Issue 21
FEBRUARY 2018
Editors Genea Bailey Daisy Ware-Jarrett Design Daisy Ware-Jarrett Writers Jodanna Bird Emily Valentine
Cover Artist Myles Cutchember
Victoria Art /UBERlab/
Moshkovich Marina
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14
Denis Esakov
Alex Ingram
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Cristรณ Carre Cassin
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ISABELLA SOMMATI
Myles Cutchember
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Shadows & Light 116
Step Wal
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Vassilis Konstantinou
Simone Perolari
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30
รณbal etero nello
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phen lton
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Found Polaroids
Olga Sabo
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76
Maela Ohana
Victoria Knobloch
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index 134
Victoria Art /UBERlab/ Remediós
I’m a member of creative laboratory - UBERlab. It’s a kind of “laboratory of spirit” with own semantics. The form of creativity is informative. Information is not about herself, but about something else, more important, that provokes an intellectual complicity of the viewer. It is a reflection of the unknowable. It is not a style but the way of thinking. UBERlab consists myself and stylist Victoria Noz from Kiev, Ukraine. 6
Photographer: Victoria Art Style: Victoria Nóż Designer: UBERlove
Moshkovich Marina
Sisters
German fairy tale “Snow-White and Rose-Red� is at the very core of my photoshoot. Main female characters seemed utterly unlike, despite being sisters. They do not need a prince. They prefer skyscrapers instead of forests.
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Phototgrapher Moshkovich Marina Makeup Stav Moskey Styling Moran Eilat Yanko Hair Tsah Ariel Ettedgi Models Mona Kanibalovsky & Noya Ariely Retouching Nargiza Isamuhamedova
Vassilis Konstantinou Southern Province
These pictures are the outcome of a three-year photographic wandering of in my place of origin, the provinces of Achaia. In the context of this wandering, I direct my gaze and lens to things simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar, focusing on the intermediate zones between the past and the present, the old and the new –zones still coexisting in the countryside. This is a photographic endeavour of remapping not only the familiar landscapes of childhood memories –landscapes now in a state of radical transition– but also of the people dwelling in them and cultivating the earth. In Peloponnese, this southern part of Greece (which is also the southern border of Europe), the interesting thing lies in the co-existence –at times harmonic, at times full of tensions– of native people, economic migrants and internal immigrants – that is, young people who left the big cities to experiment with different ways of life.
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The place and the cultivation of the land is what binds these people on one level, and yet builds new borders and boundaries between them, on another: borders and boundaries symbolic and imaginary, hence imperceptible. Their co-existence marks the emergence of a place different and uncharted; a bizarre landscape neither beautiful nor ugly, in a process of deep transform tion and reshaping –a liminal landscape. Using the special characteristics of this southern part of Europe as his background,Vassilis Konstantinou captures a moment of the complex everyday life of these people and landscapes, informing the viewer about their specificities and the identity of all the small and insignificant things which construct their reality, while remaining unseen.
Simone Perolari FAT Football League
I was born in Italy, in 1976. I’ve been a freelance photographer since 2003, and am currently based in Paris. I started travelling and worked on several photography projects reporting the problems of immigrants in Italy, Spain, Greece and France from 2005 for Amnesty International. I have portrayed celebrities like Rafael Nadal, Elon Musk, LV, David Cameron.
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Andy Allsopp and Marcus Farnsworth may not be names as familiar as Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, but they’re football stars nonetheless. Andy, Marcus, James, Rob are players from the first MAN v FAT Football league. The league has been set up in Solihull near Birmingham and is exclusively for men who are BMI 30+. Players are supported with weight loss but also play football every week against other teams of obese men. After 14 weeks, 93% of the players had lost weight, shedding 1,727 lbs between them. Some players lost up to 26% of their body weight. Further MAN v FAT Football leagues are launching around the country after the successful pilot programme.
The league has had nearly 1,000 applications for the original 80 places on the first league. As such the demand has ensured that the leagues will continue and later this year MAN v FAT Football leagues will launch at all of the UK’s Powerleague venues, ensuring that the 20.4 million overweight and obese men in the UK will always have a place to get fit and beat fat.
