Pentaprism Magazine #5

PENTAPRISM N째5 August 2014

reportage

Anlong Pi

cambodia

BY ALESSANDRO VANNUCCI

m a g a z i n e

INTERVIEW

dennis

ramos

Pentaprism-showcase

www.pentaprismcommunity.org

ABOUT US

N°5 August 2014

Pentaprism was born about a year ago; it was conceived by a group of passionate photography loving friends. They had a unique idea and a simple goal, to create a photoCONTRIBUTORS: RICCARDO ROSSINI

graphic platform that allows the best in photography to be displayed for the world to enjoy; thus Pentaprism was born.

As with any new ideas, there are always challenges, we at Pentaprism were challenged early and we faced some

ELENA BOVO

very difficult circumstances, with that said, we did not

URSULA ABRESCH

compromise our integrity and devotion to photogra-

MARCO NOSIGLIA

phy. We chose to briefly terminate our platform and we re-emerged like the phoenix, stronger and filled with a

MIHAI FLOREA

greater passion for photography! We invite you to join us!

DAVIDE GIONGO

We now proudly offer to you, to our members, and to

KLAUS-PETER KUBIK

the community of photography lovers worldwide our current Pentaprism Magazine.

We are very proud be-

STEFANO RONCHI

cause the magazine’s imagery is entirely composed of

MAŁGORZATA FOBER

our member’s work, images selected from our current and our original Pentaprism site, our goal and our pas-

GRAPHIC DESIGN: ELENA BOVO

sion, to showcase our member’s world class photography.

A sincere thank you to all who participated, and we more

enthusiastically amazing

look

forward

to

exhibiting

from

our

members.

photography ..........

Please consider making a small contribution to help us continue in our efforts to showcase the best in photography.

pentaprismphcommunity@gmail.com

index

6 INTERVIEW WITH DENNIS RAMOS 24 THE ART OF PORTRAIT 36 FINE ART NUDE 46 FASHION&GLAMOUR 56 CREATIVE EDIT 66 CONCEPTUAL&ABSTRACT 76 STREET 88 REPORTAGE 98 ARCHITECTURE 110 LANDSCAPE 120 WILDLIFE&NATURE 130 MACROWORLD 142 REPORTAGE: ANLONG PI , CAMBODIA

interview DENNIS RAMOS

My name is Dennis Ramos and I am a fine art photographer from Manila, Philippines. In 1991, I migrated to United States after completing a degree in medical science. In 2008, my love and passion for photography started with artistic portraiture using mixed lighting.

My fascination with the light led me to explore, experiment, and discover other forms of photography that eventually evolved into fine art landscape. To this date, you will find me exploring light through landscape and seascapes.

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AWARDS AND HONORS

Digital Photo Magazine 2014 Award - 2014-03-31 3rd Place award the 7th Annual Your Best Shot Photo Contest.

Sony World Photography Organization (WPO) 2014 Award - 2014-02-08 Commended in the top 50 images in the Nature & Wildlife Category in the Open Competition of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards.

Int’l Loupe Awards (ILA) 2013 Award - 2013-11-30 Bronze Award Winner 2013 International Loupe Awards Open Category (ILA 2013).

Cairo Int’l Photographic Art Exhibition (CIPEA) 2013 Award - 2013-10-28 United Photographers International Gold Medal Excellence Award for Best in Architecture at 2013 Cairo International Photographic Art Exhibition (CIPEA 2013) .

Int’l Fine Art Photography (IFAP) 2013 Award - 201310-14 3rd Place Winner 2013 Grand Prix de la Découverte International Fine Art Photography Award (IFAP 2013).

Int’l Photography Awards (IPA) 2013 Awards - 201310-14 Honorable Mentions 2013 International Photography Awards (IPA2013) Non-Professional Architecture Buildings category.

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First of all, Dennis, thank you very much for this opportunity, it is a pleasure for us to open the new Pentaprism with an interview dedicated to you.

It is a great honor and pleasure for me to have this opportunity!

Architecture, but also landscape and conceptual, always in black and white: how would you describe your photographyic style, your personal relationship to photography?

