A little while ago I presented the extraordinary photographs of old French pigeonries by San Fransisco-based photographer Vicki Topaz: For her series “Silent Nests”, Topaz has documented old noble pigeonries in North-Eastern France, Normandy and Brittany over the course of several years. Even though hardly noticed today, these buildings look back on an intriguing history as former icons of nobility, from the 13th century until the French Revolution.

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The Style Saloniste has publishedan interesting interview with Vicki Topaz,

accompanied by several wonderful photos (LINK).

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More about “Silent Nests”.

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The book about “Silent Nests”, presenting wonderful b/w photographs, has been published by Heidelberg publisher Kehrer Verlag, and I’ve been fortunate to do the copy-editing of the project.

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Zur Zeit in Berlin zu Gast: Robert Polidoris Aufnahmen aus Versailles – über 25 Jahre hat der Fotograf die Restauratierungsarbeiten in den 1980ern vor Ort dokumentiert – und der südafrikanische Fotograf Guy Tillim. Tillims Serie “Avenue Patrice Lumumba” spürt der modernen Geschichte Afriakas vor dem Spiegel der kolonialen und postkolonialen Architektur.

Currently visiting Berlin: Robert Polidori’s photographs from and of Versailles – for a period of 25 years the photographer documented the restaurations in Versailles – and South African Guy Tillim. Tillim’s “Avenue Patrice Lumumba” series is an examination of modern history in Africa against the backdrop of its colonial and post-colonial architectural heritage (read on in English below).

Robert Polidori, Louise-Marie-Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre Duchesse d'Orléans by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun, 1789 Chambre du capitaine des gardes Chateau de Versailles, 2007

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ROBERT POLIDORI: VERSAILLES

Galerie CAMERA WORK
Contemporary Photography and Vintage Masterworks, Berlin 8. Mai – 26. Juni 2010

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Gezeigt werden Arbeiten des kanadischen Fotografen Robert Polidori aus Versailles, die die Schönheit des Schlosses einfangen.  Dabei werden Polidoris Aufnahmen der aufwendigen Restaurierungsarbeiten in den 1980er Jahren mit zuvor nie ausgestelltne aktuellen Arbeiten ergänzt. Die Fotografien sind eine eine exklusive Auswahl aus dem jüngst im STEIDL Verlag erschienenen dreibändigen Bildband “Parcours Muséologique Revisité“, in dem Polidoris mittlerweile abgeschlossene Foto-Arbeit im Schloss Versailles – über einen Zeitraum von 25 Jahren – präsentiert wird.

Robert Polidori, Boiserie detail by the Brothers Rousseau Cabinet intérieur de Madame Victoire Corps Central - R.d.C. Chateau de Versailles, 2007

Aus der PR-Mitteilung: “Die Photographien aus Versailles sind grandiose Zeugnisse einer Welt, die längst untergegangen ist. Subtil versteht es Polidori die Schnittstellen zwischen Alt und Neu aufzuspüren und sucht dabei nach dem “emblematischen Moment” eines Ortes – die Einheit aus Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Dabei ist der Photograph ein Meister in der räumlichen Ästhetik und Komposition. Seine Bilder sind komplexe Stillleben, die in ihrer Farbigkeit und einzigartigen Qualität eine Kulisse für die Phantasie des Betrachters bilden. In der friedvollen Stille seiner Aufnahmen und in der Detailgenauigkeit seiner Bilder liegt eine außergewöhnliche Kraft.”

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Info + Illus.: Courtesy Galerie CAMERAWORK

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Guy Tillim, New town square with wrapped statue of Agostinho Neto, Sumba, Angola, 2008, Archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper, 91.5 x 131.5 cm, Courtesy Kuckei + Kuckei

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Guy Tillim – Avenue Patrice Lumumba

Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin

30 April – 3 July 2010

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Quote from PR info: “In many African cities, there are streets, avenues and squares named after Patrice Lumumba, one of the first elected African leaders of modern times, winning the Congo election after independence from Belgium in 1960. His speech at the independence celebrations in Léopoldville, in the presence of the Belgian King, Baudouin, unequivocally signalled his opposition to the West’s idea of neo-colonial order that would replace overt domination with indirect control. He was assassinated in January 1961 by Belgian agents after UN complicity in the secession of the provinces of Katanga and South Kasai, and a Western power-supported military coup led by Mobutu Sese Seko. Today his image as a nationalist visionary necessarily remains unmolested by the accusations of abuse of power that became synonymous with later African heads of state.

