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P E R VA L E N T I N I N T E R N AT I O N A L
PH OTOG RA PH I C
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P E R VA L E N T I N
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
PHOTOGRAPHIC
Per Valentin began producing images as a 12 year old, when he inherited his grandfather’s old analogue camera. He has worked with almost all photography techniques and is particularly interested in digital photography. He especially enjoys exploring concepts and getting close to people and portraying them in different environments. Per Valentin’s photo universe is multifarious and while he likes to interpret themes, he also produces stand-alone pieces which bear a message. His work has been shown in several exhibitions and has also been published in several international magazines. Here the statements have been e.g.: “...he created a book that breaks new ground in photojournalism.” Magazine: Black & White ...these images certainly provide a wealth of detail about the subjects’ character and environment... Magazine: Black and White “...what a play, big staging, excellent scenery, absurd theatre with attitude and precision. Such is the reality: a house, a cloud, a small black woman and the man who thinks he is God. You have with oversized focal length and a significant reworking, creating a grotesque idea of belonging.” Morten Bo Director - Fatamorgana Danish Art Photography School ...Per Valentine’s portraits from Cuba have it. All of them. “They are brutal, they are dystopian - they embrace realism, expressionism and absurdities. They are highly political, they are tremendously embarrassing for a nation as one of the last naive, dic-
ARTIST
tatorial states must recognize that the world around it has grown explosively, while they have stood still. Absolutely still.” Søren Høy - Screenwriter and Former Rector of the European Film School Recent exhibitions • The Danish Ministry of Environment • Tryk Insurance • Gallery Færch Denmark - Viva la Revolution • Gallery Thy Denmark - Viva la Revolution • Gallery Gl. Galleri Næstved - Viva la Revolution • Gallery Gl. Galleri Næstved - Cuban boxers • The Danish Museum of Photographic art • And more... Recent Public Black & White magazine Magazines - Foto Sweden and Norway Danish Photography and more... Books • Faces of Peru 17 portraits in 17 days • Wider Angel - 2009 • Portfolio - 2010 • Viva la revolucion 2013
V i v a l a re v o l u c i o n Political reality A few years ago I had the pleasure of speaking to the Turkish Nobel Prize winner in literature, Orhan Pamuk. He said that all great works of art today are political - and that it is the political works that will ensure historical tradition. They are the ones that will be remembered. The rest will remain in the spirit of the times in which they are created. I asked him when is a work political. He replied that it is political when a work changes the status of the person who sees the work. It takes a little time to reflect on what Pamuk said. When the idea has embedded itself, it begins to make sense. When a work gains political status, it means that the viewer begins to change their attitude. It changes the way we look at everything that goes on behind the work. Scenography, the country, the political regime, the health and education systems, reality itself. This is all hidden in the analysis of the picture - but only if the picture allows it.
I feel reality passing the faces. Behind the toothless lady is the future the boy. He has, however, no future in a toothless society.
Per Valentin’s portraits from Cuba can do that. All of them. They are brutal, they are dystopian - they embrace realism, absurdities and expressionism. They are highly political and are tremendously embarrassing for a nation which, as one of the last naive, dictatorial states, must recognize that the world around it has developed explosively, while they themselves have stood still. Completely still.
Per Valentin’s pictures allow this analysis, and thus change the status of the viewer.
130 x 59 cm.
I see the old man with the dollar bills in his hand - the forbidden currency, which gives him status in the new world, of which he is not a part. I feel the hopelessness in the old man sitting in his local bar - on which you can see the poster with the text “Sublime Illusion”. The sublime illusion. As an image of a Cuba which, in the midst of the beauty and ideals, has lost itself. I smile at the man in the open door surrounded by Fidel’s portrait, which remains as a dreamy protest, a small flight from this world with the clouds, which is about to wipe away Fidel’s history. The focus is on the wizened, wrinkled faces. The faces tell the story. So do the façades, the smashed scenography, which confronts the old Cubans every day. A country, an ideology unravelling.
Søren Høy - Screenwriter and Former Rector of the European Film School
Fidel
100 x 100 cm.
Luis
100 x 100 cm.
The harmless
64 x 96 cm.
136 x 76 cm.
Che 80 x 53 cm.
Hairdresser 79 x 62 cm.
Money man
Bookkeeper
Out of season Exploring the concept of “silence� visually has been an attractive and fantastic task. I have chosen to do this with a series that is based on places associated with noise. These images are transformed and mystified as the beholder is reflected in the pictures and the beholder is used to connect them with very human activity.
