If you want to catch beasts you don’t see every day,
You have to go places quite out of the way,
You have to go places no others can get to.
You have to get cold and you have to get wet, too. – Dr.Seuss
We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are. – Anaïs Nin
My art is a journey of self-discovery and self-expression. In general, I love photography, from any kind. I always try to express myself with many different photos as I can, my goal isn’t being identified with an art type, but to be identified with successes to bring out the beauty from any place / person, into the eyes and therefor into viewer’s heart.
I am fascinated by just being able to sit beside the street and watch people pass by, I’m always seeking their facial expressions and, by that, trying to understand what they have been through, try to peal their mask and reveal their soul. I believe that life in progress educates us to hide our true feelings, but it’s inevitable that for a fraction of time we forget about everything and therefor expose our true unmasked mood, and this is exactly where and when I want to be, catch this pure moment of joy, anger, sadness, excitement, just from this reason only I love to take photos, especially my own two daughters which, like any other kids, didn’t learn yet how to camouflage their true inner feeling and almost every second express their true feelings. My experiences are both source of pain and joy, my source of inquiry and inspiration. They are what I tap into when creating my art.
As a fine art photographer I have often pondered what makes someone buy a piece of art to hang on their wall and look at it every day for years on end. Then I realized that there must be a connection between the moment I took this photo and the moment the person decides to take it into the most intimate place and watch it every day from now on. I want to be able to serve those moments into people’s home to be part of their personality and this aspires me to create meaningful work and sharpen my creative vision.
Therefore, I don’t believe that the “quality” of the photo is relevant since, whether it is bad, good or great, one’s opinion on what makes a great image is not only endlessly debatable but very personal. What seems to be more is relevant than the subjective quality of an image is how personally compelling that image is to someone and how that image triggers emotions in the viewer. The more “successful” (i.e. popular) the image, the more it resonates with the collective memory, acting as an emotional Rorschach test that triggers many similar universal feelings in different people.
Originally, I started taking photos as a freediving instructor. I needed to show my students how they act underwater and help them improve their technique. Then I started to move the camera from only technical aspect into emotional too, where I can seek both free divers and other wildlife feelings, I felt a burning and desire to capture the beautiful moments I experienced. And once again the act of photographing is not just as my duties as freediving instructor but also increased my joy. Then the camera eventually and naturally went out of the water and uses almost every day since (I always carry my camera with me) as a bridge toward people, animals and places I met and traveled to, eventually my photo archive became my personal diary.
My art has since been published on the web, galleries, books, magazines and Television. I’m proud to have costumers from all over the world which bought my art both as hard copies to hang it on their home or office walls and digital copies for their web sites brochures and catalogs.
I am always concerned with the “decisive moment” and have made a concerted effort to make sure nothing gets in the way of that. Every tool I use to create my work is geared towards my philosophy of capturing that moment from my experiences. To capture animal’s feelings, I use a heavy and high quality equipment (Canon). In crowded places taking street / candid photos where you have to be much stealthier, flexible and responsive, then I use my smaller Leica’s, both equipped with color and B&W sensors. (meaning I don’t convert colored photos into Black and white ones, I just captured them in the way I want to provide it to the viewer).
Finally, after memorizing the leading quotes in this statement again and again, I can’t summarize and describe myself other than being a traveler, a gatherer of moments and feelings, a truly soul seeker. that leaves me with the big unsolved question. What is the reason I taking photos with such passion ? maybe because I just can’t do otherwise.
