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kb ansari’s photography compi lation Sia: The Invisible Pop Star • Kaleidescope Views Of The Middle East’s Mosques • The Anatomical Works Of Bologna’s Nunzio Paci • Get Crazy With Alex Despain
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k b a nsa r i’s
photography compilation KB Ansari is an emerging artist, designer and art director currently splitting his time between Savannah, GA and Brooklyn, NY. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Specializing in both design and photography, KB wishes to captivate his audience and clients by using the many surreal moments that come to life in his mind. A self proclaimed, “hard code to decipher,” he invites you into his mind to see things through his eyes.
interview by austin mcmanus
left piece from Serenity
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all photography by kb ansari
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ew photographers reach a point in their creative journey where the visual dialect is unmistakably and inimitably their own. In our current image-flooded culture, those who are able to patent their own aesthetic should be commended and valued. I am, and have been, on image overload for some time, constantly confusing one photographer with another. Exceptional talent is in short supply. So when I first saw KB Ansari’s work a year ago, I knew was in a class of his own. His photographs have a way of hacking into your subconscious whether you consent or not. Possible side effects may include confusion, disorientation, unsettlement, anxiety, claustrophobia, doubt, self-transcendence and, more often than not, questions. A self-identified “visual photographer,” Ansari has been shooting for almost 5 years. In revisiting the early work, his progression as a creator is obvious. In 2013, his surreal reality hit the masses when he directed the video “Fink U Freely” by Die Antwoord, currently at 52 million YouTube views and climbing. He commits to projects that span several years and require the kind of immersion that tiptoes into the realm of performance. His newest endeavor, Directio, may be his most compelling work to date, a series comprised of a collection of artistic approaches amassed over a lifetime of committed, inquisitive and introspective image-making. Although the photos in Direction could exist in a fictional place, they were all taken in Savannah, GA where Ansari’s lens has been focused since the early 2000s, and where he calls home. –Austin McManus Austin McManus: At a young age you were immersed in photography. I understand your mother worked for the prestigious Magnum Photography Agency, and many celebrated photographers of the time would visit your home. I might assume this had a significant impact on your choice to create images, but dot you feel that it was somewhat unavoidable? Those early, impressionable years can influence our interests and character for the rest of our lives.
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left piece from Serenity right Eye
“i’ve been attracted to black & white for its minimal aesthetic” KB Ansari: When I graduated from high school, my parents gave me as a present a Nikon FTN. Within weeks, I was taking photographs, some of which still have impact to this day. My friends and family were quite astonished with the results, and the images left me with a feeling of deep accomplishment that I never felt before. I never took a course in photography and am quite certain that I would never have entered this field had it not be been for my mother. Do you recall the first time you saw a piece of artwork that resonated with you and made you question its significance? When I was younger, Kelis was (and still is) my favorite musician. I remember seeing her album artwork along with hearing her music and have loved her ever since. This was the first time that I understood that art could be a tool of personal expression of one’s interior. Up until that day, art was nothing more than a means to record beauty, mimic reality or express abstract ideas that l had no understanding of until that time. You have shot solely with black-and-white film throughout your career. What are some of the qualities of black and white that have fascinated you for so long, and were you ever curious about how your work would translate in color? One cannot separate the meaning of my work from the fact that it has been shot in black and white. I have been attracted to black and white for its minimalistic, abstract aesthetic. It doesn’t pretend to mimic reality in a way that color photography does. I have never been enthusiastic about working in color. Unlike painting, in most cases, its expressive sensibility is based on a pretense that it is capturing reality, rather than on the fact that its viewpoint is photographic. You have lived in Savannah, GA permanently since 2007 via Germany. What are some of the cultural characteristics of this region that you find particularly interesting? What is most unique about Savannah are the extremes between areas. Literally, in a five-minute car ride, one can travel from living environments that are common to much of the south, to places that might seem right out of Middle America.
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How do your vocation and photography practice correlate and inform each other? There are quite a number of metaphoric relationships between geology and my work as a photographer. In both fields, I am trying to penetrate below the surface to find an essence, a treasure. In geology, this usually involves the process of drilling, and in photography, the tool is a camera. Secondly, when I look at the strata of the earth, I am often inspired to contemplate the layers that have been deposited over time. I have always stated that my images are multi- layered in meaning. Both in geology and photography, I am trying to search for a mysterious, ancestral, archetypal world. When you create a photograph, do you have a vague idea of what you are going to try to accomplish, or is it a process like painting where you build layers, constantly playing with the composition and taking into account the spontaneity of your subjects? I try to enter the spaces that I work in with a silent mind and leave that way. My photographs involve literally thousands of decisions, and the relationships between these interactions are absolutely impossible to gauge until they materialize. I believe that the idea of “the decisive moment” is the most important concept to work with in photography. For whatever reason, the meaning of most photographs is culminated through capturing an event in a split second.
“my motto for my photographs is
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I’m sure it takes a long time to gain the trust of people in order to occupy and make pictures in their spaces. Can you describe your relationship with some of the residents in the areas where you work? Have there been any challenging situations? One cannot work in the places where I’ve interacted without the complete trust of the individuals who live in these places. I photograph amid violent, unstable conditions where murder, rape and assault are commonplace. If the relationships that I developed over the years were not mutually beneficial, there is no way l would have survived this occupation. I’m interested on your initial feelings the very first time you entered the Shadow Chamber and Boarding House. Within minutes of entering both the Shadow Chamber and Boarding House buildings, I knew that these places had the right ingredients for a project of mine. It is the same feeling with a work of art: “The best pieces enter my mind before l can open my mouth.” A photograph has to incorporate many ingredients to achieve a satisfying and successful result. Your images are comprised of several eclectic ingredients, and somehow you achieve a minimalist effect in many of them.
simple forms, complex meanings.”
39 • OTHER • piece OCTOBER from Isolated 2014
Can you explain the attention that goes into the details and how you prioritize the arrangement of elements? I am ultimately a formalist, believing that every aspect of an image has to contribute in an organic way to its overall presence. My photographs are created through tens of thousands of conscious and unconscious decisions. My motto for my photographs is “simple forms, complex meanings.” For more information about KB Ansari, visit: www.kbarchive.com
Starting from the top: piece from Serenity piece from Direction self-portrait of KB opposite: piece from Fountain 40 • OTHER • OCTOBER 2014
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