Guy Tillim, City Hall offices, Lubumbashi, DR Congo, 2007, Archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper, 91.5 x 131.5 cm, Courtesy Kuckei + Kuckei

Avenue Patrice Lumumba by Guy Tillim is an examination of modern history in Africa against the backdrop of its colonial and post-colonial architectural heritage. It travels through numerous African countries, including Mozambique, Angola and The Democratic Republic of Congo.

In this project, the South African photographer Guy Tillim (1962, Johannesburg) departs from the late-modernist architectural structures that shaped the colonial landscape of conflicts in recent decades. However, the transitional and hybrid sceneries and spaces he depicts do not merely testify to conflict and an oppressive past, decay and violently contested ideologies. They speak equally of the aspirations for liberation and progress in the post-colonial era.”

Info + Illus.: Courtesy Kuckei + Kuckei

An amazing and unconventional approach to photography has developed American photographer Jay Mark Johnson. His “Spacetime” photography functions like timelines: the motives are captured during a certain span of time, thus merging the recording of space and time into a single, linear “spacetime” continuum. Presently his work is shown in ACE Gallery Beverly Hills.

caravana nirvana #4 (Nirvana Caravan #4) (Detail), Belgrade, 2008

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JAY MARK JOHNSON SPACETIME

THROUGH AUGUST 29, 2009

ACE Gallery Beverly Hills

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(Info quoted from ACE Gallery Press Release)

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Jay Mark Johnson (*1955 Florida) produces photographic images that challenge the norms of perception. Employing a process that is distinct from conventional photography, he creates works that merge the recording of space and time into a single, linear “spacetime” continuum. The resulting photographs are akin to both seismographs and electrocardiograms in that, as timelines, they begin on the left and end on the right. The horizontal length of the image conveys an uninterrupted and fluid measurement of a brief span of time, varying in duration from 10 seconds up to 45 minutes.

bauen wohnen streifen #1 (Building, Dwelling, Stripes #1) (Detail), Hamburg, 2008

Johnson approaches this work as an open-ended exploration into the possibilities for timeline photography. In his Motion Studies series, the artist registers the free-flowing movements of Taichi dancers, ballet dancers and swimmers. The resulting images appear as gesture-driven “action paintings.”

His Anachronistic Nature series records familiar patterns of natural movement that have been transposed into singular, two dimensional time sequences. “Nature” is recognizable but appears to be out of sync with itself.

With his Topological Shifts he focuses on transformations that occur when a non-linear movement is re-rendered into a straight line graphic. The giant circular steel latticework of an amusement park ferris wheel is unwrapped into a delicate linear scaffolding.

But it is within his Spacetime Cityscapes and Landscapes that Johnson’s most inventive and interpretive developments have flourished, unique examples of landscape imagery. They have been photographed all around the world, including Belgrade (Serbia), Cetona (Italy), Hamburg (Germany), Hazard (Kentucky), Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, Rome, and Valencia (Spain). At each new location, Johnson develops an increasingly critical interplay between the place itself, its unique position in history and the unconventional visualizations that he creates. His cultural, linguistic and political references are far reaching and he applies them with incisive wit.

compressed time clouds #1 (Detail), Yukon, 2007

“Perhaps the most exciting aspect of his photography is that it tugs photography away from the gravitational pull of Euclidean documentation – which has dominated the field since its beginnings – and prods it towards new and ambitious aesthetic and intellectual goals.”

Johnson equates his visual experimentation to stepping “through the looking glass” with Alice. In this parallel world of shifted perceptions, the ground rules are changed. Horizontal space is obliterated, shadows are crisscrossed, directional movement is confounded. Individuals appear isolated from the spaces they inhabit, and the relative speed of an object causes its expansion or contraction. Though the images are true photographs, they challenge the viewer’s effort to decode them.