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Denis Esakov Fifth Facade
I am an artist from Moscow. I’m trying to see the world through architecture, through the sorting of reality. I appropriate the space through arranging it on individual buildings, scenes, architectural details. It is important to understand the surrounding reality as it possible. Who is producing it? Why? What is my role in this space? My works is an attempt to get rid of social and political pressure. I have a desire to build inside me an apparatus that will produce my self confidence and decision-making process. This collection of photographs contains a survey of 70 iconic pieces of architecture built in Moscow over the last century. This album is the first photographic study of the Russian capital in which the photographer’s assistant has been a radio-controlled drone. My photos create a small story of three shots about each building. Two of these shots are taken from the air (showing the building’s layout and façade), while the third is from the ground. By manipulating the model of the building in your mind you can move from a flat image to a three dimensional one.
Kauchuk Factory Club, architect K.S. Melnikov, 1927-1929
Krylatskoe Velodrome, architect N.I. Voronina et al, 1976-1979
Garden Quarters Residential Complex, architect S.A. Skuratov et al, 2010-2018
House on Embankment, architect B.M. Iofan et al, 1928-1931
Alex Ingram An Unconditional Love
I’m a freelance photographer living and working within London specialising in portrait and editorial commissions. Fundamentally, my work is about people. People that I have grown up with, people that I have encountered at different stages of my life, or people that have influenced and shaped me into the person I am today. My work is about my relationship with these people, thenconnections they share, and the stories they have to tell. I look to create narratives that run throughout, connecting the images, the people and the places, and engaging the viewer with the stories he is trying to tell. Football. It’s as much a part of British culture as Afternoon Tea, Fish’n’Chips, Morris Dancing or the Queen’s Speech. It’s a part of our culture that’s engraved into the bone, but when I first started this project I didn’t have a clue about it! I didn’t know who plays for who, what division a club is in and don’t even get me started with the offside rule as I still don’t fully understand. It’s an aspect of modern society that I just wasn’t a part of.
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There’s no denying that football is a massive part of many people’s lives, a multi-million pound industry that has infiltrated into every aspect of British culture, and connects people from all manner of life. From lawyers to cleaners, students to pensioners. For a few hours every week your social status is revoked, and people unite to share in the pride and the passion of this incredible game. The images aim to capture the passion and obsession that fans have for their team, and questions the impact it has on society. I’ve turned my lens away from the professional players, and instead focus on the real heart and soul of the sport: the fans. This project is personal to me, and I see my images not just as a documentation of the fans emotions andreactions to the happenings on the pitch, but also as a means of me better understanding this culture that I’m not a part of, and in turn learning what causes this unconditional love for the game.
Cristรณbal Carretero Cassinello
Dialogues 60
They are seemingly unconnected stories, spontaneous encounters, shapes, colors and capricious textures, which play, talk and intertwine, showing us a new and subjective perspective of a whole. A third plane generated by our visual perception, which tells us scenes with our own identity, our lives, our cities and, ultimately, ourselves.
Found Polaroids Emily Valentine talks to Kyler Zeleny
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only photographic medium that allows us to make Polaroid photography has always had it’s claim. The image is both the negative and the fans, and sparked perhaps by an oversatura- that positive - image and frame compacted into one. This tion of digital imagery, analogue and instant is one of the topics I explore in the essay I wrote for photography has had something of a comeback the book. Furthermore, over the last few years we’ve in recent years. Kyler Zeleny has built on this seen a revival in analogue technology. Vinyl and film fascination with instant photography and cre- photography seem to be the most collected objects, ated ‘Found Polaroids’, a photo book containing not for their content but rather their form. And there definitely something magical about the Polaroid, a selection of his huge 6000+ collection of isa romanticism of sorts imbedded in the Polaroid, a images, plus accompanying fictional narra- reminder to us to think in the terms of Marshal McLutive created through a series of community han’s ‘the medium is the message’. workshops, inviting people to tie the images to Do you shoot on Polaroid yourself, or are you invented stories.
more interested in found imagery?
