MAGAZINE // Creative Photography & Digital Art
1
Amaze is an act of beauty, a visionary glance. An impulse, provocation, is a dreamlike world. A hymn to proportion, silence, riot and resilience. Amaze is an imaginary road, to lose yourself on. Truth and illusion, geometry and discontinuity. It’s waiting for the wave, stealing the present, going beyond.
38 | DANIL RUSANOV
26 | MIKAEL ALDO
18 | ALEX RINCÓN
08 | MAX EREMINE
MAGAZINE / N° 1 / NOV 2016 Creative Photography & Digital Art
\\\\ Amaze is a perspective on photography and digital art. A free, online and independent magazine that aims to sensitize to beauty and aesthetics of photography and art as we know it, a virtual space where you can discover emerging and professionals artists and be inspired by them. Our purpose is to share creativity and learn more about the masterminds behind outstanding and impactful images. \\\\ Francesco Pandolfi / Founder & Art director Marta Bonucci / Editor in chief
62 | CHARLIE DAVOLI
50 | YUNG CHENG LIN
cover by Max Eremine www.amaze-project.com info@amaze-project.com press@amaze-project.com
Š Amaze Magazine 2016. All rights reserved. All images and text, published in Amaze Magazine are the sole property of the featured authors and artists and subject copyright. No image or text can be reproduced, edited, copied or distributed in any form without written permission of its legal owner.
FOLLOW US
If you fell in love with Amaze Magazine, help us to improve and promote it with a small donation. The amount is up to you.
Dear Readers, Like some of the craziest ideas, this one was also inspired by a journey. It was a night like any other, on the Costa del Sol. I was lost and looking for the way home, when I stopped to observe the deserted coast: that’s when I started to reflect about the future, about what I wanted; to create something that would allow me to share my point of view on artistic and creative photography. The following day, that thought hadn’t left me. I decided to call Marta, a journalist and great friend of mine who, at the time, was traveling alone on the other side of the world. The journey is an idea that we cannot get rid of (nor, to be honest, do we ever want to). Our newsroom is an itinerant one, it follows our steps, our constant need to keep moving. We work wherever we can, whenever inspiration finds us, and wherever there is wi-fi available. This first issue, for example, came into being in a noisy Andalusian Chupito
Club, and was developed on another coast of the Mediterranean; in the coffee bar of an Italian Museum of Contemporary Art. Anyhow, we are here to amaze you with some incredible images from the world of creative photography and digital art. We place great value on the aesthetic and the soul of photography, we select the artists who leave us breathless, whose works we feel the compelling need to share with you. “Photography acquires something of the dignity which it ordinarily lacks, when it ceases to be a reproduction of reality and shows us things that no longer exist,” wrote Marcel Proust in his In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower. These words keep buzzing in our minds:
to shine a spotlight on this kind of photography is our (admittedly ambitious) objective. We decided to create a non-profit magazine because we believe that art should be available to everyone. We are independent and we want to stay that way: we do all of this out of passion, to create a high quality magazine, one that we would want to read ourselves. We have many ideas to make this project grow and we will do it with you and your support. We hope you enjoy the magazine as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Francesco Pandolfi (Founder & Art director)
MAX EREMINE INTERVIEW
Originally from Moscow, currently dividing time between Atlanta and New York, Max Eremine is specialized in fashion and editorial photography. In this interview we will focus on another aspect of his work, his art portraiture. «Portrait photography is like a dance. I may be the one in the lead, but it still takes two to tango», Max said us. Looking your Facebook Page, a quote caught my attention: «And you will face the sea of darkness, and all therein that may be explored». Why this quote from The Beyond? Is it linked to your work? It is indeed linked to my work, but completely open to interpretation. To me it’s a reference to my generally dark photography style. I speak of both the physical darkness as in prevalence of low key images, and the emphasis on
/ AMAZE / 9
darker emotions and philosophical concepts that I tend to portray. Darkness is also a mystery. The things that are hidden from us are significantly more interesting than those that lay in the open. Which is really the psychological foundation of my photography. I’m in love with your use of natural and artificial lights. How do you manage this? And after, how important is Post-Processing to your works? I am a self taught photographer, but I’ve experimented a lot and read everything I could find on the subject of photographic lighting. I usually shoot in a dark studio, so for me the empty photographic frame is always pitch black - I only light things I want to be lit. Post-processing is anywhere between zero and ninety-five percent of the final image. Sometimes the image is ready pretty much right out of the camera. Some other times the process of taking images is more akin to gathering raw materials, while the more creative part of the work is done in front of computer or in a darkroom. I think both approaches are perfectly valid and use them both. Your portraits evoke strong emotions, especially the children one. What relationship established between you and them? And how do you prepare them for a shooting?
