quiescent
THE MONOCHROME ISSUE VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 4 | APRIL 2014
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Monochrome FROM LEFT, BY COLUMN TOP TO BOTTOM: 1 Charlie Watts 2 Anna Grozavu 3 Marisa Redburn 4 Carmen BLU 5 Christine Florence 6 Francesca Bandiera 7 Fulvio Ga
8 Luminous Photography 9 Alison Jones 10 Mark Harless 11 Bella Mente Photography 12 Glensa Lissette
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S TA F F EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sarah Nieman
MANAGING EDITOR Holly Kerchner
COPY EDITOR Maria Kaffa
STAFF WRITER Ashley Garner Teri Hofford Maria Kaffa
GRAPHIC DESIGN Sarah Nieman
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Erin Barker flickr.com/ebarks Korinne Bisig korinnebisig.com Courtney Boydston facebook.com/kortiniphotography Louise Canton louisecanton.com Kristen Cates flickr.com/airedbykristen Katarzyna Czerniak katarzynaczerniak.com Matt Fry frybros.com Kenny Jones kennyjonesphoto.com Myles Katherine myleskatherine.com Sean Mundy flickr.com/seanmundy Hung O flickr.com/24965265@n08 Rebecca Parker wailnotwhale.blogspot.co.uk Jenessa Schultz facebook.com/xceteraphotography Sandra Yñiguez sandrayniguez.tk
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DEAR READERS, Put simply: enjoy.
Photograph by Grace Walton
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Inside 90
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40 08 On the Cover: September
Features 08 34 46 60 68 78
Huno O Erin Barker Sandra Yniguez Rebecca Parker Courtney Boydston Kristen Cates
Editorials
14 The Promise of a Rose Garden 20 Daybreak 40 Stone Angel 72 Monkeying Around 90 September
78 84 writing
24 Interview with Sean Mundy 52 Interview with Matt Fry 64 Southbank by Maria Kaffa 84 Interview with Kenny Jones
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Hung O
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The Promise of a Rose Garden Photography: Myles Katherine Model: Amanda Hatheway
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D AY B R E A K Photography: Korinne Bisig
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sean mundy MONOCHROME 025
Interviewed by Maria Kaffa. Can you discuss some of your latest work? Lately I’m trying to hone in and focus on consciously creating a consistent and noticeable style. After experimenting throughout my 52 weeks project I know what I am looking for in terms of style and content; very simple/minimal compositions, but with striking and almost “clever” content, something with thought behind it essentially. There’s nothing wrong with straight up portraits or landscapes, but there are enough people who do those and do it much better than I do, so instead I’m devoting my time to focus on creating a specific aesthetic that people can look at and say “this looks like a Sean Mundy photo”. Do you think photography, as a medium, is limiting to any extent? I think it’s really only as limiting as you let it be. With photoshop at your disposal there are very few things that are actually impossible to do, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to do it, and whether you should even bother doing it in the first place (which boils down to doing something for the sake of technique or using a technique for something more). I love photography as a medium but am often pretty jealous of friends of mine who are painters since they can just paint whatever they want in the comfort of their homes, whereas photographers have to make what we want happen
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in the real world to some extent, but then again it makes for some pretty interesting and unique experiences. Your choice of colour has a span over many palettes. How demonstrative and particular are your choices of colour? I used to not give colour to much thought in my older work asides from the occasional use of red, but lately colour is another means for me to create a particular style or “look” to my images. At the moment black, white, and red is one combination that I’m using fairly often and plan on using for a while. The occasional use of browns/earthy tones and blues is also something that I’ll be doing. On the other hand, what do you think makes a good monochrome photo? I’m personally really not a big fan of pure blacks or pure whites in monochrome images, so low contrast monochrome images are the best kind to me. Content matters even more in a monochrome image since colour cannot be used as a focal point. Something in the image needs to be striking to some degree, be it the location, someone’s expression, anything along these lines. Do you believe your work casts the viewed (viewer?) in an obscured or an illuminated truth? I’d have to say obscured. I don’t like making images that you can look at
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for a second and say “okay, I’ve seen everything I need to see here, next”. I want people to take a moment and actually think about what they’re looking at, whether it’s noticing something clever I’ve done in an image, wondering how I made the image, or what the image is about in general.
camera flash you’re still at nature’s mercy to some extent since it can be too windy to shoot, or begin raining, etc. I plan on experimenting more with off camera flash in both outdoor and indoor settings for future work and am pretty excited about how it will affect the look of my images.