I was a faithful shooter. I first purchased 3 packs of Polaroid 600ASA film in 2006. I shot those packs of my friends in Montreal and fell in love with the ‘develop before your eyes’ technology. I then started to purchase Impossible Project (now Polaroid Originals) film but that was in IPs early days and the quality was subpar; numerous times the emulsion would not roll out properly or the entire film pack was bunk. Original film was expensive and becoming harder and harder to locate. When I was living in London I found a local supplier who had a warehouse full, and selling an iPad my parents bought me for Christmas I secured 50 packs. I used it to shoot Polaroids in Western Canada and whenever a friend of mine gets married I shoot a pack as a gift to them. I ran out a few years ago and have since been shooting Polaroid Originals film, which has improved significantly from their earlier days.
Can you tell us a bit about your fascination with Polaroid images, and what the catalyst for this was? I first started to become fascinated with instant film when Polaroid announced it would discontinue their films. At the time I didn’t know how to articulate what drew me to the medium. In hindsight, it was the ‘one-ness’ of the medium. The Ronald Barthes’ claim that “what the photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once” does not hold true for the Polaroid, as a Polaroid image is not reproducible. It has no negative and cannot be reproduced. It really is the
Where have your found or obtained your huge collection of Polaroid images from? How many do you think you now have and is this an ongoing collection? The collection is north of 6,000! I initially started to collect them from flea markets and thrift shops, then moved to collecting on Ebay, the modern platform for easy collecting. It was this way I acquired the majority of the Polaroids. And it only took a couple of years to collect that many frames from other families. Today, they are more difficult to locate and when they do pop-up they’re unnervingly expensive so I haven’t added too many to the collection over the last couple of years.
rating a project that not only combined beautiful orphaned-images and creative fiction writing but also explored the importance of the Polaroid. This was achieved by essays by myself and Dr. Peter Buse, who recently authored The Camera Does the Rest, the most comprehensive account of Polaroid to date. The path from narrowing down 400 stories into the best 35 was laborious and involved up to six people reading through all the stories and rating them based on their merit. After the averages were calculated I took the top 60 stories and curated the final selection. I tried to ensure the book would have a good balance of ranging stories. I also didn’t want any images to be duplicated, which made the selection hard because great images seemed to inspire great stories.
You also run workshops - what do these involve and will you be running anymore in the future?
What can people expect from ‘Found Polaroids’? Why do you think it was important for this project to involve other people in creating narrative to go with the imagery? I would say people can expect a balanced book of stories. Some stories are based in sadness and others have a playful lightness about them. Throughout the curation process, the aim was to allow the reader to go on a journey through the human condition. As a non-writer I felt this was something I needed to ask others for assistance with. I also liked the idea of strangers writing about strangers. If all the images arrived as orphaned-others in my collection, then I wanted the authors of their fictitious narratives to also be estranged to one another. I really liked the potential of having this be a community project where people felt some ownership over. I have the perspective that these images are not necessarily mine as much as they happen to be in my possession. The potential stories nestled within each Polaroid belongs to everyone.
How did you go about obtaining and selecting the Polaroids and accompanying narrative? I always wanted to do more than create a project about storytelling so a lot of effort went into cu-
They’re pretty simple and open to anyone. I start off by talking about the project, its evolution and where I see it going. I then pass around a series of Polaroids and ask that everyone selects one they feel they could write about. Everyone writes a flash-fiction story of about 30-50 words based on the image they choose. This is considerably shorter than our online 250-350-word requirement but it’s necessary be-
cause time is short. After about 10-15 minutes of individual brainstorming and writing each participant shares their story with the group. It starts off quite nerve-racking, asking mainly non-writers to quickly write a piece of fiction and then share that with strangers, but it very quickly becomes an open and humorous adventure. I’d like to run more but I’ve been busy with my own photographic practice and doctoral research, but hopefully more soon!