70 x 70 cm.
Out of season 01
70 x 70 cm.
Out of season 02
70 x 70 cm.
Out of season 03
2015 Although Junk Food is dominant in many people’s everyday lives, our food vision has changed from the depictions in the 1950s of canned food as the great culinary wonder. Women have disappeared from the domestic arena and we are building larger and larger houses and smaller kitchens to be in them less. Our images of healthy food have changed from fatty sauces and steaks to healthy eating. These skulls remain on the shelves in supermarkets - the completely dead food with an expiry date of 2015!
100 x 100 cm.
100 x 100 cm.
100 x 100 cm.
Fa c e s o f Pe r u More than a report by an image-maker Danish Per Valentin’s (b. 1961) awardwinning photographs from the series Faces of Peru, 2007, are more than simple documentations. Rather, the images emphasize fascinating, tactile statements, enlightened through the landscape and portraits of Peru. Per Valentin is a multifaceted photographer, and therefore the images can be perceived as much more than idealistic aesthetic assertions of the Peruvian scenery and population. Through the depictions, he also transforms himself into a storyteller and anthropologist. The photographs are distinguished through the articulated imagery, which an imagemaker and storyteller masters. If we take a closer look at his works, we find different tendencies, which are powerful manifestations, not only in the image, but also in the perception of the image. Therefore, it is obvious from Valentin’s images that they embrace distinctive and essential formalistic tendencies but at the same time insist on a metaphysical dimension in the photography. In other words, Faces of Peru are visual formations of personas in the backdrop of Peru.
105 x 52 cm.
Photographic narratives His photographs of people in grandiose sceneries are not only regarded as the great photo opportunities of a traveller. Rather, with Faces of Peru, one can speak of black and white photographs, which through the configurations of portraits, induce is to imagine the diverse multiplicity of Peruvian scenery. But let me start at the beginning: It is quite obvious that the photographic media can capture, compress and (re-)present our (mental) image of the world. A succession of photographs can thus produce a context, in which we can look upon ourselves, and our understanding of and relationship to the world. It is precisely this reflexive function that Valentin employs via his visual bearings throughout his Faces of Peru. The works are a series of portraits that Per Valentin produced by chance on a trip to Peru. Originally, Valentine’s mission was on a different matter completely. But struck by the light, shadow, scenery and without a doubt the human interaction in the settings Valentin’s mission transformed itself into a new work, and has become a journey into the being of Peru depicted through the iconic
charisma of the Peruvian culture. Documented as visual proof by the lens of Valentin’s photographic perception. All images are composed by a specific analytical grip that pushes the portrait far into the foreground, so that the face is the most visible part of the human body. But even though he seems to capture the essence of each image as a report of the population of Peru, the series’ particular aesthetic element reflects an entirely different agenda. Through his radical formalism, the viewer’s eyes are being invited to participate in a certain rhythm of perception, whereby all elements of the image appear to connect, and a gentle rhythm in the body of the perceiver can break the silence of the immediate perception. Through this compositional tool, Valentin manages to equate the portrait with the stunning topography of the landscape, whereby a photographic narration can commence. Cecilie Bepler, Art critic, and MA in Philosophy
Amen
105 x 52 cm.
Don’t take my soul
105 x 52 cm.
Dying
Pe a r l s o n a s t r i n g Can war memorials be art? Northern Europe’s largest fortress in North Jutland, Vigsø, is transformed into works of art in the water. Various people have been shot and killed and they remain as a reminder of the atrocities of prejudice. They have been transformed into war sculptures, as small pearls in the water that nobody can be bothered to move. They have become attractions in their own right. I have researched the area and interpreted the “pearls” as architectural creations surrounded by silence and storm.
100 x 100 cm.
Pearl 01
100 x 100 cm.
Pearl 02
100 x 100 cm.
Pearl 03
Ve n i c e C a b a re t Excerpts from the series, Venice Cabaret, are based on interpretations of Venetian scenes.
74 x 49 cm.
The Bird
74 x 49 cm.
The Demon
74 x 49 cm.
The Pig
Fa m o u s D o l l s Interpretation and exploration of the dolls of famous personalities. A universe steeped in mystery which simultaneously has a visual melancholic twist.
70 x 100 cm.
Doll 01
70 x 100 cm.
Doll 02
70 x 100 cm.
Doll 03
70 x 100 cm.
Doll 04
P E R VA L E N T I N I N T E R N AT I O N A L
PH OTOGRAPH IC
ART IST
100 x 100 cm.
Mother
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