(en)Visionography
2014 saw the publication of the first edition of a new photography magazine; Fineart. Issue one is devoted to a concept in photography called ‘(en)Visionography’, this was defined as ‘The process of using reality as a tool for translating one’s inner self and representation of the world into an art object that can make others react and feel emotion.’ The essence of the concept is that the initial artistic thinking of the photographer is more important than the photograph actually taken, this is merely the stating point for the realisation of that thinking. The camera is a tool of acquisition; post production is the key to realisation of the artists concept.
The group argue that digital photography is so radically different from analogue photography that it deserves a different name, hence (en)Visionography, even arguing that it should spelt as written (left) and not as Envisionography. Whether such pedantry (and the affectation of the brackets) is justified, or even has any meaning, is possibly debatable, so that aside it is possibly more important to focus on the content, not the style. The limitation on acceptable characters in domain names means that they are reduced to the levelling effect of being merely www.envisionography.com The Concept The concept of Envisionography is defined by three principal elements, these are: · The idea that vision comes before reality when creating an image, the reality in an image is just the starting point for creativity. · The artist can create their image using any post processing tools available. · Although it mainly produces black and white images, colour isn’t ruled out but greyscale is felt to further distance the image from reality. The idea is that the final image begins with an idea for a final image, an emotional response wanted or a feeling to be evoked. This then informs the choices made by the photographer in choice of subject or location and is then followed through on the computer screen until the concept is realised, the image moulded into an object that represents the original idea. The finished art releases intellectual and emotional tensions within the artist expresses the artist’s feelings about the world by recreating the world in their own vision. The aim is that the group of artists that have founded or joined the group will produce art that represents the ‘soul’ of the creator, and that will personal and unique world vision of the creator. At the moment the group is only staging virtual exhibitions, though it intends to produce physical exhibitions in the near future. Some Examples Photographer: Julia Anna Gospodarou The two images on the preceding page were produced by one of the founders of the movement; Julia Anna Gospadarou. They are taken from her collection ‘Fluid Time’ that explored the architecture of Chicago, her aim being to investigate the impact the environment had on her and to present worked that displayed that impact. The work is curious in the impact that images undoubtedly have comes in part from techniques often dismissed as gimmicks by ‘conventional’ photography, among these being the use of the tilt/shift lens and the creative blur that it can create. She also experiments with the effects of long exposure during daytime. In the article accompanying the images she describes how she wanted to work to show the area confined by the architecture of the city as a kind of parallel reality, in a dreamlike state that functioned as a representation of a gateway to our subconscious world. She plays with the idea that dreams and imagination can be reality bas well as fantasy and that by applying her dreams and vision to the physical a new reality can be created, for her, this is the central message of envisionography, a radically different way of using the photograph to record the world of the mind. The work questions the concept that the architectural environment (indeed the world itself) needs a clear material shape to be real and that a ‘real’ image can be produced by blending photography and imagination. Where the tilt/shift lens is often used by architectural photographers to eliminate parallax errors here she uses the lens to distort and blur the scene, further subverting architectural photography with her rejection of the conventions that demand sharp detail. The aim of this challenge is to invite the viewer to reconsider architecture and architectural photography and to consider different realities where design and imagination exist in parallel to the concrete yet are integral to it. Photographer: Dermot Russell Russell’s image (above) was taken at the Westfriedhof underground station in Munich. He was impressed with the strong visual style of the architecture though his thinking took the scene beyond the physical. The calm quiet of the scene, of people passively waiting for a train, to him, represented the ways we are forced to deal with things that are outside of our control despite the efforts we make to control the things we can. Although we strive to improve we still need to retain the skill of patient waiting needed for our dreams to be realised. Photographer: Brian Dukes Big Bang; the image of a dandelion seed head. The photographer had been observing the simplicity of the way a dandelion spreads its individual seeds, one breeze and the whole payload is off to drift on the wind until it reaches it’s new growing site and the next phase of the life of the plant. Watching this process provoked an imagining of the big bang, the material created being cast out into an endless darkness to coalesce into the universe as we recognise it. A New Movement? Whilst looking through the website marketing the book