I think I never consciously established my photographic style - it just came to me naturally by creating whatever pleased my eyes. My personal relationship with it had been on and off since the film days.

Raising a family has always been a priority to me so I had to put it aside for a number of years. My relationship with photography flourished during the start of digital technology and social media - the additional outlets made me more passionate about it. Up to now, it hasn’t changed.

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What always is evident in your photography is an extreme attention for composition and light, more, often without classical “strong subjects” (like human beings or similar).What are the main elements of a good photo for you, how would you decribe your way of photo composition?

Whenever I look at a photo, the first thing I always look for is the light. How much lighting used would depend on the artist’s composition, and when there is light there will always be shadows, so for me a good photo would be a good balance of light and shadows with great attention to detail. Having said that, I would always spend a few minutes looking at my subject or scenery and post-process it in my mind where the lights, shadows, and lines would slowly come out.

What do you want to tell the viewer with your photography? Is there always a story behind or is it simply attracting the viewer by creating a special and strong visual impact the photo has?

As DaVinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” I always want to create and present the viewers with a simple and minimal approach. In today’s world where we are bombarded with a lot of technological and visual informations, minimal approach becomes a soothing break to our busy minds.

Most of my photos don’t have a story but rather an emphasis on the elements to create a visual impact.

Tell us something about your preferred equipment and your workflow.

I don’t have any preferred photography equipment, just as long as it works well to do my craft. In fact, I always advise others to master the gears they already have and upgrade when they outgrow it. As they say, the best camera is the one you have with you.

that time, I didn’t know anything about photography other than looking through a small hole and pressing the button, hoping for a good exposure. I stopped using it after about 3 years as it was getting expensive, and developing images myself was not an option.

Which photographers inspired you?

I get inspired by so many artists, it is almost everyday I discover great, new works and admire it so much.

The masterful works of Jerry Uelsmann and Erwin Olaf still inspire me to this day.

Thanks again, it is a pleasure for us to see your photos on Pentaprism It was a pleasure for me as well! Thank you and congratulations on having this most inspiring magazine back again!

When you bought your first camera?

It was the spring of ‘91 in Brooklyn, New York when I first bought myself a Minolta X-9 film SLR. During

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THE ART OF PORTRAIT

A look, an expression, the light, a concept. The capability to merge all these elements and obtain a synthesis of them can make an image of a visage more than a simple photograph.

A portrait should create a relationship between the subject and the observer, so you can see the point of view of the photographer, his way of interpreting the moment in actuality. By doing so, he becomes the hidden subject of the image and his presence should be tangible.

Here you will find a selection of our best portrait images which tributes to the human feelings.

Untitled | Dmitry Chapala

Echoes from a hollow soul | Maksim Mashnenko

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Untitled | Tatan Zuleta

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Untitled | Lena Kap

Sister of Night | Adam Polański

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Smiling Dadong | Nathanael Rony Sidharta

fine art nude

Since ancient times, artists have used the representation of the nude to express ideas and feelings. Although history has changed the ideas and expressions, the nude must appear respectfully, must merge the form and the beauty as natural as possible to not cross the thin threshold that conduces to eroticism.

“Art is never chaste” Pablo Picasso said “when it is chaste is not art anymore”.

The secret of a good nude image is the simplicity.

A concept not easy to achieve.

The Night Visitor | Aleksey Gor

Untitled | Curly

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A new Life | Paola Mischiatti

In thoughts | Roman Suslenko

Untitled | Irella Konof

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fashion&glamour

Two photographic genres can be considered interwoven: Fashion, more settled on the outward appearance, dedicated to fashion clothes or what the model is wearing or showing, and Glamour which is based more on the most intimate emotions of a pose or a look of the model, stimulating the most sensual and even erotic imagination of the observer. In both cases high demand of photographic technique is necessary as well as careful study of locations and lights. All details are important and must be well thought-out to provide a high quality image.

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Eterea | Julian Larralde

The Muse 1 | Kavak Agir

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Larice | Vasco Abranches

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Rin | Tolga Katas

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Snow queen | Daria Satina

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CREATIVE EDIT

Elements and ideas of Romanticism blend to a dreamlike vision of reality to generate surreal locations. A genre in continuous evolution that opens the door to research, experimentation, new perspectives on the representation of man and his environment. The man changed in appearance from its spiritual content and the space becomes anthropomorphic opening a dialogue with those who inhabit it.

