Level 25 Artjournal; Issue #9

Level 25 Artjournal

Level 25 ArtJournal

...art should be shared

Omar Alvarez Lynzy Billing Nicola Davison Reed Hamid Sulaiman Anna Tea

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Issue #9; July 2014

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Level 25 ArtJournal

http://level25art.com info@level25art.com Sean David Wright, Founder and Chief Editor

Cover Artist

Omar Alvarez pg 6 Lynzy Billing pg 14 Nicola Davison Reed pg 24 Hamid Sulaiman pg 34 Anna Tea pg 42

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All interviews conducted by Sean David Wright; (editor@level25art.com)

Level 25 ArtJournal

“Barnabas” Omar Alvarez

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Level 25 ArtJournal

Call for Artists The Level 25 Special Issues Colorless 2014 ($20 for 4 images)

Black-and-white photography...the original and purest form of photography.

Whereas a color photograph may depict the reality of a subject, black-andwhite depicts the soul of that subject and forces the viewer to look more deeply at the image he or she is seeing.

A special monochrome-only photography issue of Level 25 Artjournal will be published online in October of 2014.

Titled “Colorless 2014” this special edition will be the inaugural issue of an annual Level 25 Artjournal showcasing the fabulous works of photographers worldwide.

ALL submissions will be included in “Colorless 2014,” offering artists an unprecedented chance to show off their talents and be discovered in an arts e-magazine that is quickly becoming one of the most popular on the Internet.

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“Balboa Park Bell” Photograph D’Artagnan

Corpus 2014

Level 25 ArtJournal

($20 for 4 images) The human form is without doubt one of the most beautiful and versatile artistic subjects. No wonder, then, that ancient sculptures of Greece and Rome depicting the human body are still revered as masterworks of art.

Level 25 Artjournal will be publishing a special issue of artwork depicting the human form.

Titled “Corpus 2014” this issue of Level 25 Artjournal is open to all international artists who would like to showcase their art depicting the human form.

Mediums accepted are: Collage Drawing Painting Photography Printmaking Sculpture

“Kuu, Goddess of the Moon” Oil on wood Colin Poole

ALL submissions will be included in “Corpus 2014” Details and more information can be found at: http://level25art.com/l25-special-issues.html

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Level 25 ArtJournal

Omar Alvarez (US)

www.omaralvarezart.com

The key to my work is to move instinctively and fluidly. I usually start with a light sketch or no sketch at all. If I keep the energy level up and work in a loose style I will produce a successful piece. If I think too much I will lose the spontaneity and the magic. I find that less is more.

I like to leave much to the viewer’s imagination and for my works to be open to interpretation. What I leave out is often just as important as what I put in.

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“Barnabas” Sumi ink and acrylic on canvas Omar Alvarez

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You don’t like to think too much while painting which I can imagine is very liberating. When you have that kind of attitude are you also free from believing that you make mistakes while working?

OA: I don’t deliberate too much about every line or brushstroke I’m going to make. When I’m having a good day, everything will fall into place on its own; it’s not a conscious effort. I have the advantage of being self-taught and I don’t feel constrained about how a painting should be; it frees me up to be more creative.

The more cavalier I am about where the paint falls, the faster and freer the painting. I’m not too concerned about “mistakes” since they are also part of the process. Of course this tends to bother some people that have a more rigid way of thinking. It’s sort of like improvised jazz; it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

I do much better when I work on several paintings at a time. If I work in a slower more deliberate fashion I find myself holding everything too precious and the work is stillborn and fruitless. Working fast does not permit me to second guess my instincts.

The “less is more” approach can be tricky, I suppose. Describe to us the instinctive feeling of knowing when you have reached that point in a painting where adding one more stroke, one more dab of color, will be “too much.”

OA: I’m into brevity. I really admire people that can say more with less. If you can express what you mean in a haiku it’s more elegant than writing a six hundred page novel. I think success is when you can boil everything down to its essence and leave out the rest.

This is usually the hardest part for me and for any artist. There’s a very fine line between finishing a work and overworking it. I’ve ruined many a good painting by listening to others that see my work and ask me to “finish it.” Usually when I follow my own instincts I can achieve good results. I always keep in mind that the empty spaces are just as important as the brushstrokes. When something is incomplete there is a sense of mystery in it. Our minds tend to fill in the blanks. This is what I am always trying to achieve.

