Playing with the screen

With the idea of getting the final photographies for my portfolio, I was tempted by the projector at the main building of my residence (it reminded me of how, as a little kid, I liked to create shadows with my fingers whenever I saw a screen), and, with tripod and camera in hand (and the models by my side), I took the following pictures. We spent nearly 4 hours between laughs, curious looks from strangers and silly shenanigans, but every minute of it was worth it as I got to elaborate on my experiment as much as I wanted.

   

Midnight photos

Last night, I dragged my model out of her bed so I could photograph her in a concept that has been hunting me since mid-December. “I need you to cry for my camera”, I said, and took her to a spot behind Varley Park, where you could admire the lights of the sleeping city on a calm night. Although you can’t really appreciate the background in these pictures, what I wanted was to highlight her and her tears, and I think I got that right.

Everlasting Moments (2009)

Everlasting Moments is a film that documents the real story of Maria Larsson, a Swedish woman that lived in the early 20th century. After she wins a camera in a raffle, she becomes a photographer (not before many difficulties, as she originally wanted to sell the camera in exchange for some money).

I will admit I didn’t like the film the first time I watched it, maybe because I didn’t pay attention at all, or maybe because it is not what I would usually watch. But the second time I watched it, I started noticing little details that made Everlasting Moments a beautiful film that does a good job when it comes to putting the accent on the importance of photography. A particular scene that caught all my attention was the one where we see the shadow of a butterfly that Mr. Pedersen showed Maria the second time she stepped foot in his shop. I really loved the ethereal essence of that particular scene.

 

Darkroom workshop

Test strips, Darkroom Workshop at Grand Parade Campus. 12 December 2019 . Personally, I have never seen a darkroom (perhaps once or twice through a screen), and even less been to one. The experience was completely new but exhilarating, as I learnt how to make a photographic print from a negative (one we took weeks ago, in our vintage camera workshop). I partnered up with Felicia, and even though we had some problems with the exposure (we even had to use a filter), we finally got the results we wanted.

Jonas Bendiksen, Magnum Photos

Jonas Bendiksen is a Norwegian photographer that has worked with Magnum Photos since his 19, first as an intern in their London office, and eventually joining them in 2004. 

In his 20s, he left for Russia, trying to become a photographer himself. In his book, Satellites-Photographs from the Fringes of the former Soviet Union (2006), he plays with the nature in order to take the following breath-taking shots. They make me feel like they are based in an enchanted world, where magic and fantasy actually exist.

 

Villagers collect scrap from a crashed spacecraft, surrounded by thousands of white butterflies. Environmentalists fear for the region’s future due to the toxic rocket fuel. Altai Territory, Russia, 2000

A Russian Orthodox priest gives his blessings before a christening in the icy waters. Transdniester, Moldova. January 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His most recent book and exhibition, The Last Testament (about seven men claiming to be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ), inspired by his faith and religion, has won the 2017 Best Photography Book and Pictures of the Year.

David Shayler at home. David Shayler the Christ was born December 24th, 1965 in Middlesbrough, an industrial town in North East England. A former MI5 agent, he blew the whistle on the secret services in 1996 to uncover corruption and incompetence. He has been fighting the Goliaths of the Earthly Judiciary and Establishment ever since. His revelation that he was Jesus Christ came in 2007. Since then he has been on a mission to teach humanity Christ consciousness, unconditional love and the supremacy of God’s law over Man’s legislation. Devon. G.B. 2015

Currently, besides working with National Geographic and the Sunday Times magazine, Bendiksen has also collaborated with TIME, Le Monde, The Guardian Weekend, and The Rockefeller Foundation, among many others famous publications. Bendiksen has received a great number of accolades, the main ones being the Infinity Award from the International Centre of Photography, New York (2003), and the Telenor Culture Prize (2008).

© Jonas Bendiksen, Magnum Photos

Marvel Harris, Lensculture

Connecting. A year ago, I started to recognise the person I have always been. Right now, I am finally able to see him in the mirror.

Marvel Harris, one of the winners of the Emerging Talent Awards 2019 hosted by lensculture, showed his transformation from being a woman to becoming a man in a photo project called Inner Journey. At 24 years old, he has fought against mental illness, self-love, self-acceptance and gender identity. He exposed his scars, not only the ones we could see, the physical ones, but also those that were hidden deep inside his soul, beyond his body. He is showing us the struggle, the desperation, the support, and the happiness he felt every second of the process, and that’s exactly the reason his work impacted me so much and made me look up to him: he portrayed his real self with no filters. He is showing us his darkest secret, him. 

© Marvel Harris, Juror’s Pick, LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2019

 

Enri Canaj, Magnum Photos

Enri Canaj was born in Albania in 1980, where he spent his childhood, and then moved to Greece. Hence, he covers stories in Greece and the Balkans, mainly focusing on migration and the recent crisis. 

The body of a baby lays on the coast. During autumn, because of the bad weather conditions, crossing by boat the sea border between Turkey and Greece is very dangerous and many people drown in the Aegean.

He studied Photography at the Leica Academy, in Athens, and eventually, in 2007, Canaj attended a year-long workshop with Nikos Economopoulos, photographer of Magnum, in a project on migration hosted by the British Council. 

Since 2008, he has worked as a freelance photographer for outlets such as CNN Photo, New York Magazine, or Paris Match, inter alia. His projects have been exhibited both in Greece and internationally, at places such as the Bilgi Santral in Istanbul, the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki or the Benaki Museum in Athens.

Some of his most renowned works include The wind cries war, Albania A-Homecoming (winner of the JGS Contest, 2013), and Syrian refugees in Greece. As a prestigious photographer, he has been awarded The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for Documentary Photography & Film grant, and the FREELENS Award at the LUMIX Festival. 

His work has come to my attention thanks to the perfectly palpable emotions he tries to convey in his photographs, all of them covered by that rough black and white filter. Death, tragedy, misery, and desolation are recurrent themes in his work. He is conveying to us the way he sees the world, cruel and raw, with no compassion… at all.

© Enri Canaj, Magnum Photos

Eve Arnold, Magnum Photos

Eve Arnold is one of the most relevant photojournalists of this era, best known for her work with Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Queen Elisabeth II and many other acclaimed celebrities. Although her main job was being a photojournalist, she also produced various films (Behind the Veil, Journal) and published a couple of books, some of them even award-winning, like In Retrospect (Kraszna-Krausz Book Award, 1996).

Richard Burton and Elisabeth Taylor at the local pub in Shepperton where he is staring in the role of Becket. Note Elisabeth’s packet of sausages that would be cooked for her dinner by the chef in her four-star hotel. England, 1963.

She is notorious for photographing lots of portraits of people working, most of them published in her book All in a Day’s Work; she also stands out because of her project with the famous 50s actress Marilyn Monroe. I really like the way she knew exactly where and when to point the camera at and how she preserved the essence of each person she photographed. As an attempt of a portrait photographer myself, she has been a great inspiration regarding how to capture the spirit of the model.

After her death on 4 January 2012, the Halcyon Gallery made an exhibition in her honour, displaying Marilyn Monroe’s collection, and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, at Yale University, retains now all her transparencies, negatives, and contact sheets.

Marilyn Monroe in the Nevada desert during the filming of The Misfits directed by John Huston. USA. 1960.

Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses by James Joyce. Long Island, New York, USA. 1955.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Eve Arnold, Magnum Photos