Are there any recurring characters in your photos?
What’s your favourite part about today so far?
I wouldn’t say I have recurring characters throughout my work, more so recurring themes or motifs. Anonymity is something that I employ pretty often for example; I’ll make a point to not show faces in photos, or only show the form/figure of a person or creature to leave things up to interpretation to the viewer. It makes me have to work harder on coming up with intriguing ideas as well because I can’t rely on someone’s good looks to captivate a viewer, which happens too often I find especially among self-portrait artists or portrait photographers in general.
Today I’ve just been emailing people, filling out this interview, and watching Attack on Titan, so it’s somewhat productive, but pretty relaxed. It’s pretty humbling knowing someone wants to know more about how I work or my thoughts about my work or photography in general, so I’ll say filling out this interview is my favourite part so far.
A fair amount of your work relies on the use of the outdoors as a setting. What do you think are the benefits of that? I personally love shooting outdoors because there are so many different kinds of terrain and conditions to work with, but when working outdoors you’re also restricted to what the weather is like on particular days, or if the light is soft or harsh. Even with on location lighting/off
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Stone Angel Photography: Jenessa Schultz Models: AJ Skymkiw & Holly Halftone Makeup: Brett Wisca @ Visca Artistry Makeup Assistance: Jen Chartrand Hair: Mhei Alcos @ Mhei Alcos Hair & Makeup Artist Photography: Jenessa Schultz
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Sandra Yniguez
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M AT T F RY Interviewed by Maria Kaffa. The female presence is central to your work. How do you approach the female form when shooting? I don’t really approach the form, I approach the person. My shoots tend to start off with me sitting on the floor, loading my film, and just talking to the girl I’m shooting. I’m simply trying to get to know them, and then I let my shoot unfold from there. How honest would you say your work is? I give little direction, and I shy away from posing for no reason. I don’t see the point in fake for my work. I like things as they are, and I know that can be a pretty scary thing sometimes. The girls I shoot are incredibly strong to put themselves out there so vulnerably.. It’s not easy to let go and trust someone. One model, Alexis Montoya, came with no no makeup, and in her own words, “I decided to do just be and see what you would capture”... It was one of my favorite shoots. MONOCHROME 053
Do you believe the use of interior space as opposed to the outdoors has a symbolic function? I don’t know about symbolic but I want intimacy. I want a shoot to be more of a conversation than anything. What I love is to shoot someone in their own room. I want the surroundings to be a part of the story and not just a pretty backdrop. I want them to be comfortable and I want to know who they are. Viewing your photographs chronologically, it could be suggested that an element of story runs through the progression of your work. To what extent would you agree with that? I don’t set out for anything in particular. I want the shoot to be organic and to unfold on it’s own; and I try to convey that when I post them. Many times I’ll spend hours or days working on the selection order. As for coming up with a concept prior to shooting, I’m usually not that creative. What do you think makes film your go-to medium? I wrote this a bit ago on an instagram post and felt it was appropriate… I guess what I love about film is that you see the care of the hand that shaped it and the scars of the dust and hair from the world around it. a life of its own, to be loved and adored.. to wither and be forgotten. we try to hold on, but the scan is merely a snapshot of the life it held in that moment.. just like us, it too will pass. carried on only by the lives it touched. setting in motion a course that will remain forever changed by that small piece of existence What does the future hold for you? I have no idea.. What’s the first thing you notice about people? I don’t know, it’s different with everyone. I guess it’s usually how comfortable and open someone is. I think it’s interesting though, approaching a shoot the way I do. There is a great deal of trust required, but also knowing not to push the boundaries on my part. I’ve been working more and more on building trust in my shoots, and showing that I’m not going to mess with their heads just to get a good shot. I truly care about the people I work with and I hope that comes across in what I do. 054 QUIESCENT MAGAZINE
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R E B E C C A PA R K E R
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SOUTHBANK By Maria Kaffa.