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About Jay Mark Johnson

taichi motion study #51, Los Angeles, 2006

Jay Mark Johnson holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Tulane University. Through the early 1980s, his associations with architects Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas, Aldo Rossi and Lebbeus Woods allowed him to explore questions of representation and time in both built and conceptual architecture. Beyond architecture, Johnson’s varied and prolific career spans theatre and performance art, photography, live musical performance, and journalism.

Later he worked within the film industry and is now a cinema director with broad experience in visual effects production, having supervised, directed or otherwise contributed to the computer generated imagery for a dozen major studio films and television series, such as Outbreak, The Matrix, Titanic, Tank Girl, Moulin Rouge, and White Oleander and music videos for Michael Jackson, Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others.

He lives and works in Venice, California.

An unusual motive has chosen San Francisco based photographer Vicki Topaz for her series “Silent Nests“: Over the course of several years, she has documented old noble pigeonries in North-Eastern France, Normandy and Brittany.  Even though hardly noticed today, these buildings look back on an intriguing history as former icons of nobility, from the 13th century until the French Revolution.

Illustrations by Vicki Topaz

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The possession of pigeons has long been a privilege of the noblemen, a symbol of aristocratic wealth, power, and landownership. Their possession was ruled by strict laws, constraining how many pigeon couples where allowed. 

To house the birds, magnificent castle tower-like structures were constructed. From the 13th century until the 1789 French Revolution, ten thousands of these pigeonries existed in Northern France, yet today only a few hundred remain. After the French Revolution, many “pigeonniers” were destroyed as symbols of the feudal past.

Today, thse dovecotes are often ruinous and run-down. Nevertheless they are remarkable architectural witnesses of the past and part of the French cultural heritage. Topaz’ black and white photographs – the first photographical exploration of the topic – capture the amazing presence of these astonishing edifices and show striking portrays of these particular bird houses. They are both a photo documentation of an unusal architectural building type and of French histroy, as well as they give aesthetic witness of past and transience, history and lost worlds, but also permance and persistence against all odds – some “pigeonniers” are still inhabited by pigeons.

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About the still vital attraction of these pigeonries, the photographer Topaz recounts:

(abridged text)

They feel haunted by their past histories. At the same time, pigeonniers are very inviting, and some are still inhabited by a few pigeons. These structures retain, too, some of the sweetness of their former occupants, of the characteristics of these birds—their gentleness, loyalty, nesting and social instincts, and ability to hone in on home.

Their decline has touched me as it embodies the loss we all may  experience through life changes, decay, and the death of loved ones. The pigeonniers’ survival represents the continuity of objects long after their builders have gone, reflecting our shared history. I find this continuity a measure of reassurance.

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An English and French publication of “Silent Nests” will be available soon, edited by Heidelberg based publisher Kehrer Verlag, including an essay on the history of French pigeonnries by Doreen Schmid and Gilles Boussard. It is Topaz’ first monograph.

More information here.

And another exhibition – photos, of course – that sounds interesting. Actually it is 2 exhibits by the same photographer, Birgit Neiser, though on either “side” of the globe – one in Germany, the other one in Sydney.

Birgit Neiser, Steel Works, 2008 (from: Spaces), 85 cm x 128 cm

Birgit Neiser SPACES

part of a group exhibit at Kunsthalle Hammans, Warngau

20. Juni – 15. September 2009

German photographer Birgit Neiser offers new perspectives on various SPACES in urban and industrial environments.  Thus she is providing room to different spaces: Using multiple exposures and specific light conditions, she later overlays several takes, editing the image digitally to improve all parts of it. The resulting images glow in full depth. The viewer experiences an unfamiliar perception of spaces he/she would usually not deign to look at.