Can you tell us a bit about your Pocketbook series, your current open calls and why you think that engaging likeminded people in these projects is so important? The Pocketbook series is an ongoing initiative I started with the The Velvet Cell, an independent publishing house based in Berlin. The idea behind each pocketbook is that it explores a photographic contemporary topic. The first volume, titled ‘Materialities’, was released last year and focused on the importance of the photograph as a material object, a physical testament, a document of occurrence, and of a past happening. We currently have calls out for the next two volumes in the series; one on the innovative ways photographers make work and one that looks at the American road trip as it relates to photography. You can find out more about this series on our website
kylerzeleny.com foundpolaroids.com
UNDER THE COVERS
Olga Sabo
I focus on fashion, portrait and art photography and try to mix these genres. I love the various effects of a blur because of some mystical feelings that they make. I often use in my work some textiles, veils, plastics. In this story, the color was added. 76
ISABELLA SOMMATI
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UNDERWATER WORLD I live in Milan where I work as an art director for fashion and design firms. After years of reviewing other people’s pictures, I decided to start taking my own photos. Through photography I hope to find a way of communicating, which is often difficult because of my strong sense of privacy. The element of water is often present in my shots, whether in the form of rain, tears or humble public swimming pools. Water cleans, soothes and swallows, becoming the only escape. The first time I dove I felt fear, the second time I experienced wellness, the third I was on the front line to paradise. In the universe of the salted bubbles, Alice in Wonderland would have mistook the White Rabbit with the Mad Hatter, because down there the reality is blurred and the fantasy become the explosion of the inner feelings. Gravity exists only in the breathing while emerging, to tell the lightness of being in that submerged world, where being amazed becomes natural. And submerged and surfaced become a unique infinite where to get lost. These pictures are extrapoled frames from a video made with go-pro.Traditionally, amateur videos show memories but every single frame hides a different interpretation of that particular moment, so the reality is different for everybody.
“After that magic moment when my eyes were opened to the sea, I was no longer able to see, think, and live as before.� Jacques-Yves Cousteau
“Così tra questa Immensità s’annega il pensier mio. E il naufragar m’è dolce in questo mare.” Giacomo Leopardi
Myles Cutchember patience
ON THE COVER I think of the stuff that I want, then I get it. Grew up in the Washington D.C metropolitan area. The only child but always kept a Gameboy. If you were to curate a movie about me, I think people would watch it and then find the book. After my cousin died in 2014 from Cancer at the age of 19, I just went 10x the effort with everything. I capture the personality and I’m usually the cut observing and overthinking. Candids and portraits are my favorite. 35mm.
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The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. Patience doesn’t mean passivity or resignation, but control. It’s an emotionally freeing practice of waiting, watching, and knowing when to act. It feels unreasonable and inhibiting, an unfair stalling of aspirations, but it’s a virtue. Everyone is in a rush with expectations of what’s next. This series is a reminder to take in a deep breath every now and then. Charles and Hayley are both poised and relaxed - taking in the currents, knowing it will come, eventually. Patient.
Maela Ohana Night Shade
I’m an artist and independent curator inspired by urban ecology and natural landscapes. I am currently living and working in Montreal, Canada. I am the founder of Archive Collective Magazine and co-founder of The Earth Issue, a collective of artists positioned at the intersection of visual art and environmentalism. Night Shade is a collection of botanical portraits shot in Montreal, Mexico and India. Lately, I’ve been enchanted by the mysteries of nature at dawn and dusk, when the changing light casts a strange glow on everything it touches. I set out to capture the unpredictable interactions between plants, architectural structures, shadows, and technicolor skies which occur in these liminal moments between day and night.” 100
Victoria Knobloch Sounds of Silence
I’m a German photographer who concentrates on black and white portrait art and documentary work. I want to welcome the viewer into the exploration of our complex existence with more awareness and therefore a spirit of importance, astonishment and appreciation. With my simple and direct photographic approach I am revealing the uniqueness of our everyday experience and the natural beauty of life. The beauty of Iceland can be found in its wide and immense areas of untouched and pristine nature. No description can convey the least idea of the serene beauty, the awe-inspiring wilderness and entrancing charm of the finest islandic scenes. The country is bathed in great silence, silence which reveals the cosmic unity and when one deeply listens to it, it touches ones soul. So, listen to the Sounds of Silence!