There is a place where all the kids go. You don’t even have to say its name. The guys just know. ‘Will you be down?’ ‘Do you even have to ask?’ They want to put art inside walls, or so they say. But the best kind of art is set free. It’s let loose to spill history in cracks of concrete. It’s an animal winding through the brutalist pillars. It’s a great privilege to walk these streets. It’s worth the train ride. Pride for every kind and considerate soldier. They nest a feeling of peaceful protection. Honour the graveyard under the bridge. Cover the wounds and ice every swollen elbow. But it’s ritual of relentless love. Get up. Roll on the next trick, rain or shine. Preserve and protect. Paint the walls.
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MONKEYING AROUND Photography: Louise Canton Styling: Louise Canton Model: Kristina Landau
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Kristen C at e s MONOCHROME 079
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Kenny Jones Interviewed by Ashley Garner. To get started, tell us who you are and what you do. My name is Kenny Jones, and I am a visual artist working in Miami, FL. I work mostly in photography, but I delve into other mediums, such as collage and sculpture. Can you tell me a bit about your Faded Trails project? This project came about through a reintroduction of old negatives, photographed between 2007 and 2008. These negatives had been sitting in a corner in my room gathering dust, hair, and any other airborne particulates from my habitat. Upon scanning the negatives with a conventional scanner, something magical happened. Some images were distorted; others became blown out. Overall, a nostalgic feeling overcame me. What interested me the most was the idea that I had only remembered fragments of these instances in which the images were taken. This allowed me to reshape and reconstruct my own memories. In other words, by forcing myself to “remember”, I instantly put an idea of what happened in my head. But is what I remember really what happened?
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What made you decide to make this series monochrome versus color? Aside from the negatives being in black and white already, the monochrome images add more obscurity and make them less specific, adding to the idea of creating my own memory. Do you feel that the work is stronger in monochrome rather than color? Yes, I feel it adds to the idea of the memory being fragile. The colors from a past reality now become whatever I want them to be through memory. Color becomes too specific, and black and white also creates a mood of dreaminess and darkness. By making the photos less specific, they are more open to interpretation, and I feel viewers can relate in some way to them. There is a certain nostalgia that black and white induces in people psychologically, particularly with the post-production in how you scanned these images in. There are so many ties to the past and lost memories in this series. Do you feel that Faded Trails is a longing for what is no longer here? It is not longing, but more reminiscing on past times and an exploration of the memory. There is a physical aspect of the past remnants being
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scanned with the negatives; it puts time’s physical stamp on the print from years of natural junctions occurring. The only other post-production is slight brightness and contrast edits to add more tonal value. Your family seems to be the main subject of this series. Do you want to discuss this further? The moments I chose to show are rather intimate and quiet moments that I feel are easily forgotten. Whether it be a lover or a close friend, people and instances come and go and are quickly forgotten about. Yet, it is these little moments that I feel shape us as people. The people in the images are not all family. However, they were mostly from private spaces and moments. What are you working on now? I am currently working on several projects, both in monochrome and color. I am constantly photographing both privately and publicly, and each relate to each other in many ways. Everything is dependent on the editing. I have always really liked the format of books and zines, and I see myself moving in that direction.
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September Photography: Katarzyna Czerniak Model: Patrycja Wojtkowiak
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Illustration by Amparo Baquerizas MONOCHROME 007
NEXT THEME CREATION / CELEBRATION Please send all submissions to SUBM@QUIESCENTMAG.COM Submissions will be open from April 1st - April 14th.
Photograph by Timothy Reynolds
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