wideview magazine _ issue #01_2012 by Simone Salardi

issue #01_2012

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Cover: photo by Synchrodogs

wideview issue #01_2012

featured artists: Alis Pelleschi Jo Schwab Synchrodogs Francesco Sambo Jooney Woodward Milana Chernova James Docherty

p. 04 p. 10 p. 20 p. 28 p. 34 p. 42 p. 48

Founder / Editor /Art director Simone Salardi In collaboration with: Massimiliano Perasso reportage blog at blearymood.wordpress.com A special thank to all the artists involved for their kindness, availability and for the great contribution provided. ‘wideview’ is a free independent publication focused on contemporary photography state of the art. People interested may follow us and enter for publication at our blog or through direct submission at ‘yourportraitproject’ All rights reserved The images and all contents published on ‘wideview magazine’ are the exclusive property of their respective authors, which allow the publication on ‘wideview magazine’ according to the rules that govern the platform, unless otherwise indicated. It is forbidden any use of the contents published on ‘wideview magazine’ without the permission of the publisher and owner. For any information about copyright and privacy policy feel free to contact us at any time at info@diferente.it

It all ends... ...and it all starts! Here we are, the passion for photography and fine-arts fired us upon, opening a personal selection of artists and artworks that help us live better. Right, assuming that watching attractive and inspiring pictures lead to improve ourselves, we want to periodically propose great photographer whose work stands (in the cloud as in real places) to be watched, with the willingness to communicate own mood and thoughts. The most difficult thing is choosing the characters by that wide case of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s production; we are focusing on portrait photography as considering that the most attractive genre, the one joining people and its physical/personal/cultural surroundings to tell stories. Thanks to web and mobile connections we are drawing on contents everywhere at any time, sharing likes and writing notes in a sort of universal language based on images and power of visual contents.

Alis Pelleschi-possessed

Alis Pelleschi-possessed T

he London based artist...yes, that’s the only definition talking about Alis...presented here with one of the personal project we like most, a mix of daylife and visions, fashion style and postproduction skills. Alis is something like a river in flood strongly ‘wired’ to the world, continuously breaking its banks and flooding new visions of reality. Suspended between reporting and documenting facts and peoples, she gives her works a subtle sense of humour that maybe keeps together all the production, sending fresh and contemporay message to the system.

Alis Pelleschi-possessed

In the serie ‘Possessed’ Alis drags the viewer into a parallel reality where possible and impossible fight to sculpt a point of view, or her ‘point of you’... it’s a serie of selfportraits acting different roles or better embodying characters from different states of mind, possessions as told, many ‘layers’ she can play with and carry in real world camouflaging herself in the thread of everyday life. Like Ontani’s work mastered, Alis uses herself as a powerful media to talk about things, time, situations, cultures...she is a mirror of the time and is able to reflect and distort the exterior including the layer(s) of the interior, assuming soul as deus ex-machina. The use of composition, shooting technique and postproduction is taken to master levels and let the artist communicate her way strong tales, where main characters always assume a key role, in portraits and/ or tableaux vivantes whose seriality helps giving a sense of analysis. There are so many projects to deepen and the creative research of Alis Pelleschi will surely keep us connected, she’s also mastering networking and it won’t be difficult to hear about her news... www.alispelleschi.com

'Possessed by Alis Pelleschi is a serie commissioned by Notion magazine'

Alis Pelleschi-possessed

Jo Schwab-portraits J

o Schwab literally broke our screen at first sight; the aesthetic value of his work and a master technique catch the observer and involve him into a personal travel through human beauty and essence.

WV - Age... JS - 42 WV - Where do you live and work... JS - Berlin WV - A brief mention on your career beginning... JS - 1995 study of photography atÂ State Academy of Photography,Â Munich. After a period of assistance work in London/UK I started to work as a freelance photographer for german and international magazines and agencies. WV - Do you work alone? Do you prefer working in studio or finding interior/exterior locations? JS - If it`s possible I prefer working alone. I don`t like it when too many people like assistants, makeup-artists or whoever is around me, it`s confusing me. I`m working as well in the studio as on location...for my portraits mostly I prefer the studio. WV - How do you approach the models? Always know the people or persons are also encountered occasionally? JS - In general I don`t know my models. They are from the street, nightclubs, agencies...everywhere. It`s much easier to work with strange people.