Birgit Neiser, Gas Station, 2008 (from: Spaces), 85cm x 128cm

In Sydney, Neiser presents another series, not actually thematizing architecture, but another particular space:

Sorting the catch © Birgit Neiser 2008

Birgit Neiser in Sydney

“CAUGHT – Photographs of Life at the Sydney Fish Market”

The Mosman Art Gallery in association with the Sydney Fish Market

13 June – 26 July 2009

Neiser has captured the essence of life and work at the largest working seafood market in the southern hemisphere, documenting its vibrant atmosphere and the life behind the scenes at one of Sydney’s premiere, harbourside locations. Neiser spent c. 3 years observing and recording life at the Fish Markets, since she and her family have settled in Sydney/Mosman in 2003.

Two exhibitions in Zurich and Cologne present new and unexpected views – of New York, the most photographed city in the world (or so they say), and of reduced imaginary rooms, playing with human perception.

© Christoph Studinka

The Face of New York – unseen vistas of the Big Apple
by Swiss photographer Christoph Studinka

Gallery See 301, Zurich / CH

Christoph Studinka’s Blog

Swiss photographer Christoph Studinka portrayed New York City during the last ten years. Of course, neither is he the first one to do so, nor will he be the last – New York is said to be the most photographed city in the world. But his b/w prints break with many preconceived ideas and clichés on the Big Apple.

© Christoph Studinka

Studinka,  a self-taught photographer who is working intensively in b/w besides his regular work since 2000, is interested in the moment of seeing and framing the image, which is often happening in a matter of seconds. While strolling through the chessboard of New York’s streets with his preloaded camera, – waiting, watching, searching, waiting, wondering, deciding, and instantly shooting – he experiments with photos and motives. Studinka is fascinated by New York’s greed and poetry, its success and failure, the symbols for world power and (like Ground Zero) destruction.

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Stefan Heyne, EINGANG, 140 x 93cm, 2006 © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn

Stefan Heyne
Blind Spot

Kaune, Sudendorf Gallery, Cologne

Until 11. Juli 2009

Berlin artist Stefan Heyne developes imaginary rooms. Working consequently on the “interface” between painting and photography, Heyne’s photos aren’t descriptive, not representing. Thus refusing the reproductive character of photography, Heyne’s works develop a particular autonomy.

His rooms show details not at once recognizable. Precisely calculated and highly reduced and quiet, they invite the viewer to view closely, to penetrate the unknown situation. The viewer realizes how the image becomes  a projection screen for his/her imagination.

The consistent reduction in Heyne’s photos creates a mixture of known and unknown, and raises questions on how photography works, how perception works, how the dialogue between painting and photography works.

Zwei Ausstellungen im Mai und Juni zeigen in Berlin und Brüssel die Arbeiten von zwei Fotografinnen, deren Arbeit ähnliche Themen verfolgt – die Dokumentation architektonischer Hinterlassenschaften der Industriekultur bzw. die Zeichen, die die Urbanisierung hinterlässt. || Two exhibits in May and June present works by 2 photographers whose work focus similar objectives – the documentaton of architectonical remains of Industriekultur/industrial heritage resp. the imprints of urbanization.

Kerstin J. Schorer: Ofengang (Foto: K. Schorer)

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Kerstin J. Schorer – Stille Zentralen

loftgalerie für Fotografie. Peter Gregor, Berlin

15. Mai – 19. Juni 2009

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Kerstin J. Schorer (*1972 in Saarbrücken) ist fotografische Autodidaktin. Aufgewachsen in der Industrieregion Saarland setzt sie sich seit Jahren intensiv mit maroden und stillgelegten Industriebauten und -objekten auseinander. Mit ihren Schwarzweißaufnahmen fängt sie den Charme des natürlichen Verfalls ein und erweist den dokumentierten Anlagen eine letzte Ehre. Schorers Dokumentationsreisen haben sie in das Gebiet der ehemaligen DDR, das sie bevorzugt, geführt, aber auch in die Schweiz, nach Frankreich, Italien, Spanien, Belgien, Tschechien und Polen.

In Berlin werden ihre Arbeiten zusammen mit Aufnahmen von Fritz Fabert – Archäologie der Arbeit zu sehen sein.

