Lumen Magazine issue 1

Lumen

JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ART & PRACTICE www.lumenmagazine.com

Issue 1 Autumn 2012

V itali y and El en a Va s iliev a -Ru th Jo n e s - H e r ve C o u t i n -Ma rg a re t I n g a W i a t row sk i Nevin Kal l epal li-Lee Hershey-J a n E r ic E u l e r- Anton Sokolov

PLATINUM COLLODIUM CAFFENOL CYANOTYPE VAN DYKE GUM BICHROMATE CARBON TRANSFER POLAROID AMBROTYPE FILM PINHOLE PAPER NEGATIVES POP PAPER GELATIN SALT PAPER A na l o g v o l 1 ca l l fo r e nt ri e s LIQUID An a lo g is a n LIGHT an n u al p u b l i c at i o nCALOTYPE t h a t a im s t o p rom ot e a naANTHOlog p ho to gra ph y w ithin t h e ph ot o g r ap h i c com m u nit y. Ph ot ogra p h ers a t a ny l e ve l ,from a n ywhe r e i n t h e w o r l d , ca n su b m it a p ort folio of 10- 20 image s TYPE CHLOROPHYLL ARGYROTYPE for po s s ible inc l u si o n .

KALLITYPE CHRYSOTYPE PALLADIwww. l umen mag az i n e . c om u s o n F ac e b o o k an dDICHROMATE Tw i t t er.

UMF ollowZIATYPE CARBON ALBUMEN DRY PLATE LIGHT MARKING SILVER OIL TRANSFER PINHOLE PAPER NEGAT IVES P OP PAPER GELATIN SALT PAPER LIQUID LIGHT CALOTYPE ANTHOTYPE CHLOROPHYLL ARGYROTYPE

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Editor’s Note: Welcome to the new issue of lumen magazine! This issue launches with a change in name and format for the magazine and also a new look website with a wealth of features and content. Why the changes? Well, I simply like the ability to be flexible, to be able to respond to the changes and developments of both the printed page and the web.

It has always been my desire to have the website act as a platform for the magazine, to be able to expand and develop beyond the limits of the printed page. With the design and flexibility of the new layout I finally feel that it is living up to the dream that started back in issue one. Thank you to all the readers and artists who have contributed to the magazine over the past 18 months! Enjoy this issue.

Gabriel Van Ingen

Vit a l i y a n d Elena Vasilieva

On The Cover

Ruth Jones

Visual manifestations of the subconscious Vi t a l i y a n d Elena Va s iliev a

It is commonly believed that the primary function of dreams is to psychologically balance and compensate for matters left unsettled during our waking hours.

In the dream world, the censors of our mind dissipate and the material in our heads becomes fluid and nonlinear-our past memories, fears and desires all surface symbolically, revealing to us a deeper understanding of ourselves.

Metaphorically, this is how I have come to understand my photographic work.

I see my photographs as visual manifestations of my subconscious mind-images that bypass intellectualization to reveal authentic feeling.

V i taliy and Elen a Vasilieva

Vitaliy and Elena Vasilieva

Vitaliy and Elena Vasilieva

Vitaliy and Elena Vasilieva

Our British Lives Ruth Jones I grew up in a family who loved to immerse themselves in British Culture; we attended festivals and got involved in country pursuits and other “traditionally British� activities. Growing up in this environment has given me an interest in why people choose to embrace the cultural identity of a country; so I have chosen to produce this project which explores how people choose to engage with their nationality through the activities which they do. Through a series of Landscapes shot on 120 film this project is a study of the British way of life in the early 21st century.

This project is influenced by the work of photographers such as Simon Roberts and Tony Ray-Jones, as each of these photographers decided to capture aspects of life in Britain to record the culture of the time.

What do you think Britain will be like in 20 years time? How will our cultural identity change? Will the traditions of Britain remain the same? I aim to make a visual record Britain as it is today before the identity of this country changes.

