6x6 three
Swiss CHapter
6x6
A Quarterly Swiss CHapter eMagazine
6x6 three
September 2021 Publisher: The Royal Photographic Society, Swiss Chapter Editor: Richard N Tucker ARPS
tucker42@bluewin.ch
Editorial Assistants: Urs Albrecht LRPS, Rob C Kershaw ARPS Design & Layout: Timo Lehto
contact@timo.photo
Submissions are open to all Swiss Chapter members. Detailed submission guidelines on the last pages of the magazine. Deadline for the issue no.4 is 31st of October 2021. 6x6 four will be published December 6 2021, at 4:00 AM CET. © 2021 All rights reserved on behalf of the authors. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission from the publisher. The Royal Photographic Society, Swiss Chapter and the Editor accept no liability for any misuse or breach of copyright by a contributor. The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Royal Photographic Society or of the Swiss Chapter.
Cover: Max Robinson FRPS - Woman in Zanzibar (detail) Inside cover: Jane Weinmann
ARPS
- From the serial Sagenumwoben (darkenend detail)
Back cover: Timo Lehto - Three Mushrooms
EDITORIAL Richard N Tucker
ARPS
A criticism often leveled at our photographs is "lack of personal involvement". We may remember what we felt at the time but that is not always apparent to the viewer who does not share our experience. To build emotion and psychological closeness into an image which is seen and felt by the viewer, raises photography to a higher level. Such personal involvement can be there in any image from landscape to abstract, sports to portraits. There is a personal connection that is more than just recording with a camera. 6×6 Three is dark. Even in the slightly more conventional documentary pictures by Max Robinson one can feel his closeness to the people, especially in his relationship with the Han. By removing all the people from a crowded Venice, Rafael Rojas places himself in a strange personal world. The images become as much about the photographer as that which is photographed. By using scraps of earlier pictures Francesco Pennacchio makes them all about himself and his creation of a memory which does not exist. That search for one's self through photographs makes Jacqueline Alexander’s twilight no longer about what we can see in the picture. With an equally dark pallet Timo Lehto's story of loss forces the viewer to construct a personal reality from the sequence, though the psychological involvement of the photographer is very apparent. Jane Weinmann seeks, then forces us see the goblins and fairies that are part of her. But like the subjects of all these six, once seen, we cannot unsee them.
RAFAEL ROJAS FRANCESCO PENNACCHIO MAX ROBINSON JACQUELINE ALEXANDRE TIMO LEHTO JANE WEINMANN
unlik
“timeless” - project statement
ke flowers
twilight a journey temporarily interrupted sagenumwoben
Rafael Rojas
“timeless” - project statement
These images are taken from the book “Timeless” available at Platinum Press Editions.
“Venice is not just a city; it is also a visual metaphor about the dual qualities of time and space. On one hand, there is a timeless character that seems to reign over the entire place. Due to the lack of references and its uniqueness, Venice seems to be an architectural mirage that defies the conventions of reality and seems to have been there since the origins of this world. Wandering around its canals and squares, it is difficult to imagine that it was all built by man, where once natural islands nestled in the middle of the sea lagoon. On the other hand, though, Venice is the perfect metaphor for the passing of time, of change, of decay, of the ephemeral existence of a banal world anchored to reality. Rubbing shoulders with amazing palazzos and glinting cathedrals, a myriad of deliciously derelict buildings show the scars of time in their peeling facades full of character. Like a living organism, the whole city is aging... Silently, the floating city might sink in the future as the level of the sea rises.”
Gates of
f Venice
Poles an
nd Circle
Moon Over Palazzo
Fractal Fenice
City Tree
Blade of Light
Francesco Pennac
cchio
unlike flowers
Dad. Will Mum come back with the spring, like flowers do?