Kerstin J. Schorer: Betonformen (Foto: K. Schorer)

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Isabelle Hayeur: Monument aux hommes des carrières III, 2008 - 2009 (Foto: I. Hayeur)

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ISABELLE HAYEUR : FORMES DE MONUMENTS

May 13th – June 21st, 2009

L’espace Photographique Contretype, Brussels

(Contretype Website doesn’t work currently, so try this link instead)

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(Text Quote Contretype: )

Since the end of the 1990s, Isabelle Hayeur (*1969, Montreal) has been taking panoramic photographs which reveal her unusual critique of the North American anthropic landscape. Her images represent places where the debate over land-use is being played out, such as the division of land into building-plots on the outskirts of towns, waste ground, places where the landscape is being exploited and other unusual and disenchanted locations.

The artist’s ultra-realist landscapes are, nevertheless, a little artificial, because they have been made using different sources. Just like a painter, Isabelle Hayeur retouches existing landscapes and uses fragments of images from a variety of origins and temporalities, and nimble-fingeredly produces a displacement of meaning, constructing very strange places, at the outer limits of probability. The unknown, or unknowable, places she constructs by blending different places together into one, demonstrate weaknesses that focus our attention on our relationship with the environment; the transformation and development of towns and cities; the strata of urban history; the insertion of towns and cities into the countryside, and the many different styles of urban living.

Isabelle Hayeur: Monument aux bâtisseurs de Ville, 2008 - 2009 (Foto: I. Hayeur)

Her latest project, Formes de monuments (2008-2009), was created in Brussels within this framework. By juxtaposing urban blight and public statuary, these new compositions metaphorically show the changing city and the uneasy cohabitation of standardised town-planning with cultural identity. The result of this cohabitation are images that are seductive and disturbing at the same time, located between devastated land and the commemorative spaces of history.

Hayeur is known primarily for her large digital photomontages. She also produced several site-specific installations, public art commissions and videos. Her works have been widely exhibited across Canada, Europe and the United States.

I am glad to present you another impressive photo artist whose work is focusing on architecture, cityscapes, urban sceneries,… Brazilian photographer Tuca Vieira gives us insight into his work and tells us why chose photography, what literature means to him and how it influences his work with the camera, and how he met Oscar Niemeyer.

Tuca, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!

© photos Tuca Vieira

Tuca Vieira: Centro

Why photography? How and why did you become a photographer?

I always wanted to have an instrument of expression. I have tried music and drawing before and now I realize that I was trying to say the same things. It is important to see the camera just as an instrument.
I have made an important travel in Europe when I was 16. I have visited many countries, alone with a backpack. At that time it was more difficult than today, I was the first in my family to visit Europe since the Italian immigrants and I wanted to share this experience with them. I had just a fake Yashica camera and a few rolls of film. I had to think before shooting. I became photographer at this moment.

Tuca Vieira: Vale do Anhangabaú

You studied languages and literature first. Why did you decide to become a photographer?

I have decided to be a photographer before the university. And when I had to choose a course, I thought language and literature would give me a good aesthetic, social and historical background. Many photographers I admire didn’t study photography. I love literature; writers are the best image creators I know. Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges and José Saramago are always on my mind when I think about photography.

What does photography mean to you, what possibilities does it offer?

Photography is like a passport. It puts you in some interesting situations that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Sometimes I feel that what I have experienced, the people I meet, are more important than the photographs I take. In the future I am not sure if I will leave a good photographic work, but I will have many stories to tell.

How do you choose your motives?

Photography is a passion. I guide myself by the pleasure of being on the streets. And sometimes I feel that the subject chooses the photographer. I live in the centre of São Paulo. The city is not as beautiful as Rio but it is a fascinating city, full of creativity and energy. Unlike Rio, where the beauty is everywhere, São Paulo is a place where you are forced to find the beauty in order to support the urban chaos. It makes a wonderful photographic subject.

Tuca Vieira: Centro

Who / What are your role models? Who / What influenced your work?

I try to bring to the photography what I learned with literature, cinema, and music. It is more influent to me than photography. A good poem is full of beautiful images. I try to say to young photographers (at least younger then me) that there is not much to learn with other photographers. To read a good book is the best photo lesson I know.