As this project is still in progress I am encouraging people to get involved by writing about the activities they embrace in their spare time on a post-it note wall. All of the notes will be taken into consideration as I continue the project. To find out how you can write a post-it visit my website: www.ruthjones.org

Ruth Jones

Ruth Jones

Ruth Jones

Rock’n roll, french romantic sensuality and contemporary fashion.

Herve Coutin Herve Coutin, 31, French fashion photographer.

He is a thoughtful person, he talks passionately about his large collection of old cameras and about preferring real film to digital formats and doing his own processing and experimenting. The pictures on the next pages, for instance, were shot with a Rolleiflex T and paper sheets were developed with a cafenol chemical. Photography should stay a manual work and not a geek work, glued on the computer and running behind new technologies.

Sensuality is one of the most important things in photogrphy and also the thing which makes a photo timeless. Fashion and fashion photography became tacky very quickly and the good photos are the one we still love after years.

Fashion photography and the sexual revolution of the sixties are very closed, these photos are the representation of this freedom, a mix between rock’n roll, French romantic sensuality and contemporary fashion. http://www.hervecoutin.com

Herve Coutin

Herve Coutin

Russian Beauty Anton Sokolov When I first came to this place I was astonished by man-sized matryoshkas and fairy-tale creatures on its streets as well as by dolphins and birch-surrounded waterfalls on its walls. I got a strong feeling that somehow I managed to get into some kind of paralel reality. The only thing I was able to do at the moment was to pull out the camera and start shooting.

Later I came back to Zheleznodorozhnyi once more. My astonishment and surprise changed into sarcastic criticism. The whole town seemed to me as a lubok painting came to life: vivid, naive and kitsch. I continued shooting with that exact attitude. Every statue and every wall-painting I counted as tasteless and awfull results of moving towards “cute” and “sweet”.

I constantly returned there, and the more I shot — the more distinctive my initial conception failure became. The final point was my last shooting when I, at last (after more than a year), have realised and felt the giant power that place posessed.

The idyllic landscapes with swans, ponds and springs were nothing more but a try to isolate oneself from the absurd, chaos and unstability of everyday life, a try to escape into childhood rememberances or fairy-tale universe.

From the observer’s point of view these pieces of street-art, scattered around the town, soon became no more, no less but splinters of ‘paradise regained’. Among depersonalizated typical blocks specked with poorly made graffiti these tiny spots of art are the only thing that can draw one away from modern days timelessness.

I believe that in nowadays sluggish and conform Russia, where are no heroes, nor deeds, such tries of transforming reality into something more suitable for living, than it is, can possibly make much more than petitions, declarations or demonstrations. http://cargocollective.com/bad_photographer/

Anton Sokolov

Anton Sokolov

Anton Sokolov

Anton Sokolov

Negativland Ma r g a re t I ng a W ia trow s ki

Negativland explores places of loss, contradiction, disbelief and inversion. These are landscapes that are rooted in contradiction, opposite realities, blank spaces, and misleading perspectives. Negativland brims with clouded vision, the presence of inexplicable sources of light, hyper-reflective surfaces, uncomfortable angles, and deceptively situated shadows to provide expressions of unnatural juxtapositions: in-between spaces in the midst of falling apart, unraveling landscapes where meaning shifts, and memory fails.

These scenes teeter between delicacy and disorder, referencing insignificant places that elude our attention, but still retain a feeling that something intrinsically irreplaceable has been lost. Abundant with the leftover detritus of uncertain places and eras, they exist with a touch of reality, a touch of idyllic reverie, and the bleary memory of the frailty and filth of spaces that know no specific locations. Each space is a question, and ceases to be self-evident–leaving sites that are cloudy and undecipherable. Nothing resembles what was, memory deceives and abandons, and only these delicate, broken surfacesbarely visible remnants where what is left seems like a void- remain on paper. www.margaretinga.com

Margaret Inga Wiatrowski

Margaret Inga Wiatrowski

Atonement Nev i n K a llepa lli

My recent work attempts to capture our bind to the passage of time. We atone for life’s impermanence, for the transience of pleasure, for love’s fleeting rapture.