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Shadows & Light a photobook by Greg Lotus Reviewed by Jodanna Bird
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Over his 25-year career, Greg Lotus has developed a captivating body of work that redefines fashion in a beautiful, poetic and timeless way. Taking inspiration from classical paintings, Lotus plays with shadow and light to create simple, bold and often geometric images. Despite producing a vast collection of colour-popping mainstream covers for prestigious publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, Lotus clearly values the importance of pursuing his love for fine art. Drawing inspiration from classic photographers such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Man Ray, he creates endearing and mysterious narratives using a winning combination of craft, skill and passion. To showcase this artistic endeavour, Lotus presents ‘Shadows & Light,’ a carefully curated selection of fifty seductive black and white images, all contained within a truly slick fabric coated hardback book by Gatehouse Publishing. It’s not surprising that Lotus begins the book with a quote by German-born American photographer, Ruth Bernhard. Immersed in the quest to “isolate, simplify and … give emphasis to form
with the greatest clarity”, Bernhard’s renowned style of manipulating light to create alluring black and white compositions has noticeably influenced Lotus’ own creative exploration. With immediate impact, the first double page spread features a magnitude of negative space and directional lines. The drama of the conflicting angles and layers create a sense of unparalleled chaos, amongst which a uniquely posed figure lies half obstructively and half in isolation. In an attempt to redefine fashion stereotypes, the model shields her face from the hard light, and instead we are invited to focus entirely on her elegant form. As first impressions count, this image sets the tone for the rest of the book, which seems to be brimming with images that aim to challenge the archetype of the fashion genre. There are several themes that exist within the book. Firstly, shadows and geometry are two main visual cues that constitute the overall aesthetic. They are cleverly used in unison; the shadows create the geometry and the geometry creates the shadows. The repetitive line work of netting, palm leaves, windowpanes, steps and architecture are all commonplace, and captured in a way that guides our eyes in the direction of
the book are placed inside a black or white window, adding to the structured and graphic style. Secondly, we move on to the theme of layers. It is hypnotising to see the way that Lotus positions his subjects within a composition. The human form is often intertwined within the decorative pattern of shadows, or sprawled across a staircase, or concealed beneath the refracted surface of rippling water. The elements are all layered to create magnificent depth and intrigue. Many of the images feature suggestions of nature. Making a strong connection to his childhood, Lotus revisits his time spent growing up in an isolated environment in West Virginia. He presents us with interesting landscapes and beautiful natural forms, all of which are enhanced by the inclusion of a male or female figure. His aim to juxtapose the rarefied fashion industry with the organic beauty of the natural world really comes into play here. Finally, there is an incredibly interesting presentation of gender roles. Historically, the female
form is represented in art and culture as sensual, feminine and seductive. However, this collection of images strives to enforce women as the powerful, bold and strong figures that they deserve to be. Moreover, the male form seems to have adopted quite a sensual and seductive stance, which makes for a wonderfully curious contrast. Eva Longoria describes Lotus’ photography quite beautifully in the foreword when she says, “Greg uses his talent to redefine the feminine and masculine, to redefine normality and abnormality, to redefine the culture of art.” From front to back, ‘Shadows & Light’ invites us to immerse in a world of beauty, mystery and nature. It takes us on a timeless journey that combines enticing narratives with fashion. For anyone who is inspired by simple, graphic and elegant fashion photography with an artistic fusion, this publication is an absolute must-have.
Written by Jodanna Bird See more from greg locus at greglotus.com
Stephen Walton
The Britannia View
The urge to create dawned on me when I was about 13. I used to watch films and be inspired to emulate the life of the characters. Over the years I’ve wanted to be a storm chaser, a cop, and a soldier. But it all came from the power of the image – an image made me want these things, so I decided to be the director.
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This project was an endeavour to showcase the beauty we have on home soil. Not travelling to foreign lands but appreciating our neighbours and telling others of our glorious land. Us gritty Northerners are from dark lands; we have tales, legends, myths and fables – we hide them in our hills and valleys for others to find. Come looking for monsters and you’ll find the beauty.
index Check out the sites for all photographers featured in this issue for more inspirational work.
Victoria Art victoriart.tumblr.com Cristรณbal Carretero Cassinello cccassinello.com Myles Cutchember cargocollective.com/visionsofbillions Denis Esakov denisesakov.com Alex Ingram alexingramphoto.com Victoria Knobloch victoriaknobloch.com Vassilis Konstantinou vassiliskonstantinou.com Moshkovich Marina multashka.com Maela Ohana cargocollective.com/maelaohana Simone Perolari simoneperolari.net Olga Sabo olgasabo.com Isabella Sommati isabellasommati.com Stephen Walton thevuepoint.weebly.com
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