The feeling of grandeur that nature arouses in its human viewers. The imagery of Friedrich and deformations of De Chirico. Romanticism and Symbolism condensed into images so far removed from reality as to be faithful portrait of its essence.

in the spider’s bay | Grodner Buchholz

In the quest for Wholeness | Svetlana Melik-Nubarova

Through the autumn | Leszek Bujnowski

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Police academy | Freddy Dirickx

In search of my self | Fabiola Viviano

Conceptual & abstract

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Applemoon | Lucian Olteanu

“In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”

Sol LeWitt, 1967

Conceptual photography has its birthplace in Conceptual art of the 60s. Its primary method is a staged or preconceived photograph representing the photographer’s idea, concept and vision. Modern photo editing software has opened up the world of possibilities in terms of manipulating images and combining layers of different elements both from abstract and reality to create the final desired image or ‘concept.

The essence of Conceptual photography is capturing a story with meaning and using various techniques to create the mood, emotions and overall message of the work, which might be a political or social statement, or a work of fine art with a personal message to create a psychological impact with the viewer.

Abstract photography is a way of seeing, not a technique.

Abstract photography is often defined as images in which the subject is not immediately apparent. It uses the visual language of line, shape, and colour to create images that function outside of references to an obvious subject. It removes recognizable detail and instead focuses on intuitive recognition.

Abstract combines reason and intuition to come up with work that exhilarates both the photographer and the viewer. They appeal to the viewer’s mind as well as the emotions. They work when the viewer becomes intrigued and curious and yet also allow the viewer to come up with their own interpretation or fantasy.

The best abstract images are also, of course, beautiful.

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No Rescue | Joel Ronning

Peachleaves | Gilbert Claes

Rhythm & waves | Santiago Pascual BuyĂŠ

S’A(B)IMER | Thierry Nguyen

STREET

the other side| Tatsuo Suzuki

To talk about street photography is like talking about the birth of photography and at the same time of the desire to document or freeze a significant moment.

A concept which Henri Cartier-Bresson, the father of modern photojournalism called ‘The Decisive Moment’; that there is a creative fraction of a second when taking a picture where your eye must see a composition or an expression that life offers you and you must know with intuition when to press the shutter and how it is at that moment the photographer is truly creative. Street photography must be unstaged. Capturing a moment in time in a public place where you can find a person, a group of people or a scene bereft of people, capturing just the urban environment alone with the aim of representing a static or dynamic elements of a specific time and place and the events and drama that unfold there.

So many great photographers of the genre have left an indelible mark on the history of photography, examples that can only give a cue but never copied due to the fact that the basic characteristic of the street is to be unique , having its essence in the unique moment. It is hard to define what makes a good street photograph but the ability to see, and better yet, to feel and anticipate situations is the essence of a good street photograph. Here are some wonderful photos on Pentaprism sections, urban, street.

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Smile | Hans Severin

Barber’s | Tashi Delek

Chaplin | Anna Niemiec

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Three different ways | Antonio & Giuliana Corradetti

Life Imitates Art| Anne Worner

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Untitled | OjiBW

reportage

A reportage tipically consists of multiple images, which the author collects and recounts his experience of a journey or a social situation or event. This is a selection of photographs of condensed meaning, with immediate emotion ... windows on the world.

School time | John Moulds

Kanwariya | Prateek Dubey

Kenya School | Foad Mirzaie

Untitled | Crisco

ARCHITECTURE

Some might ask why photographing architecture?

At the end of the day, it’s just steel, glass and stones, it’s not natural. Most people can connect with a tree, an animal and people, but not with a building or a bridge.

As the great Le Corbusier said once: “Architecture is a thing of art, a phenomenon of the emotions, lying outside questions of construction and beyond them.

The purpose of construction is to make things hold together; of architecture to move us”.

It takes a special kind of photographer to perfectly capture that emotional intensity which is the soul of all great architecture and to evoke the true character of a building. The images selected here are perfect examples of architectural dream like visions created by some of the best fine art photographers.