The more cavalier I am about where the paint falls, the faster and freer the painting.

“Apathy” Acrylic on canvas Omar Alvarez

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When an artist leaves his or her work open to interpretation, as you do, you are basically giving the rest of the world permission to say anything about, and see anything in, your paintings without anyone ever being wrong. Has that ever proven to be a problem?

OA: That doesn’t bother me. The key is leaving it open to interpretation. Its like the difference between poetry and prose.

Most people don’t want to spend a few minutes and reflect and think. The want everything spelled out for them; they don’t really want to use their psychic energy. It scares them.

It can also be compared to a suspense movie where you don’t actually see the killer; the monster you build in your own imagination is always going to trump anything they can actually show you.

That being said many people will read things into my paintings that are just not there. Like a Rorschach Inkblot test. Two different people can look at a passing cloud and one will see skulls and daggers and the other will see doves and kittens.

It’s all up to the viewer. It’s like Freudian dream symbolism; everything does not have to have a deeper, hidden meaning, but many times it does.

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“Dreamscape, No. 1” Sumi ink and acrylic on canvas Omar Alvarez

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“Blue Yogi” Sumi ink, gouache and acrylic on canvas Omar Alvarez

Level 25 ArtJournal I won’t ask you to explain any of your works to us since that goes against your credo. But I will ask about your color palette. I love the vibrancy of your colors and I also enjoy the fact that you choose colors not typically found in the works of male artists: pinks and lavenders, soft blues and yellows; yet somehow you use those colors to still create a very masculine and urban style. How did you come about settling on your color palette?

I suppose my artwork is an extension of who I am.

OA: The vibrancy of my color palette is essential to my paintings. I feel like my paintings should be emotive and be able to stand their own if viewed as abstractions rather than representations. While I try not to close myself to experimentation with different colors, I find that the warmer colors add depth to the emotion of the faces and figures.

My work is still evolving and I don’t know where my color palette will be in the future.

There is something to be said for subtle and nuanced artwork, but my paintings seem to be more raw. I suppose my artwork is an extension of who I am. For right now, I can’t paint any differently and be successful. People’s artworks are like dogs and their owners; they have a tendency to look alike (laughing).

“Conspiracy, No. 2” Sumi ink and acrylic on canvas Omar Alvarez

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Lynzy Billing (UK)

www.lynzybilling.co.uk

My photography is an exploration of the landscape that shapes and portrays the intentions of the individuals that exist within it. Photographs can evoke and illustrate but they cannot explain, not in depth. This is my continuous struggle, as a photographer, to establish a visual explanation for the lives and worlds I wish to represent in the context in which I wish to represent them.

My first major subject in photography was Architecture. The attraction of clean whites contrasting with solid blacks; qualities of negative space, symmetry, scale, design and detail focused my attention on reflecting these powerful structures. I built the frame of my photographs around stark and striking forms, which stand dominant in their solitude as bold graphic statements within the built urban environment.

My architectural photography is now a thing of the past but I want to bring the simplicity of its abstract elements into the present. So I challenged myself to bring this beauty to humanity as it stands in a recent colored portrait series on the holy men and women in Varanasi, India. I found that access is an important privilege needed to recognize fundamental human traits like heritage, devotion, culture and the pure perseverance of the human spirit.

The difficulty of access almost makes the final image of the subject that much more beautiful as the struggle of access mirrors the people’s struggles. It is only fitting that the image should show this difficulty. The strength of these photographs is about recording and communicating common struggles in an intelligible way.

Presently my work tries to square architecture-like simplicity with the noise and complexity of photojournalism. While each of my subjects live between a past and a future, in my photographs they exist in the present. As subjects these characters are in motion, rehabilitating a tradition, applying old philosophies as guides for future living. Capturing these struggles I hope will help my photography move beyond documentation.

And so, within all my work I try to reflect on the timelessness of the human response.