Jo Schwab-portraits

WV - Do you work according to specific projects or any person has a story in itself, or both? JS - Yes...there is always a idea or project and I`m choosing my models specifically. WV - Looking at your pictures, personally, I have been captured by the ability to put the eyes, open or closed, at the center of the communication, despite the frequent use of the nude that may initially attract attention to the shapes; it is more difficult to ask your models to discover their own body or soul? JS - Good question...it`s easy to ask somebody posing nude and it`s easy to show physical nudity in front of a camera. The real challenge is to give somebody so much confidence that he will show you more than his surface...even if I don`t believe that something reports itself in a image. It`s always a redrawn, it`s something I am saying. WV - How important is the use of black and white in your work? Do you prefer b/w to the color? JS - I think one of the most important abilities of photography is to create a timeless and focused reflection on something. The more there is a reduction of secondary and irrelevant information in a image, the more there is concentration and focus on the main issue. Color is something fantastic but not important for what I`m trying to show...so I prefer working in black/white. WV - What are the sources of inspiration that scoop? Are there any artist who have influenced your work in a particular way? JS - A lot of things influenced me...movies, painters, literature, everything and of course some photographers that I really love...Pieter Hugo, Jim Goldberg, Larry Clark, Richard Avedon, Erwin Olaf, Irving Penn, Araki.... WV - Your plans for the future? JS - A lot...in 2012 there a some bigger exposition-projects, a bookproject, some travel / reportage-projects.

www.joschwab.com

Jo Schwab-portraits

Synchrodogs-plastic brides

Synchrodogs-plastic brides Tania and Roman just live, photography is one

their vital functions and so they practice it! Synchrodogs is the entity that simply try to focus on what other donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think, shooting to communicate a state of mind that continuously changes but continuously reasserts itself, the infinite transformation and strong dynamism is leading to a cold, solid, still mantra. Create.

Synchrodogs-plastic brides

The two youngs work together on every single step of the creation process, each with a role for that unique idea but each contributing to the final shot, being photographer and model at the same time. The duo has now been captured by fashion photography and they play with that ‘cage’ shaking rules, performing a new point of view and rising to surface what they call ‘stupid’, what we read as uniqueness. The use of film, collage, analogue approach is a choice to underline, together with the use of nude, portrait, landscape, reportage, street, still life…we observe a patchwork or better a fluid osmosis, ideas spatter in every direction and cross boundaries at the frenetic research of an image to define, a concept to render, or simply what they consider a cool vision to represent. Here is the key of their style, the ability to walk on the edge of everyday life, breathing present, then plunge into the source of their creativity to re-emerge and give us an highlight, fixing their work on a physical paper. Many call this process art, don’t you?

www.synchrodogs.com

Synchrodogs-plastic brides

Francesco Sambo-aliens F

rancesco’s visions intrigued us for their reliability; we are expecting the artist to look for a steady cut, provocative, irreverent, a clear and ringing interpretation. Instead we are faced with a subtle and believable, desirable (?) appearance from the world of our memories of a race which, after all, looks like us, contemplate us and imitate us ... WV - Age ... FS - eh ... 45 ... WV - Where you live and work ... FS - I live in Mestre and work as a CAD designer at an engineering company WV - Brief mention about your beginnings as a photographer / artist ... FS - I did not study art, did not even consider myself an artist or photographer, and I am an architect and I work as such. It is the design method that pool my work, not subject nor technique. It ‘s funny to say but I started doing my own works to learn use the programs in a amusing way. Then it became almost a necessity: after a day working in engineering doing photomanipulation let me relax. WV - Do you work alone? FS - Almost exclusively so. Sometimes my wife or my children help me. WV - Let’s talk about the series ‘Aliens’ ... What inspired the project ... Are there particular references linked to the cinema, literature, photography? Can you tell the story ... FS - I always start with an idea, a phrase, a title, a feeling and I try to explore the theme chosen in the best way. When I see children, I see them as different from adults, which seems to me alien. To show this diversity with a simple portrait I zoomed in all eyes (like Japanese do in cartoons), so the essence of the person photographed remains, but with the addition of an ingredient, diversity.

Francesco Sambo-aliens

I then added a soundtrack and other images of places to contextualize the portraits done, so to create a kind of vague and indefinite tale that the viewer can reconstruct in his own way. I always try to leave freedom of interpretation to the viewer, I just suggest the direction to follow. I chose for these images a setting that recalls the science fiction films of the 60â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, their naive taste befitting well to the character of a child. WV - Why only children? FS - Because, apart from rare cases, an adult alien is not credible, the Adults are too immersed in the world in which we live, the children rather live in a world of their own, that makes them so wonderful. And then we were all children, all we have seen that world. WV - The technical perfection of portraits and scenarios is disarming; in portraits the ambiguity of the geometry and proportions of the eyes keeps us hanging, we also try to understand whether they are photographs or Images created entirely in CG ... how did you make the pictures? Can you give us some details? FS - I rarely use CG, for a portrait then I think it has not sense, they would be portraits without a soul.

