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Dalia Smayze
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C laudia Dorninger-Lehner Lives and works in Perchtoldsdorf, Vienna, Austria
The presence of four seconds
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erception and apperception of architecture in the context of time: What exactly do we see during the lapse of time we perceive as the present? What would a picture look like that melds all visual impressions of the time span we experience as the present? The photos constitute the attempt to give answers to these questions and to detect new artistic and emotional qualities in the aggregation of different perceptual images. The intention is to trigger a deliberate contemplation of how we see the world. Usually we only experience our visually registered surroundings as one of the many possibilities of a reality that appears different to everyone and we never capture the reality itself. Viewing a photo should invite to piece together one’s own conception of things and to individually discover the enlaced environment of them. The photos that I had exposed for four seconds made me curious to find out which visual impressions people put together to create a single picture.
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Focusing on architectural images I uncovered the discrepancy between the clear lines of modern architecture and the flowing picturesque dissolution of the lines within our perception. Though these photos also only present what the chosen section within the flow of time offers, I hope they will give an impression how we inwardly come to see what we individually think to see. It was my intention to encourage people to sometimes pause for a moment, watch the world from a new perspective, or, even doing better, internalize what happens and contemplate the perspectives. Max Frisch, well known architect and author, is attributed to the saying: most people confuse attending something with experiencing it. I do hope that my pictures will contribute a little to experience photography and to rouse the curiosity to ponder the idea what real objects are meant to be.
Claudia Dorninger-Lehner