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“Abstract 27” Photograph Lynzy Billing

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Level 25 ArtJournal There are not many photographers who would even conceive of attempting to take their motivations of photographing architecture and apply them to photographing people. Happily, I can say that you have made it all make sense. Do you view people as a different kind of architecture, perhaps? Living, breathing structures, each as unique as the many buildings one sees walking down an urban street?

LB: I try to show the modesty in everything. There are levels of detail I won’t indulge about any of my subjects. In architecture and portraiture I think detail speaks loudest when it can be viewed unadulterated; when it is expressed literally in a frame. I think it’s both the challenge and contradiction of this that I find most intriguing. People and buildings are both objects in front of my camera and therefore I naturally photograph them the same. The art is an approach more than a dogma.

I realize that your architecture photography is a thing of the past so I will ask this question in regards to your past self: What attributes of a building used to make Lynzy Billing stop and stare at it and then say to herself, “I must come back and photograph this structure!”

LB: I grew up in Pakistan, 8000 feet up in rough country, the Himalayas, so architecture and cities alike made me stop and stare. They were foreign to me, and so instantly interesting. But I think it was an undeniable interest in Brutalism that made me see architecture as something truly breathtaking. People repeatedly describe brutalism as ‘ugly’ monstrous blocks of loud, shapeless concrete. But for me, it is their sheer size, striking simplicity and raw texture that is echoes beauty. This along with their architect’s vision was enough to hook me. Part of the attraction was the challenge of showing these buildings, now stained and aged as beautiful in their own right. I look for a test in a structure. If I see something that I can display uniquely I want to do it immediately.

In architecture and portraiture I think detail speaks loudest when it can be viewed unadulterated; when it is expressed literally in a frame.

“Abstract 30” Photograph Lynzy Billing

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“Glass 2” Photograph Lynzy Billing

I am a big fan of good architecture photography and yours is the kind I want on my walls. In the past I have told my friends with regards to architecture photography that “Any idiot can take a picture of the Empire State Building but it takes an artist to take a photo of the Empire State Building and make it seem like something other than the Empire State Building.”

Your photography takes structures people see and walk past every day and does exactly that: turns structures into something other than what they are. But I am sure not everyone can appreciate that. Do you ever encounter people who are frustrated with how you represent objects in your photography?

LB: First of all, what you have expressed is exactly how I want my work to come across, so, thank you! Like you say, when I see architectural photography I don’t want to see a building. I want to see an image that goes beyond the obvious, I want to see a story. I think every artist wants his or her work to become more then what first meets the eye. My tutors at university were probably the first critics to have a prominent effect on me; my technique was lacking, my skill underwhelming and so on. I have repeatedly had my work described as obscure, abstract and unclear. Whether I agree or not is irrelevant as every artist needs a good critique. I automatically presume that the viewer will find fault with my photography, this approach makes me competitive and even more ambitious.

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“People 20” Photograph Lynzy Billing

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“People 23” Photograph Lynzy Billing

Level 25 ArtJournal You do the same thing with people…make them seem like something else. “People 20” shows a man sleeping on a couch but your composition of that shot makes him seem like an organic part of his surroundings; as if he was built there along with the walls and the windows and the furnishings. In “People 23” you take an old man and elevate him to something more than human: a god, perhaps, or a spirit. Define for us, please, what you believe the difference is between a good photograph of a person and an ordinary photograph.

LB: In most portraits the person is aware that they are being photographed and therefore they act in a chosen manner in front of the camera. Whereas images that strike me as a good photographs are ones that are ‘stolen’ from the subject.

Taken at a moment of obliviousness. It is in these moments that a photographer can portray something genuine to the viewer, something rare and true. I believe a good photograph of a person is as much a portrait of the photographer in relation to his or her skills in depiction. If this tact is executed correctly, the strength of the image cannot be compared to an ordinary photograph.

You state you would like your photography to move beyond documentation. I imagine that is a tall order but also a challenge you relish. Describe some of the frustrations you have encountered in trying to make that happen.

