Finder #4

Finder

#4/2014

Finder Magazine #4/2014

Editor-in-Chief: Gabriela Grossmannová

Language and Translation Correction: Jozef „Dodo“ Gál

Contact: magazine.finder@gmail.com www.facebook.com/finder.magazine Cover photo by Kristína Denková https://www.flickr.com/photos/kristinadenkova/

* Catalina Matei * * I am (not) Ana * * Kristína Denková * * Milan Kroulík * * Julia Semashko * * Adriana Adamovská * * Jane * * Rona Keller * * Darya Krupkina * * RLStars * * Nicolas Colemonts * * Dara Scully * * Margaret Durow * * Polina Poludkina * * Andrej Russkovskij *

Catalina Matei (25), Romania https://www.flickr.com/photos/liferoundhere/

“I'm Catalina Matei, from Bucharest (Romania). I am 25 years old and I am a graduate of University of Arts (department of photography). I started taking photos when I was 14 years old, since I found a camera in my house.

I can't say that I have a specific subject. All can I say about my pictures is that they are free, without improvisation or creating situations and they have soft chromatics and colours!”

I am (not) Ana (20), living in Berlin

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ana-ana-ana/

“I am (not) Ana, a 20 year old girl with immense interest in the art of movement, simple pleasures, and design of all sorts.

Currently based in Berlin, but I can never guarantee that I will still be there when you turn around.”

Kristína Denková, Slovakia

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kristinadenkova

“Hello there!

I am Kristina. I was thinking very hard what to write about myself and my photos and I found out that sometime it is just better to say nothing.

I do not want to stimulate you. What I mean with that: here you are, looking at these pictures which may or may not touch or move you inside.”

Milan Kroulík, living in Prague https://www.flickr.com/photos/skritek/

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"Years of cinephilia have made me more attentive of my surroundings. In taking photographs I feel distant and close at the same time. The analog camera is a medium that enables me to take a step back and reflect on what I see. This moment of reflection enters as much into the resulting picture as the play of light in front of the lens. To me light is decisive for when I attempt to capture a fleeting moment.

Natural light is transient and I often feel like I missed something, which is never to happen again. Analog photography is a unique way of getting to know and represent phenomena and I am still grappling with it, especially because of its difference to narrative cinema. Movement-image. Time-image. There seems to be no such thing in photography. How to portray emotions I see in representations devoid of time?

I have yet to come to an understanding of the process of signification in photography. For now I study religion and culture. I live in Prague and am thankful for it. I want to create memoryscapes built on impermanence."

Julia Semashko (21), Belarus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sophiesplean/

“Life is a memory. Countless snaps, countless moments. That is the only way to travel through time available to people - to take a picture.

Sometimes we don't even realize the powers we posses: we try to stop moments that will never happen again. Ever. We all are collectors of the rarest and the most precious instants of our lives. From the very first time I became aware of the magic of photography, I have never stopped collecting and I never will. Although I shoot with both digital and film cameras, my preference goes to the film one since it can better cope with capturing live and breathing moments (you know what I mean).

My photos are my treasure, 'cause my memory is my treasure. 'Cause in the end all we have are memories.”

Adriana Adamovská (25), Slovakia http://adrianamouton.blogspot.sk

“I adore the process of painting, the slow development from nothing to something that depicts my current state of mind.

From impressionism to minimal. Analog photography is, at least to me, the very opposite of that. A process of mystery and surprise of the result.”

“Before winter in Banská Štiavnica” Red and brown colours signify the awaiting of a long, hard winter.

People from this city value the symbolism of romantic warmth emanating from fireplaces and stoves. It is in this particular time of the year, during the winter preparations, that sun rays are sharpest and really help create an impression that the warmth is slowly fading away...

Jane

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dreamer-jane/ http://dreamer-jane.lofter.com

Rona Keller (23), Germany https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronaaa/

"I was ten when I decided to go to a school the girl I strived to be best friends with was going to attend. During the same year, I adopted the handwriting style that half of the girls of my class had, because I couldn’t quite figure out my own yet. When I look at notes I have written recently, I sometimes still see that first year of secondary school in my handwriting.

It has changed a little, has gotten messier, but the struggles to find my place in midst of all those different minds that wanted to be the same are still so very clear.

After changing schools when I was sixteen, photography became something I have found for myself — not as early in my life as my handwriting, but early enough to let it help me become someone I really wanted to be, instead of someone I thought I wanted to be. During the past four years since I have gotten into film photography, I have learned to appreciate a moment when it is there, and still remember those times afterwards, even years from now.

I look at a photo and I see colours that make my life easier, people who mean so much to me, a coffee on that rainy day that put me back together, joy and happiness, nostalgia and pain that for some reason I don’t want to forget (just get over), good memories and bad ones that turned me into a better person. But most of all, somewhere along the way, the daily documenting and pouring out my feelings by means of taking film photos had me realize that I needed to be with people in order to become happy, but that sometimes I also needed to be alone in order to feel whole. “

Darya Krupkina, Russia https://www.flickr.com/photos/110850685@N07/

“I like to tell stories - about the world I see every day, about moments I feel and live. I'm telling these stories with words but more often with pictures.”

RLStars https://www.flickr.com/photos/rl_stars/

“RLStars are Rubo (30) and Lore (24) - a couple from Vigo, Spain who began to take photos as a hobby in 2007. Photography soon became a passion of ours. Our photos are, most of the time, unplanned; we just try to catch memories and beautiful details through our lenses.

We shoot both on digital and film, and we also like to experiment with several styles like urban, nature or portraits.”

Nicolas Colemonts (18), Belgium

https://www.facebook.com/nicolascolemonts

“I pretend to be a photographer.

I love doing that so I think I can say it. I always try to find the beauty in everything I'm looking at and when I like it I take a picture, sometime it works, sometime it doesn't.”

Dara Scully (b.1989), Spain http://cargocollective.com/darascully

“There's a bird in my left lung, small and fragile, and he always speaks to me about beautiful things. I try to translate all these things to my pictures, his voice, mine.”

“Dara explores the poetics of forests.

She can't understand the world without beauty, so, her work is like a search, like a silent escape from the reality.”

Margaret Durow (24), USA

https://www.flickr.com/photos/margaretdurow/

“These photos are filled with feelings from the past year an a half. My studio apartment with a balcony on the lake, moving back home, a warm heavy summer & meeting Aaron.”

Polina Poludkina (22), Russia https://www.flickr.com/photos/polly_chydes

“I'm an analogue photografer and I like some experiments with double exposition and making self portraits. Nude and mysterious forests are my love. I'm inspired by Franchesca Woodman. I don't want to share the times of certain periods. Kindergarten is replaced by school, school by college, college by Institute of Architecture. But all of this is specific.

Everyone passes through it, gets the basic knowledge, only the numbers change in the biography. For me, the main thing is that I'm always learning. Regardless of time or place. I'm learning to feel.

I'm learning to avoid imposed stereotypes. I'm learning toexplore the world and to be constantly alive. I'm learning to accept the world sharply, in contrast, discarding excess. I'm learning to create, develop.

I'm learning to do pure art. Ultimately art is out of time.”

Andrej Russkovskij, Italy

http://andrejrusskovskij.com

[seen through Isabel's - my soulmate - eyes] Andrej is: - a partner for life, with plenty of love to give and take - a best friend, with a contagious and honest smile - a wise brother, always ready to cheer you up and give advice when needed - a young vet, devoted to his job and eager to be challenged This leads to Andrej the Photographer and his analogue pictures - a combination of passion, commitment and emotions.

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