Flying Passage| Frederick Hansen

Luxembourg - Philharmonie | Arnd Gottschalk

Gotham City 26 | Wolfgang Mothes

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The Symphony of Lines | Roland Shainidze

The Corner of Future and Past | Tony DeSantis

The Speed of Silence | Holger Glaab

landscape

Glenorchy Glow | Christian Lim

“The whole world is, to me, very much “alive” - all the little growing things, even the rocks. I can’t look at a swell bit of grass and earth, for instance, without feeling the essential life - the things going on within them. The same goes for a mountain, or a bit of the ocean, or a magnificent piece of old wood.

Ansel Adams

Mouro IV | Dario Sastre Martinez

Horse Shoe | Marco Romani

Kirkjufellfoss | Javier de la Torre Garcia

The Old Steamship | Carlos F. Turienzo

wildlife & nature

This two genres refer to a wide range of photography taken outdoors, the author is moved by the energy of the nature and takes his images as well as they appeared, without any manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement. Photographer is a mere story teller, who describes with his light the magic of the animal world.

Authentic wildlife is defined as one or more organisms living free and unrestrained in a natural or adopted habitat, so, wildlife photographer is often also a traveller and explorer of the wild nature.

Here a short selection of photos that belong to this two photographic genres.

Into the light | Nelis Wolmarans

Great Horned Owl| Nick Kalathas

Meeting | Sylwia & Roman Zok

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The Leader | Poorna Kedar

Sue単os de Petirrojo | Paco Segarra

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macroworld

By exploring the world starting from the its smallest elements we become a minuscule observer of the power of nature, discovering the fascinating, almost visible things that exist all around us and under our often careless looks. Macrophotography shows the beauty of what is not usually visible. It highlights details that our eyes can’t see in our field of vision, revealing a parallel reality filled with an extraordinary richness of life and organisms of things that are part of the apparently infinite greatness of this world called Earth.

In the following pages some great examples of macro photographs from our community gallery.

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Newtonian Physics | Fabien Bravin

Cruel nature | Jimmy Hoffman

Airforce | Mickael Giraud-Telme

Me and myself | Sepideh Soozani

Bereng bereng | Andi Ubex

The plunge | Stefano Biason

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Anlong Pi

Cambodia

BY ALESSANDRO VANNUCCI

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Anlong Pi is the main garbage dump of Siem Reap. It is situated 30 km from the city and every day tons of garbage arrives. The paths within the area are made of dust, ashes and rubbish but at least during the dry season it’s quite easy to walk through. Many people experience the begging street children in Siem Reap but Anlong Pi will expose you to conditions almost beyond your imagination. It will give you a clue of what was happening in Phnom Pehn before Steung Menchay shutting down and all the families were kicked out.

Night and day, toxic clouds that rise from the burning waste piles surround trees and workers.

People standing on rubbish piles evoke drifting souls as if they were painted by Géricault. You almost believe that salvation is close because they smile. The lucky ones may have a pair of boots to protect them as they walk amongst the junk – many don’t - but still they are smiling.

Curious kids stare at adults and ask for bread, a woman speaks English to me.

Some families live in this garbage dump but every sunrise hoards of workers come with the first loaded truck.The thing is that the daily wage is good enough not to work in some hotels in the city. Beyond over there they can take care of their own children and breed some chickens.

Their huts are falling apart, and although there is no sign of a toilet or a water pump, the children somehow washed their hands before taking the bread we brought.

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Few organizations are trying to help those people but it is difficult change their minds and the way they look at the future. They can’t seem to understand that a better life is possible. The only thing that matters is the present and their challenge is just managing through the day.

Tomorrow will be another day and they will see.

In that world where Jasmine flowers cannot grow, nothing has any worth but the daily wage.

Poisoned environment, rusty nails, or buzzing flies don’t bother them. At sunset, nature’s noises and sounds get mixed and the landscape turns alien. A couple of children pass by riding a bicycle and the backlight silhouettes their profiles creating a new painful image.

IN THE NEXT ISSUE INTERVIEW WITH

ALEKSEY GOR