To be bereaved as a child is a complex issue. It is not a loved one that is missed - as there is no memory of the mourned person. For most of my life, I have mourned and missed the character of the Mother, rather than the person Emanuela – who died of cancer when I was two. After 30 years of silence, I finally opened the closet where I had confined her memory and absence. Unlike flowers, she won't come back with the spring. I journey through the traces she left on Earth, intending to capture some fragments of the person she was, and I cannot remember. There is no narrative to be retrieved or unveiled. The author of the project is my two-year old self, who shared a little slice of time - 1044 days - with her. It is only through suggestions, and visual alliteration, that I try to bring fragments of her existence to the surface. To illustrate this journey, I juxtapose the renovating natural world against the fragments of her life that have been captured on film. I choose polaroids as physical building blocks for the reconstruction of her memory. The prosperous family archive acts as their counterparts, in the attempt to find a meeting point between us - halfway - and ultimately demonstrate that Emanuela was and is more than the mere narrative that I have been given.
Max Robinson
Two aspects of my visits to other countries always fascinate me: people and landscapes. These images are of the Hamer Tribe in Ethiopia and are selected from my Travel Fellowship portfolio, recorded over a 14-year period.
The image opposite depicts a woman outside her home in Zanzibar; rendition in low key monochrome helps focus attention on her soulful eyes. The image above is from a project I recorded pro bono for a charity which helps women in Tigray, Ethiopia to be rehabilitated after medical treatment for obstetric fistula.
This was taken in the holy city of Qom, Iran and it always makes me smile. This moment of laughter provides a welcome counterpoint to the sombre dress code imposed on women in this country.
Two young women harvesting seaweed off the coast of Zanzibar was selected as a finalist in the Food Photographer of the year competition in 2018.
Jacqueline Alexan
ndre
twilight
Dusk is the hour of silence. Nothing breathes. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves. Photography allows me to deeply explore myself and the mysteries of the world around me and to visually communicate moods, feelings and observations. I am particularly drawn to the beauty of the mundane, the seemingly insignificant moments that are easily slipping away. I find the notion that human consciousness creates reality and that things may only become real because we are looking at it, very intriguing. The recurring themes that I draw inspiration from for my work revolve around memories, nostalgia, transience and the boundary between reality and imagination. The following images are a selection of a very intuitive process capturing and trying to conserve those fleeting moments.
TIMO LEHTO
a j
journey temporarily interrupted
Just a short trip from one small village to another, from evening pastimes to a night’s rest. The path follows the shore of a small lake, or rather a large pond, shaded by deciduous trees along the side of the road and dark spruces deeper in the forest. The reeds on the opposite side separate the cow pastures from the waterline and beyond the fields the lights of few houses can be seen. The pond is used for carp farming and is shallow, its slopes are gentle, even those of the strengthening dam. A wooden arch bridge crosses the stream which flows from the pond into a lake a short distance away. The two friends have taken this way hundreds of times and they know the road like the backs of their hands, even in blackness of the autumn night. So, what happened? How did they get into the water? Did either of them fool around on the few fallen trees which were partly submerged, and fell in, and his friend rushed to help? Or did they try to use the fish farmers’ small old boat, which then capsized? There are stone steps leading down from the dam but if one stumbles and falls, the water there is only ankle deep. The air is chilly and the water cold, yet it doesn’t mean there should be something to worry about. After all, they have lived here all their lives, they are in familiar surroundings, they are at home. They were found on the next day, the 4th of November 2018.
Jane Weinmann
sagenumwoben
Sagenumwoben:
The source of myths & legends, shrouded in mystery,
, unusual, the stuff of fables, fabulous, magical.
All around us are creatures that have fuelled the romantic imagination for centuries. These are the ‘stuff’ of fairy tales and legends. If you look closely at the rock faces and trees, you might see the strange faces of mystic figures and creatures slowly appearing. And whilst not easy to identify at first, once seen they are very hard to unsee. Whenever I am out hiking, I am constantly on the look-out for my next character. I look upwards and downwards and occasionally backwards. The light and angle make a difference to how these features materialise, so I take my time to explore these aspects. Because I know that next time I visit, I might not see these elusive creatures again.