Why architecture photos? What are your ambitions with your photographs?

I don’t know if I am exactly an architecture photographer. Sometimes I feel myself closer to the landscape photographers. But instead of nature, I look to the cities. I don’t know if it is the same in English or German, but In Portuguese we call a big city “stone jungle” (selva de pedra).

[[yes, in German there's quite the same expression - Großstadtdschungel / jungle of the city - an idea, that became predominant in the 1910s and 1920s in Berlin and can often be found in Expressionist texts and poems. In English I heard say "urban jungle", though I don't know about the literature historical connotations.]]

Tuca Vieira: VVTs, Moscou

You mostly photographed São Paulo so far – but I take it that you are now exploring new cities, S. Petersburg, Berlin,…

Exactly. I have been photographing São Paulo during the last years I now I feel that it is time to explore different places. I am going to Berlin this year for a six months period. I am curious to see what will happen. São Paulo is my city and I love to see the work of a foreign photographer about São Paulo. Now I will be a foreigner in Berlin.

Did you shoot the major part of your São Paulo portrays from “above”, i.e. from an airplane?

Some are from the top of buildings, others from helicopter. But I also have a black and white work, more intimate and personal, where I try to make some “street photography”. It is important to me to be on the street level, closer to the people, even to understand the city from above.

Most of your photos are without humans. Is that intentional?

ot intentional. I don’t think much about this. But even without people, I try to show the human presence behind the buildings. A city is perhaps the most complex human work ever made. I see a great human drama in the city shape.

What does architecture mean to you?

I lived in Belo Horizonte, in state of Minas Gerais when I was teenager, and I will never forget the impact of visiting the works of Niemeyer in the Pampulha complex or the colonial cities like Ouro Preto and Sabará. The richness of baroque and modernist architecture in Brazil (and its relations) is a wonderful example of what this country can offer to the world.

You portrayed Oscar Niemeyer – any experiences you want to share about meeting him?

Tuca Vieira: escritório, Rio de Janeiro

Oscar Niemeyer is one the artists I most admire. Not only because of his architecture, but also his example as human being. The first time I went to his office to portrait him was not easy. I have introduced myself, saying I am a great admirer of him. After two or three pictures he sad to me: ok enough. I was disappointed until I put the camera back in the bag. Than we started to chat and we had a wonderful conversation about Brazil, about life. He made me think what I was I was doing there. It was not just about the pictures. He always repeats that architecture is not important. That day I realized that also photography is not important. To meet someone like Niemeyer is much more important.

What – in your opinion – is characteristical of your work and your working method?

Composition is important to me. I try to find a balance in the frame. I always have in my mind that every photograph is just an interpretation of the subject. The nature of the photography, its two dimensions, the frame format, request a different way of approaching a subject. It is beautiful to say that the camera is an extension of the eye but I see the camera more as a scratch book.

Where can we see your works? Exhibitions coming up?

I have a website, www.fototucavieira.com.br. Now I am planning this trip to Berlin and it would be wonderful to show my work in Germany.

Tuca Vieira, thank you very much for the interview!!

As I already announced, here is the interview with young Portuguese photographer Inês d’Orey. I am happy that Inês found the time to answer some questions about her work – thanks Inês!!

Her fascinating photo series Porto Interior can still be seen at Galleri Image, Aarhus (Denmark) until May, 10, 2009. So if you happen to hang around in Denmark – don’t miss the chance!

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Fenianos 2 (from: Porto Interior), 80 x 80 cm, 2007 © Inês d'Orey

Inês, what can we see at Aarhus?

The exhibition Porto Interior in Galleri Image, presents a selection of 14 large format photographs, part of my ongoing project of  representing empty interiors of public and semi-public spaces in Porto, Portugal. The photographs are exhibited in conjunction with a video projection that incorporates sound recordings of people using the spaces in the photographs.

What is your intention with Porto Interior?