We are caught in the flux of an ever-changing continuum. The beauty of exchange within a relationship is momentous; the warmth shared between two lovers will inevitably dissipate and die.Yet we fiercely cling to those transcendent moments, to the times beyond time, when we are left with no one but ourselves. And in our echoing solitude, desperately groping to feel what is real and permanent, we inwardly mourn for what and whom we’ve lost. So what remains of a place, of a person, or of a relationship? http://cargocollective.com/kallepalli

Nevin Kallepalli

Jennifer Keany

Beauty: A Photographer and Her Muse Lee Hershey I met Jennifer Keany on a winter evening in January of 2010 after a series of correspondences. I discovered her through a friend of mine, and queried her politely if she would ever need a model, I would be happy to work with her as a time for print. She sent me back an email. Would I be available this week? She had a project she was completing.

Since then, Keany and I have shared circles. Keany, who goes by JenniferRose Photography (www.jen-rose.com), is Boston-based and growing more and more popular. In the two years that I met her, I worked with her as model, styling director, creative consultant, as well as writer. I would be subject to many last-minute shoots and projects, just as she would be subjected to last-minute requests from me for photos to accompany an article I had written.

Keany works largely in fashion photography, using her Nikon D700, beautiful light and natural moments to create dreamy scenes and euphoric moments with her images. “Fashion,” she says, “is a sense of confidence and fantasy---we can be whoever we want with fashion, and we can change it from day to day.”

She works in full-frame digital, but has on occasion used 35mm color or black and white film, as well as dabbled with 120 film for personal projects.

Her journey into photography began long before she ever touched a camera. She had always been fascinated by art and interested in creating, but she only took up photography when in high school, a friend introduced her to Photoshop. Similarly, she was introduced to fashion through cosmetology. Her grand-

mother worked as a cosmetologist, and she learned how to style hair and apply makeup through spending time in the salon of her “nonny.” She would later follow her grandmothers’ career path, and received her license in cosmetology.Yet, while she has the skill and eye to act as her own stylist for shoots, I noticed even when I first met Keany, that she works in a collaboratively, reaching out to other hair-stylists, makeup artists, and wardrobe stylists, thereby allowing her to concentrate fully on the photography.

With fashion photography, Keany captures a sense of realism through natural and ambient lighting. At heart, she styles her shoots with high fashion and avant-garde flavor, playing around with new trends and textures. However, she prefers to give her stylist room to develop a theme or a concept based on a single piece, idea or mood. “Sometimes things go into totally different directions than what we started brainstorming with,” Keany admits, “but that’s the whole process. One idea leads to another…I’m not intentionally trying to create a new aesthetic per say; I just do what I love and if something new comes out of it, that is amazing.”

With her subjects, Keany is hands off, and I remember sometimes asking her through the lens if I was doing all right. She gives her subjects free rein to “just twirl around or dance and those in-between moments come so naturally…my favorite shots have those real raw moments and emotion.” Occasionally she will direct a model, and especially if the model is new, she will do the pose herself. But like that winter in January nearly three years

ago, Keany will only gently command a shift of an arm, or to turn more towards the light, giving just enough encouragement to let them know that “what they’re doing looks awesome or beautiful.”

Prior to shooting, Keany tends to “stray away from preconceiving too many ideas…”In her personal works and projects, she spends hours in research for inspiration, finding a team of hair stylists, makeup artists and wardrobe stylists, casting models and scouting locations, which may require phone calls to grant permissions or permits.

Then “once the shoot is over, the final piece to the puzzle is editing,” she says. In post-process editing, she tries to convey the mood or vibe. While like most photographers, she finds inspiration in art and in life, Keany moreover brings subconscious elements to her works. “I’ve always dreamt extremely vividly and in great detail my whole life,” she says, and uses her dreams as a muse to pull ideas from.

Keany will also add a lot of texture to her works, whether from nature or a combination of different fabrics, furs, and patterns.

Even texture within nature, such as a beat-up wall creates a sense of space opposed to a white studio backdrop. “Textures emphasize the details whether it is in the scenery or in the clothes and gives a sense of realism; without it looks one dimensional and flat.”