produced by the two originators of envisionography ‘From Basics to Fine Art – Black and white photography’ I read through the reader reviews when I found this comment: “Outside of Ansel Adams’ Basic Photo Series, From Basic to Fine Art, by Joel Tjintjelaar and Julia Anna Gospodarou, is the best book on B&W photography written in the last 40 years.” The same review later mentions Adam’s zone system. It was whilst reading this review that I really began to question whether this was anything new at all, obviously not with reference to Ansel Adams, but by a reference to digital photographers. Whilst the ‘no holds barred’ approach to post production might appear novel, the concept of using photography to produce a fantasy vision of a landscape that produce a reaction or emotion surely is nothing new. Born in Shanghai in 1980, Yang Yongliang is becoming one of China’s best know digital artists. Classically trained in traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy he produces montage work that combines traditional Chines aesthetic with digital photography to produce dreamlike panoramas. In an interview in Azart magazine in 2010 he said that he felt that contemporary Chinese art lacked reference to the traditional and that few seemed interested in their ‘proper’ culture. His feeling was that contemporary art should be ‘a castle suspended in the air based on the roots of our traditional culture’. In his 2008 series Heavenly City (see example on following page) he drew heavily on the Traditional Chinese painting style, creating a blending between this painterly style and a world in which to place his photographic images of Shanghai. Within the images he plays with traditional Buddhist notions of life, death and reincarnation, the night survives the day and the day survives the night, conceiving his images to portray that cycle. When asked to comment on the relationship between the rural and the built environment in his images he commented that he detests both spaces equally, matching it to his feelings that his contemporaries refuse to embrace the traditional, while the traditionalists refuse to progress. Russian born, though now US based artist Alexey Titarenko combines traditional medium format photography with digital post processing to produce images that have the dreamlike state claimed by the envisionographers. His series ‘City of Shadows’ shows crowds of people moving through his home city of St. Petersburg yet we seldom see them individually, instead they are subsumed into a flowing mass that becomes blurred as it is absorbed into the cityscape. Interviewed about his work he said ‘“The mass of people flowing around the subway station formed a sort of human tide, giving me a sensation of unrealness, of phantasmagoria, These people were like shadows, one would meet in the Underworld. I decided to express that feeling in my work, to convey my personal expressions. I had to find a visual metaphor that would enable the viewer to share my feelings as acutely as possible. That is what prompted me to try a long exposure process.” His images can appear disorientating, at times quite disturbing as an anonymous mass of ghostly figures, seemingly unrelated to the urban environment that surrounds them, moves through it. Iranian photographer Hossein Zare produces surreal landscape photographs that rely heavily on his original concept being realised through his photography then his extensive use of Photoshop. He frequently uses a very defined sense of symmetry, buildings are mirrored, as well a some recurrent motifs, a lone figure struggling to find its place in the city, or ladders that sprout skywards and unsupported. Perhaps more intriguing is use of a figure tightrope walking as a way of traversing between the elements of his worlds. For me, the curioisity of Zare’s work is the way in which he eschews traditional ways of recording the environment, instead allowing his creative vision to be paramount, possibly without realising it he has become an ‘uber-envisionographer’, though he appears to just prefer the word ‘artist’. Strangely, the emotions he evokes for me are probably not what he intended. Viewing his images I am reminded of the 1960s and 70s LP covers, seeing a relection of the 12” square works of art produced by the likes of Hipgnosis and Roger Dean. His images, for me, would not look at all unlikely candidates for covers for Pink Floyd, Yes or Genesis etc. Interesting to find a contemporary artist that is producing work with echoes of ‘prog rock’. Conclusions While the (en)Visionographers are undoubtably producing work worthy of the label ‘Fine Art’ is it, in reality, anything new? Whilst the sales pitch of its manifesto may feel inspiring, even seductively so, does it really amount to anything more than a brand invented to sell a book? An examination of the genre and the history of photography would tend to suggest while there a large area of grey to be further examined as the movement either flourishes or fades. The individual artists involved are indeed producing work that is inspiring, I intend experimenting with some of the strong visual styles I have been seeing whilst researching this piece, but is it new? Seemingly much of the teritory they are ‘exploring’ is not the unexplored zone they claim. The artists above are currently exploring what feels like an imaginary psychogeography, the edge land between reality and the mind to re-invent and re-imagine our sense of place within our physical landscapes. Perhaps our city architects could acknowledge the thoughts embeded in some of this work to produce cities that stimulate our emotions to make them a more humane and happier place. |