Porto Interior functions as a collection of spaces that I search and find throughout the city. These interiors are photographed absent of any human presence. Familiar places like theatres, swimming pools or staircases, used by people on a daily basis, become stages for a story that is never clear, but that doesn’t need to be clear.  Through digital manipulation, I alter  the photographs subtly until I create  the atmosphere I find appropriate.

Why photography? Why did you become a photographer?

Photography, because it provides the possibility of communicating from a physical and objective reality at the same time, with a subjective subtext underneath. And those two elements put together create a really interesting provocation.

What does art mean to you, which possibilities does it offer?

What is art?

Piscina de Campanhã (from: Porto Interior), 80 x 80 cm, 2007 © Inês d'Orey

How do you choose your motifs?

There isn’t a rule. I’m inspired everyday by different sources that, at a certain point, come together and result in an idea.

Who / What are your role models? Who / What influenced your work?

I never had any role models, specially in photography. My main influences come from cinema , painting and illustration.

In many projects, you focus on architecture, resp. rooms/interiors as well as “space” in general. Why? What does architecture / space mean to you?

Until I finished my degree in photography, I had never been particularly interested in architecture. But then, I started to work with an architecture photographer and was, in a way, „forced” to photograph space! That much delivery and exposure to architecture and being always surrounded by architects made me, slowly, start to acquire a special interest in it. And it reached the point of being, at the moment, my main interest.

What is it that you are interested in when portraying architecture/buildings and people?

The beauty of the form and light, the curiosity of the functionality, the misterious possibility of an unclear narrative.

The everyday usage of spaces tends to make them invisible, indiferent. The more you use the space, the more you ignore it. What photography does is, it selects, focuses your attention and tells you where to look.

Porto Interior, 80 x 80 cm, 2007 © Inês d'Orey

What are your ambitions with your photographs (esp. your “urban” works, but also in a broader point of view)?

I want to trigger the viewer’s imagination: what strange story is happening here? I like to think that the viewer will feel, more than rationalize the photograph.

What – in your opinion – is characteristical of your work and your working method?

I always plan and think through before I photograph. I never go out with my camera waiting for something to happen.

I think I could say that my work conceptually stages reality.  I’m more interested in “creating a moment”, more than “catching the moment”.

Still until 10 May 2009  you can admire Inês d’Orey’s photo series Porto Interior at Galleri Image, Aarhus (Denmark). I had the chance to see some of her work during the Fotofestival Mannheim_Ludwigshafen_Heidelberg 2007 and have thus already mentioned Porto Interior on this blog.

Inês d'Orey, Porto Interior, 80 x 80 cm, 2007 © Inês d'Orey

Inês d’Orey (*1977 in Porto), educated at the London College of Printing, won the FNAC Award for Talents in Photography in 2007. She photographs public and semi-public places in Porto, her home city, where she continues to reside. “The project had its starting point in d’Orey’s urge to examine places in the city that appear both strange and familiar; not so much ‘documenting’ Porto, therefore, as exploring the possible and impossible interiors of the city. In these photographs a sense of architectural detail, pattern and structure is combined with an eye for the very special atmosphere of place.” (quote PR release)

D’Orey portrays the interiors of public rooms – yet while normally being crowded with people, here they are  without human presence. The sceneries, ranging from sports-halls, parking lots, hotels, stairways, foyers and the most intimate private spaces, varying in their degree of ‘recognisability’, appear strange, fascinating and unreal. By means of photographic manipulations, d’Orey alters the urban motifs to create a certain atmosphere: Her aim is to capture the spirit of place and to intensify it.

“The onlooker imagines the diversity of human activity that might normally take place in these buildings and the possible stories that emanate from them. Distanced as they are from their current human context, the passage and the wear of time become distinct entities. (…). The emerging images, poised between the real and the mysterious, make the viewer conscious in a renewed way of the physical surroundings of his/her daily life.”(quote PR release)

In Aarhus, d’Orey’s photographs are shown with a video projection that incorporates sound recordings of people using the spaces in the photographs. The absence of humans in the images, and their corresponding presence in the sound, is part of the meaning of the exhibition.

I am very glad  that Inês d’Orey found the time to answer some questions which I will share with you in an interview soon.