With conceptual photography, she says, there is a fine line: “We all have different backgrounds and perceive things in completely different ways. I want my work to speak for itself so that it is not about me, and more about what the viewer can take from it.”

Reviewing some of her work, Keany says, “As you grow as an artist and look back at older images, you feel a lot different about them than what you felt when you first took them.” For some of the images, she adds, that feeling hasn’t gone away.

She remarks upon the behind-the-scenes image of the girls at the Lola’s Urban Vintage’s Fashion Gala in Boston, taken in the spring of 2012. A black and white photograph, the image conveys five models backstage at a fashion show, each caught in their own moment of reverie and joy. As one of her favorites, and she notes how it was a huge breakthrough for her as a photographer.

“I knew the moment I took it, I loved it. I was excited about it

throughout the whole event. I couldn’t wait to get home and see it…” The image was later submitted and accepted by Vogue Italia on their Photo Vogue page.

Other images did not illicit that initial reaction of excitement, but when they were processed, finally surprised her. The image of model Kendra Richards in the water is in tones of black and aquamarine, the skin of the model glowing and unearthly pale.

The model’s eyes are closed as she floats backwards in the water like an Ophelia.

“I had a very specific idea for makeup and Nikk Noir [the makeup artist] did an amazing job getting it exactly how I wanted it.”

But the model could not float exactly above the water as Keany envisioned; it was spring and the water was cold and the waves kept crashing down. The model “had black makeup running all over her face and the black lipstick was pretty nonexistent…I thought the shots in the water were pretty much a lost cause…”

So she was surprised to see the images when she went back to editing in post-production. “I couldn’t have been happier with the results,” she says, crediting both the model and makeup artist for their amazing job.

Keany, who graduated in 2010 from the New England School of Photography has since launched a strong career for herself as a fashion photographer. She attributes this to the networking she did throughout college and through word-of-mouth. Currently, she works for Model Club Inc. and Boston and in New York City with Fuzion Magazine (not to be confused with this magazine, http://fuzionmag.com/).

She has photo credits with Vogue Italia (“Photo Vogue” section), Fuzion Magazine (New York), Blast Magazine (online), Papercut Magazine (online), Hot Stepz Magazine, Boston’s TimeOut Magazine, Boston Home Magazine, The Boston Herald, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Metro, and the Weekly Dig (Boston), as well as hired work as a wedding photographer.

article: Lee Hershey images: Jennifer Keany

Jennifer Keany

Jennifer Keany

Jan Eric Euler Born 1989 in Giessen, a small town somewhere in the middle of Germany, Jan grew up in an even smaller village and found his way via some detours through the world to Berlin, where he lives and works now as a photo artist.

His huge interest in the unknown fueled the fire of his motivation to capture and create the world around him in any possible way. He discovered the world of visual expression, constantly learning and adding old as well as modern techniques to his repertoire. For the last years he has been focusing very much on photography, a hobby he picked up in his youth. Handling cameras, experimenting with analogue as well as digital ways to capture light quickly became a passion and with that a central point of his life.

Beeing fascinated by the little moments of honesty, spontaneity and confidence, by the way light behaves and what it changes inside us, by braving gravity and by the sheer feeling of beeing alive - Jan captures what he finds around himself.

Mostly shooting youth and BMX lifestyle and culture in a documentary way as well as portraits, his main sources of inspiration are music, friends, his melancholic mind, the sun and travel. While his ongoing lifestyle projects stand in the tradition of spontaneous and emotional 35mm documentary photography, in his newer ventures into portrait and landscape photography he uses a variety of alternative processes including the Wet Plate Collodion Process, dating back to 1851.

Combining the slow, time consuming old fashioned technique with a young mind, a lot of energy and a rather modern approach, Jan consistently sets out for new challenging proposals using self built or restored antique large format cameras to produce very special one of a kind images. http://www.janericeuler.com

Jan Eric Euler

Jan Eric Euler

Jan Eric Euler

Jan Eric Euler

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