Francesco Sambo-aliens

They are simple pictures taken in the yard with a black cloth as a background. The kids were great, they suddenly understood what I wanted, a dozen shots then go on playing again. I zoomed in the eyes and slightly deformed the faces profile, I wanted the manipulation to be just percebile, not evident. The light and tone choice was the most difficult task. WV - Have you thought about a ‘time’, in what era could these images be set? FS - Absolutely ... any day in any location ... WV - The rhythm of the sequence carries the viewer through the story, at the end this seems to be a ‘beginning’ ... there will be a sequel? FS - I have not finished the series ... I’ll do some other image, but you can just dream the end of the story, I love stories without an end. WV - .... I quote from your profile on www. quaz-art.it ...“The work as the organization of atoms and elementary signs, infinitesimal elements grouped in a single and complex design at the same time. The detail and the whole blend together thanks to the work of the artist who lives the artwork as a moment of meditation around his context. “... On what are you meditating today? FS - Heheh ... those are old comments related to my Indian ink work ...I do many things. I’m thinking a series of photos with a jute cloth that I bought by mistake. www.francescosambo.com

Francesco Sambo-aliens

Jooney Woodward-photography J

ooney Woodward work is based on her simple assertion: ‘enhanced images can portray a false sense of reality, whereas my work celebrates the people and places as they appear every day.’ You can feel attracted by pragmatic approach, by technique, by use of colors, by choice of subjects, by locations, by feeling of ‘being there’ and ‘know them’... sure, you will be attracted.

Jooney Woodward-photography

Recent winner of the 2011 Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize, at London National Portrait Gallery, 32yo photographer Jooney Woodward has a solid background, a dry and elegant style and a great talent. The ability to pick and collect, with her images, the essence of ordinary people make Jooney one of the most interesting artist in contemporary portrait photography. With a passionate working relationship with Wales, she tried to capture Welsh culture avoiding a mere aesthetic approach preferring a look for real, raw identity of people and places. The winning image for 2011 TWP prize was taken at Wales’ annual agricultural fest in Powys, where Jooney found some interesting subjects immersed in their own activities, unexpectedly asked to be portrayed. Woodward’s work sees people and places strongly connected, talking together one of the other; when telling her stories she’s able to bring viewer inside, let him live the situation, being there and know the people shown.

Jooney Woodward-photography

In these pictures we found the power to make the observer a witness, growing its interest through details emerging slowly, one by one, like puzzle pieces; thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something special in everybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life and Jooney seems concentrated to discover that, let it surface then fix as it appears, to let somebody else discover it. www.jooneywoodward.co.uk

Jooney Woodward-photography

Milana Chernova The body reminds me: I am not alone M

ilana presents us with an ambitious and complex project on a theme of constant topicality and, we believe, of great social value. We are especially interested in the analysis of a youth both representative of a generation and trying to build its future on the ruins of a fake, superficial and corrupted society ‘worn out’ by its search for externality to the detriment of the unique value of interiority.

WV - Something about you and your beginning as artist/photographer... MC - My real name is Tamilla Husein-Zadeh, but I publish my photos under the name of Milana Chernova. I am a 4th year student at Azerbaijan State Oil Academy. I am studying Manufacturing processes automation’s. I am 20 years and I live in a new development city. Baku Azerbaijan. I like to take photograph since my childhood, but seriously to be honest with you it was after 2 years I purchase my first mirror camera. And to learn how to shoot I had to read a lot of literature. I’m interested in the work of other photographers and I also published my photos on Web sites where more professional people helped me, gave constructive criticism. Thus, by trial and error I managed to achieve something. But I believe that my best work is yet to come, because I’m just a beginner and I still have much to learn.

Milana Chernova-the body reminds me: I am not alone

WV - Do you work alone? MC - Yes, I usually work alone. I often have to work with non professional models, including my family, friends and acquaintances, therefore to achieve desirable result it is necessary much more difficult. In such cases, you must create the right atmosphere to get the model release and feel free. The presence of other people is just to prevent me. I also don’t use services of visagistes and stylists, therefore for an embodiment of this or that image frequently it is necessary to search long for necessary attributes, clothes, a make-up or a place for shooting carrying out. WV - Let’s talk about the serie ‘The body reminds me: I am not alone’...where does the project come from? How is your relationship with your and others body? MC - To create the serie “The body reminds me: I am not alone” I was inspired by the brilliant works of Alex Grey. And the name was borrowed from the lyrics “Parabola” group Tool. The main idea of this series is the loneliness of the soul, in the sense that many people in the pursuit of fame, money, prosperity, beauty, forget his own soul. People are aging, beauty fades, leaving the force, but the soul is imperishable. And years later, the body, which you devoted your life, becomes your prison, man becomes a hostage of his own carelessness, but in the soul is emptiness. WV - Looking at your portraits projects we perceive a sort of dichotomy between still and dynamic subjects, what does your research aim to? MC - You know, when I shoot, I do not think about what style my photo will belong. With character of execution I was defined only recently. On the nature I really prefer stage photos with a pre-conceived idea. And the fact that in my photos can be traced dichotomy may because I believe that in life there is nothing absolute (but Lord) and everything made up of contradictory aspects of a single-unit. WV - Photography may help us communicate, tell stories, open our vision to the world, could you talk about your approach to this opportunity? MC - Photography for me is firstly an opportunity to demonstrate my own vision of the world, make the viewer feel the feelings of my own, to catch the meaning, and can be put in it your own. WV - Your next project/s? MC - At present I plan shooting some several single pictures.