LB: You are absolutely right. It is a tall order. But I need to test myself in my photography. As most artists tend to be, I am both highly critical and very conscious of my work. Is it interesting to others as well as myself? Is it strong enough to be taken seriously? It is so difficult to stay true to your approach in the midst of a project while you are wrestling it; staying calm under the pressure of time; dealing with images that have not worked out; working in conditions that are not in your control; shoots falling through; keeping your initial project idea at the center of your work; knowing when the project needs to come to a close; communicating with subjects and people involved in the research process. The frustration can really get to you – the photography is personal. But with a determined end goal, it is worth the struggle and often makes the final image that much more beautiful.

... images that strike me as a good photographs are ones that are ‘stolen’ from the subject.

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Nicola Davison Reed (UK)

Cover Artist

The world is beautiful with all it’s hope and fears, i respond to it’s existence by capturing through photography the Worlds Powers & their effects ,as a subsequent the imprint or answer i and others leave on it, be it through Fine Art or Street, it’s all there for exploration.

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“1” Photograph Nicola Davison Reed

www.nicoladavisonreed.com

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You mention the world and its powers in your statement; however, the world is vast, its powers are vast and you are but one person. As a photographer, can you ever feel satisfied with only chronicling that small portion of our world which you are actually able to get to?

NDR: No i can’t ever feel satisfied until more action is made on the moon and other planets and then people might start looking more deeply at their own existence. I live life as if there are aliens.

Your photographs read like postcards to me in the sense that when I look at them I feel as if I am being shown things which are completely alien to me. This is a wonderful feeling because it means that even though you photograph commonplace things like people or implements like rope and a broom you do so in a way which re-introduces them to the viewer. Do me a favor and compare your work now to your earliest photographs, the ones you took when you first picked up a camera.

NDR: OK,when I first picked up the camera was on a Polaroid, images were of a family holiday to Pontins Blackpool, us four kids shared the role as the documenter.

Thereafter ,in my teens, Dad bought me a SLR camera kit complete with developing materials, I sourced an enlarger the size of a plane and my photos were of great masters work, I kid you not, I just used to take photos of their work and develop them to train myself, the process worked. Also, in my bedsit that I taped up sunshine cracks and rolled film under a black quilt I had added a handsome boyfriend so I would get him to pose for me, as well as shooting vases with flowers and selfies in lingerie . That gorgeous young man took me on a trip to Paris where then my photography became Street....not much has changed, I love to look back and think I was better then, haha.

It is obvious your photographs are the result of a lot of thought and planning, so much so that it seems each photo took as much time and effort as what an oil painting requires from a painter. Talk to us about your process, please.

What I am most curious about is, when you do conceive of an image in your mind do you then work solely on that image until it is right? Or is your time in the studio spent more frenetically, photographing a variety of subjects and concepts knowing that your skill and eye will make magic out of the chaos?

NDR: That’s so cool you think that..I had you fooled!! Put it this way: when the ‘surge’ of whatever it is that takes me, if my husband is in the way, we end up arguing because I become like a shark who attacks a boat and its eyes roll back as it’s in a moment of pure hunt and capture...that’s how I can only describe it as…a hunt. Some hunts are calm, measured; some are left at my door (the broom) ; some are frenzied…When there is no prey I get quite depressed and the only way to fuel myself is to fill that empty well by looking at inspiring images, artists, listening to music...or a reaction to a meeting with someone might spark a notion which might kick-off a frustration...

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“2” Photograph Nicola Davison Reed

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“4” Photograph Nicola Davison Reed

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“6” Photograph Nicola Davison Reed

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When there is no prey I get quite depressed and the only way to fuel myself is to fill that empty well by looking at inspiring images, artists, listening to music...

I love your use of walls in photos like “3,” “4” and “6,” rather than paper or cloth backdrops. The walls lend a certain authenticity to the photographs and a certain urban touch which I can appreciate. Tell us how you go about marrying backgrounds with subjects.

NDR: Maybe it is because I worked in theater for many years that the backdrop is quite a joy..I love a backdrop... but a real one…I used to sit and watch set designers create cityscapes, cobbled streets , painted hues of light, etc. in plays like ‘Death of a Salesman.’ Maybe that has stuck with me as I love a backdrop and as I have no time or patience for painting I like to use what’s available...I suppose it’s my own way of staying individual by creating a set...not sure really but it is a favourite part This next question is about comparing four of your works featured in Level 25 Artjournal. Photos “1” and “6” are images depicting restraint and restriction; images “2” and “3,” on the other hand, depict freedom and movement. This exploration of being bound versus being unfettered; of having limits versus being limitless…are these merely photographic studies or do they represent something about Nicola Davison Reed?