/ AMAZE / 11
12 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 13
Usually I just let people be themselves, I rarely give much direction to my models. Ultimately portrait photography is like a dance. I may be the one in the lead, but it still takes two to tango. I simply let my models express themselves and adjust my lighting and even overallmood and style depending on that. Of course every concept is different, and sometimes models need to simply portray this or that mood or play this or that role, but ultimately even the best actors portray those characters better that they can most closely relate to. So I find it better to just let people be themselves. If I need some specific mood then I just pay close attention to the casting. What kind of music do you listen at work? Who are some of your favourite artists and/or photographers? More generally, what are your sources of inspiration? Music is a huge influence on my work. I always listen to music while shooting or while working in front of the computer. Anything from classical to punk rock. Lately it’s been krautrock and jazz while shooting, and post rock while retouching at home... But I go through phases. I have countless favorite photographers and artists. I am an avid consumer of art in general and look and dozens (if not hundreds) of images every day. Among the current contemporary photographers, I have been obsessed with
14 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 15
16 / AMAZE /
the work of Formento+Formento, Emma Hartvig, and Anna Osk Erlingsdottir, among many others. I also get a great deal of inspiration from cinematography and other visual art forms from cave paintings, to Renaissance art, to dadaism, to art nouveau, and beyond. Art is just such an immense universe, that I sometimes enjoy to simply explore some completely random aspect of it without any systematic approach. I make conscious efforts not to copy any of my inspirations directly, but often use them as stepping stones, or borrow one particular aspect of the work, or simply allow these influences to bubble up in my work without any conscious effort. What are your plans for the future? I have learned not to make any plans for the future. I’ll let things fall as they may and will do my best to enjoy the ride.
/ /AMAZE AMAZE // 17
ALEX RINCóN He’s from Madrid, he’s 32 years old and photography is his main hobby. A passion which lead him to work with important brands as Schweppes, Jaguar or Bombay Sapphire. 3 years ago he opened an Instagram account (@rincondtv) and since that day he hasn’t stopped taking pictures. Mostly, his pictures are minimal shots taken in Madrid or during his trips around Spain and the world, from Mexico to China, from France to California.
/ AMAZE / 19
20 / AMAZE /
22 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 23
24 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 25
MIKAEL ALDO
«Somewhere between the lines of mythical and dramatic» This is how, in a recent interview, Mikael Aldo describes his style. Born in 1996 in Jakarta, Indonesia, he fell in love with photography at the age of 14, and two years later he began taking portraits. «It all started with me furtively using my brother’s camera without actually knowing how it works. I was fascinated by the shape and the sound it made when the shutter clicked», he said to My Modern Met. From then on photography has been such an enticing medium for him to tell stories and share the world he creates.
28 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 29
30 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 31
32 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 33
34 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 35
36 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 37
DANIL RUSANOV Open your eyes. Sit back and let it take you places you’ve never been before: far-off worlds where obscurity and calmness reign supreme. Let russian artist Danil Rusanov guide you in this journey to the edge of the universe, through his surreal lunar landscape, where electronic music sounds meet traditional orchestral arrangements. Freelance art director & motion designer Danil Rusanov produces dark and melancholy artworks, with great use of lighting. «All my life I was engaged in creativity, simply», he told us. «It’s wonderful that people read and really understand what I insert in my works, telling me that I draw their dreams!».