500px.com/Milana_Chernova Milana Chernova-the body reminds me: I am not alone

Milana Chernova-the body reminds me: I am not alone

James Docherty -shadows J

ames shots stand there talking about a close relationship between man (soul) and its surroundings; a personal point of view where layers superimpose playing along with time, our sole certainty...

James Docherty-shadows

WV - Age... JD - 23 WV - Where do you live and work... JD - England WV - A brief background on your beginning as artist/photographer... JD - I have always been interested in art right from a young age. I would spend hours drawing and creating things, and after one Christmas when I received a Polaroid camera I would take photos of everything as well. So art and photography have always been present in my life growing up, however it was at 6th form college where I developed more of a passion for photography, and from there I studied photography for 5 years - going on to study it at university. WV - What are your preferred inspiration sources? JD - I get my inspiration from anywhere and anything I can. Music/ books/ words often play a big part in it all. Lyrics and/ or the atmosphere in music can also shape a photo for me. Obviously other photographers/artists inspire me greatly, such as Jeff Wall, Tim Walker, Jeremy Cowart, Sebastiao Salgado, they make me strive to do better also. Street art, people around me, the landscape. l get inspired by anything and everything, however I think the sound of music, the atmosphere it creates, the emotions it can evoke, that affects the feel of a photo more for me and provides a great source of inspiration. WV - Most of your pictures tell about human acting in its surrounding iconic nature, the poetic use of detail, composition and light suggest the scenes to be suspended in time and sense. What is attracting you in the relationship between human and nature? JD - I like to shoot on location in natural surroundings as it adds another layer to the idea. It completely transforms it, with its ability to create different atmospheres. Its ever changing and unpredictable at times which appeals to me. WV - We are more and more used to watch pictures on a display, and we often hear discussing about digital or film in photo shooting; but looking at your works we suddenly thought about prints and the importance of rendering the pathos of the shots on paper, a theme not so frequently considered: do you personally print your works or have a third party workflow? What is your approach for commercial and exhibition reproductions? How important is the final print for a photographer like

you today, in the era of virtuality? JD - Unless I’m using film, I don’t always print my own work, I will occasionally print some if I want/ need to check the quality, or I intend to sell the work, or if it’s going into a publication. I usually use a 3rd party to print my photos these days, sticking with photo labs I’ve used in the past and found to produce quality. Despite not always printing my own work I do think it is important for a final print, and I like owning them. The accessibility of having photos virtually is great, however when viewing them online, while you can still appreciate the beauty of an image and see that you like it, it’s kind of short lived. When looking online at photographs there is so much choice that you can easily get distracted by another and its all very quick, whereas in a gallery or in a book you seem to study the photo more. While the Internet allows for an easy way to browse photographs I’d much rather go to an exhibition or own the book and see it for real. WV - Can you define in three words the essentials of portrait photography? JD - Connection, Patience, Experiment www.jald.co.uk

James Docherty-shadows

‘your portrait project’ The wideview blog has a special section dedicated to personal projects you can share with us and be evaluated for pubblication on ‘wideview magazine’ future issues. We invite you to publish and share your best projects, follow the simple rules below. By entering the ‘Your Portrait Project’ and sending contents author declares to have read, understood and accepted in each part the ‘RULES’ and the ‘USE AND RESPOSIBILTY CONDITIONS’ as explicated in blog pages. RULES. Projects and images theme is ‘Portrait’ photography, in any possible variation. 1- Send max. n° 8 images for each project or serie; please name each image file as surname_project title_01.jpg (i.e. smith_selfportrait_01.jpg) 2- Images must be .jpg at 72dpi, RGB, dimensions for the long side 600px (exactly), grayscale or colors 3- Text file named as surname_bio.txt (i.e. smith_bio.txt) containing: - Project title, number of images and file names, captions and year + brief project description in max 140 characters - Author biography and CV - Brief author presentation in max 140 characters - Contacts and links 4- Please send material to info@diferente.it remembering to specify in email Object ‘name, surname, project title’ i.e.: ‘John Smith, Selfportraits’ We are managing several entries and projects; we will evaluate every entry and contact back for any further information if selected for magazine pubblication. Every submitted project will be mentioned on blog pages with the brief description you provided.

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