NDR: You got it ..love the push and the pull of life, the holding on and letting go, the constrains and the release...the process of creating an image from the burst of inspiration to the squeeze of my camera shutter, like the brush is all about the holding and letting go.

“All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on” --Havelock Ellis

“3” Photograph Nicola Davison Reed

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Hamid Sulaiman (Syria) Hamid Suleiman is a painter and illustrator. Pacifism and the rejection of arbitrary power represent the core of his artistic message. He was forced to flee his country in 2011, first to Cairo, and then to Paris in 2012.

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“Brainwash TV Children” Acrylic on canvas Hamid Sulaiman

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Level 25 ArtJournal Describe for us your opinions on the role of the artist in the 21st century—a century in which it seems fewer and fewer people are willing to take time away from their social networks and their smartphones in order to slow down and appreciate works of art.

HS: Art fans will always find the time to appreciate works of art, and social networks take place in emerging the artist today.

The role of the artist in the 21st century is not so different from his role in previous centuries, where artists role goes around expressing beauty, human experiences and giving different perspectives for the world. But in the 21st century the fast spreading of the social networks changed the test of the art audience, and to be more specific it made the audience more selective, because people can see the artist ‘s previous works or his work which is already exhibited, and if people are satisfied with what they have seen on their screens, they will go to see the original peace of work, ( seeing photos or copies of Picasso’s work didn’t prevent people from going to Picasso’s museum, and may be it did the opposite). What I am saying is that the social networks are not the enemy of artists, because on the other hands it has provided some artists with a platform to show thier works.

About me personally I came from Damascus the capital of Syria, in all Damascus we have had less than ten art galleries and zero contemporary art museum, and the censorship is overwhelming, where artists are forbidden from speaking about any subject that goes around sex, religion and politics, and uploading my works online made people see my work, and made galleries see my works also, which provided me more exhibitions worldwide and more people to come to see my exhibited original art works.

In looking at your work one can see energy, struggle and even violence. What does it feel like when you finish one of your paintings? Do you feel a sense of relief, perhaps, that you got your message out with that particular painting?

HS: When I finish my art work I feel like asking a rhetorical question, a rhetorical question that carries all my vision, imagination and energy.

As a symbolic artist I have developed a style that depose a rhetorical questions, I ask questions through documentation mostly. Let’s take the case of torturing in my works as an example, instead of calling to stop torturing I ask the question: Why humans still torture humans?

Torturing is a human behavior, only humans torture others from the same species, almost everybody says that torturing is bad and should not exist anymore, all people heard awful stories about torturing, but till today not bad percentage of people are exposed to torturing, and me as an eyewitness of torturing I have documented my testimony about torturing in the maintain era to show that torturing still exist, and to ask the question: Why do humans still torture humans?

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“Love in the Time of the Revolution�

Ink on paper Hamid Sulaiman

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“Brainwash Media” Acrylic on canvas Hamid Sulaiman

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“Alomari Mosque” Acrylic on canvas Hamid Sulaiman

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“Brainwash Consummation” Acrylic on canvas Hamid Sulaiman

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You mention having to flee your home country. When you examine and then deconstruct your body of artwork, which element of your style of painting do you feel best represents the trauma of fleeing? Is it the composition?

The subject matter? The colors you choose?

HS: Fleeing is a part my trauma which has started since the beginning of the sad events in Syria. . Since 2011 I have experienced losing loved people, being imprisoned, family separation, witnessing war and threatens on my life and the lives of people around me, all of those together affected the subject matter and the energy in my of my work.

Your work “Brainwash Consummation” is a piece that really strikes me as powerful because of the message it sends me. Truly, those of us in so-called Western society are brainwashed by mass media (particularly the television) and the culture of consumerism. You came from a country and a region where the Western “values” of materialism and the accumulation of fancy things is frowned upon. Has your artwork allowed you to more easily adapt to the gross consumerism of Western society?