40 / AMAZE /
/ /AMAZE AMAZE // 41
42 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 43
44 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 45
46 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 47
48 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 49
YUNG CHENG LIN INTERVIEW
Name: Yung Cheng Lin. Aka: 3cm. Distinguishing mark: painful and disturbing pictures that invite the viewer to reflect on society, womanhood and demons. Your pictures are visceral, “disturbing�. They deeply explore the different issues of womanhood, both from the physical and the social point of view. Is it a desired effect? The allocation of power is unfair and easy to misinterpret in this society, that is gender stratification. This stratification discusses controversial, blind, and even unreasonable rules between genders which we have been facing all the time nowadays. The feeling of disturbing and pain is what I want my viewers to resonate with the model, being sympathy with her. Like the underprivileged needs more cares, and it is also an interactive feedback between both sides.
/ AMAZE / 51
52 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 53
54 / AMAZE /
Your surreal images are shamelessly ironic: you play with social conventions, with sexuality and her symbols. What are people’s reactions? I’m not able to predict what viewers’ reactions are. I try to touch viewers deeply, making them stop and think. People nowadays have affected by visual images easily. It is hard to control well between visual perception and message transmission. The implicit beyond the photo cannot be too obvious; at the same time, it has to bring the striking vision to viewers by deliberate image arrangement. I try not to preset the emotion, hoping that viewers can resonate more with the model, and bring their own feeling into the work. Simpler and purer but more imagination will be brought out, and it conveys the right messages. What inspires you? Who are some of your favourite artists and/or photographers? What inspires me is quite diversity, but poetry plays the most important role in stimulating my inspiration. Tell us more about your pictures, how they’re born, what’s the creative process? Out of curiosity, tell us something more about your flies.
/ AMAZE / 55
By reading the poetry, the imaginations and visions among words will appear in my mind, which combine with my life experience or observations. Then it will evolve into a piece of work. Therefore, poetry always gives me brand new thoughts to create diversified images. Regarding the fly, I give it a role of demon in the world of angel and demon. It implies indulgence and falling. If you see the fly in one work, it means that viewers have their own right to choose either being indulgence or insistence. What is your favourite photo that you’ve ever taken? And why? Every series of photos or individual one is like my diary, which expresses, records and describes my life experience or what I encounter. There is no particular favorite one, and I love every piece of work. What are you currently working on? I am working on transferring Fragments d’un discourse amoureux, this book, from its elegant words into concrete images. Working in close cooperation on commercial or other projects is also what I have been working on.
56 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 57
58 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 59
CHARLIE DAVOLI A pinch of De Chirico and a sprinkling of Magritte. Take landscapes that seems to come straight out of a dream or a surreal painting of Salvador Dalì. Now take an iPhone and apps like PsTouch, iDesign, Superimpose, MatterApp e Mextures. Mix well in order to obtain Charlie Davoli’s art. «Laying with paradoxes and mixing-up real environments with surreal interferences is the most fun during my ordinary day life», write him on BoredPanda.com, «When I walk down the street, I shoot anything that catches my attention, creating an immense archive of photos.» «My influences are a chimerical blend of the metaphysical imagery in De Chirico with a love for Bauhaus geometry and the pop culture of Warhol and Lichtenstein all with the addition of some sci-fi retro. I love that anyone can enjoy a ride in my amusement park. Just like going on a roller-coaster!»
62 / AMAZE /
/ AMAZE / 63
Evening breakfast with Supertramp
64 / AMAZE /
Look at them, 66 / AMAZE / they are both same as us
How to Make an Incomprehensible
/ AMAZE / 67
68 / AMAZE /
It is a melancholy experience for a professional mathematician to find himself writing about mathematics
/ AMAZE / 69
In the year inflationary cosmology broke
70 / AMAZE /
If you fell in love with Amaze Magazine, help us to improve and promote it with a small donation. The amount is up to you.
Follow us on social networks
74 / AMAZE /
MAX EREMINE www.maxeremine.com
ALEX RINCÓN www.instagram.com/rincondtv
MIKAEL ALDO www.mikaelaldo.com
DANIL RUSANOV www.behance.net/rusanov
YUNG CHENG LIN www.facebook.com/by3cm
CHARLIE DAVOLI www.instagram.com/charlie_davoli
/ AMAZE / 75
WWW.AMAZE-PROJECT.COM See you next issue!