absolutely! To start with, there's the underlying aspect of letting one's real self emerge. Also, I often explore psychological aspects, especially a sense of longing or quest. At times, I capture the energy between people - in particular trust, vulnerability and ritual; in some cases, the interaction encompasses the viewer.
I work with the unique energy that a person emanates, and I seek out a spectrum of emotions, from introspective to exuberant, from serene to agitated, from serious to whimsical, from strong to vulnerable - often blended in ambiguous ways.
Q: What about the range of your work, all the various sub-themes?
A: I'm equally interested in the "Innocent" Nude as in the Erotic one; my portfolio weaves around that full spectrum, sometimes ambiguously.
In any given photo shoot, I largely follow the natural tendency of the model(s), to explore the emergence of that inner personality I was talking about earlier. It's elusive, and it needs to be captured as it spontaneously arises. It's like catching a butterfly. A single moment in time that never repeats. The model is often surprised by it, too. None of us knows in advance where a shoot will take us.
What some people might call "raw nature" is exactly what I'm after. What's a person's creative/passionate core, after shedding the mask, all the onion-like layers – shedding the layers of clothing and the layers of contrived poses?
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| Intertwined Dance Trio |
A: For starters, to feel safe and well-cared for. Then to be doing something, rather than just posing.
I'm not a fan of "posing"... in fact, I call it "the P word"! Rather, I encourage the models to pursue doing something they love...
The trick is to find what makes one happy. When one is happy, powerful images follow with relative ease! It takes some exploration to discover what is the "secret sauce" to attain a state of happiness during a shoot.
For some, it's yoga positions; for others it's dancing, or flirting with the cameras, or innocent playfulness, or eating, or bodypaint, etc. In some cases, it's elements that don't even show in the images, such as singing.
That's how those sub-themes you were asking me about, naturally emerge... And the journey of discovery how to reach that state of fulfillment, that state of creative happiness, during the shoot – that's how the "art therapy" quality comes about!
Q: What's your feeling towards Color vs. B/W ?
A: Color is a force to be reckoned with! In the context of my overall portfolio, color is like a musical beat - it weaves in and out, from full color to B/W, from full-color dominated by particular tint to monochromatic. Even "pure" B/W images explore variation in B/W tonality.
More of the Portfolio can be seen here
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