HS: Brainwash Consummation is worldwide, but it is true that it has different scales between different countries. since I have moved to Paris two years ago I understood what mass media really means. wherever you look around you there are advertisements, not only in the television, the radio,but also in your mailbox, all those screens on the buildings or in the metro tunnels surrounding you from all sides,all those posters, brochures, and flyers. All those ads are designed to tell you how you should live and where to spend your money, and it works, and the worst part is that the children are more affected by media than adults.

Brainwash project is the title of a body of work created during 2013-2014 Paris France.Each art work represents a very, very short comic strip that includes only two photos, each strip asks a question about the relationship between media and childhood.

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Anna Tea (Ukraine) www.anna-tea.com

I would describe my own work as an intensive mixture or various elements such as psychology, geography, environment, inter-cultural aspects etc. which, I believe, make it quite diverse yet still ascribe it my own unique perspectives based on different backgrounds and experiences I have gone through until today as being a young, curious traveler who is in a constant move catching glimpses of unusual moments, people and everything that is in connection with their inner and outer contents. Traveling certainly plays an important role in developing my own style and characteristic and it greatly contributes in reaching towards fulfillment of my artistic ambitions. I enjoy myself discovering the world because new places are truly efficient sources of further inspiration and they extend my capacities as they broaden knowledge about oneself in influenced by various environments, cultures, people, situations and circumstances. In brief, in my photography one can find broad spectrum of emotions merged with functional/dysfunctional characteristics emphasizing individual and his/her various functions in the society and world.

However, I think intrapersonal issues are the ones that attract me the most as I am particularly interested in psychology.

I like to explore different characters and personalities, even the ones who are considered to be „out of norm”. I am curious about how body and mind connects within an individual and also try to express this through my photography as I believe that this is a topic which can never be fully discovered and hides great potentials within it.

As a photographer who is still at the development stage, I am not afraid of new challenges as at this point I anyway cannot see my life without photography, although, must say, that not always it is easy job. I believe myself to be straightforward enough yet discussions and different insights and inspirations from other artists (for instance, movie directors and painters from all over the world) are also part of my work.

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“Chakra” Photograph Anna Tea

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My works are mixture of my ow gy of people that

Level 25 ArtJournal I know that creating photographs which are connected to psychology is important to you. When you choose a model to pose for you do you spend time talking to her, learning about her psychology in order to better photograph her?

AT: Basically, most of models are my friends. Some of them are very close, and in my opinion the best photographs were taken with my best friends. Rarely I find total strangers and just agree about the shooting. That I do when i really like the appearence. During the photosession I can explore characters and usually become friends with those people at the end. Most of people who I can call “friends” now were in the same place-total strangers who I wanted to photograph.

One of the things which struck me about your photography is that you seem to be wanting to move beyond standard portraiture, but not too much beyond it. I like the direction you are taking, in fact: creating what at first appears to be a typical photographic portrait of someone but adding in various compositional elements which make the viewer realize that your work has a different message. Talk to us, please, about what has influenced your style of portraiture?

AT: The main thing is that I do not want my photos to be simple. Yes, you are right about the message, I want to combine art photography with documentary. There are so many problems in today*s life and for me, for artist, they are painful. I try to show it in creative way, to spread it widely: to those who understand the reality and try to change the world, to those who just enjoy art and have aesthetic views, and also to people who can understand both subjects.

“Fantasy” Photograph Anna Tea

wn psychology and psycholot are around me.

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“Hidden” Photograph Anna Tea

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Your photo “Labryrinth” is my favorite. I love how the wall remains the dominant visual feature. When you were creating “Labyrinth” what did you want this photograph to say to viewers?

AT: That photo was taken in 2011 and still is one of the most impressive from my portfolio, I think. That wall was created by the local architect R. Metelnytsky. He reconstructed the school for disabled children and that was a part of his work. I was very inspired when first saw it from the bus. In few days I was in that place with a model and camera. That wall remains me of difficult labyrinth of our lives, with different paths and possibilities. I asked the model to be in the center, because the main idea is not to get lost, to control that “labyrinth”.

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“Labyrinth” Photograph Anna Tea

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“Split Personality” Photograph Anna Tea

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