3 / 6
Rafael Rojas
ARPS
Francesco Pennacchio
Max Robinson
FRPS
Rafael Rojas (MA Photography, Master Hasselblad 2014) is a Swiss-Spanish artist photographer, whose work frequently focuses on concepts like time, decay and renewal, the interaction between humans and nature and its consequence in the natural balance, the raw latent energy found in the landscape and the ephemeral qualities of existence. He strives to encapsulate concept, emotion and spirituality in his work. His photographic approach mixes modern visuality, post-modern criticality and contemporary eclecticism and ambiguity.
I am an eclectic human being whose experience ranges from chemistry and physics to photojournalism and documentary photography, data science to public health. Shortly, I spent more time figuring out how to change my path than actually working for it. Still, I only feel complete with a camera in my hand and a story to tell. Fascinated by human beings, my focus lies at the intersection between memory, identity, faith and folklore. Deeply in love with Edinburgh, the Volga, Spanish folklore, photo archives and pad Thai.
Max’s has had a love for photography since the age of 10. His career took him to Switzerland in 1980 where he studied zone technique under the renowned Swiss photographer, Peter Gasser. Max joined the RPS in March 2013 and gained his first Fellowship in the Multimedia genre in November 2016 with a documentary film about the renowned Russian concert pianist, Rustem Hayroudinoff and was subsequently awarded Fellowships in Travel (2018) and Landscapes (2021). Max has produced many videos and thousands of photographs to promote the work of his charity, Rainbows4children which provides education for the children of disabled veterans in Ethiopia. www.maxvmax.com
www.rainbows4children.org
Jacqueline Alexandre
3 / 6
Timo Lehto
Jane Weinmann
ARPS
ARPS
Born in France in 1976, grew up in Germany, currently based in Basel. With travelling being another major driving force in my life I had the chance to live and work in Greece, Tunisia, Italy, Mexico and lastly in London for several years. Originally studying foreign languages I have obtained a BTEC Higher National Diploma in photography in 2018 and a BA (Hons) degree in photography in 2019. Although my photography focuses mainly on the outdoors, I wouldn’t describe myself as a traditional landscape or nature photographer. I do not aim to produce documentary records, but rather try to capture a specific atmosphere. www.jackyalexandre.com missjalexandre
I like to look at the stars while I’m sleeping. My eyes may be closed, but I still feel the delicate light of those luminous points and how it forms the darkness around me. Like night, my photography has almost no colours, merely shades on the surface and illumination within. My eagerness to learn something new, has recently led to delightful new challenges, such as designing a photography e-journal. timo.photo photogarp15
I explore photography as a way to represent the hidden aspects of an idea or scene. In the landscape, I am intrigued by shapes and forms and the unexpected elements not immediately seen. In my conceptual work, I explore the feelings and emotions associated with life events. I stage images using my own person as the posed subject and then employ double exposure techniques or add colour as ways of layering or challenging meaning. I hold a BA (Hons) in Photography from the University of Creative Arts and an Associate Distinction from the Royal Photographic Society. My work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions. www.janeweinmann.ch
6x6
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS Entries are accepted from all Swiss Chapter members.
Please send images and text to the editor: tucker42@bluewin.ch
Pictures: Send at least six and no more than ten pictures from which six will be chosen. Images should be in JPEG and sRGB colour space, and 2500 pixels on the longest side. A portrait in portrait format and a 3/2 ratio, should also be included. Text: Word Document. Optimum length between 100 and 240 words, and should not exceed 1500 characters with spaces included. Biography: Should have maximum 700 characters (spaces included); which means about 110 words, the optimum being between 60 to 95 words.
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6x6 three
The Royal Photographic Society Swiss CHapter eMagazine September 2021
