Greetings to Michelle, the Mud Season Review Team, and the readers. It is a pleasure and an honor to share my artworks and thoughts with your magazine and audience through this virtual interview.
The photos in As Far as Half the Way to the Gateway create the feeling of being on a journey. It’s as if the viewer is hearing two stories—the photographer’s and the subject’s. Talk a bit about the relationship between photographer and subject as it pertains to the Gateway photos and/or your work overall.
As the brief introduction states, these photos are part of a long-making series. The truth is that I had no plan for this project at the beginning; the photos were taken, developed, and archived over the years of such moments, until the time came, which means a period when I decided to look back, editing it into a whole project of a very long "journey". (Don’t get me wrong, there were blood and tears, efforts to build structures and visions of the developing and editing process… but being free from the yoke of having results is emancipating and humbling.)
This is a reflection of time passing, drifting over the drowned other half of the world, stepping over the survivors, the blistering cities, the absences - the presences, the stirring, the stillness, and cracks. The process of developing-editing through the darkest and most brutal night hours during the period - everything is on the verge of collapse, including myself at that time. As the photos reveal, there are shadows and light passages (im)possible in/out frames and scenes, of what was there while it was there and what was not here while it was not here. We cover no new ground from that reflection. But when we come out of the fires, the storms and the darkness, our clear minds, visions, and new selves have come. Sanity and serenity at the gateway.
One of my favorite aspects of black and white film is its ability to capture hard light in a way that color photography doesn’t seem to manage. With black and white photography, light or its absence can evoke the full range of moods and emotions. Your photography does this so well. What role does light play in your work in creating drama and effect?
Ah, lighting. Aesthetically and visually, when people look at black and white/monochrome photography, they usually focus on the lighting. The dark and the shadows are the basis of my (photography) insights. The more I allow dark and shadows to speak to me and my works, the closer my works are to the truths - the subjects, the lights are revealed by/through the shadows and the reflections of the shadows themselves.
Light is the uplift, the embodiment of the wonder and the grace from/through/by darkness. This is my personal perception, and as David Lynch once said, “The more darkness you can gather up, the more light you can see too.”
Among your many hats is the role of activist. Share with us some thoughts on art and activism. In other words, what part do you think art plays in society to challenge injustices, raise awareness, inspire action, etc?
The functionality of art becomes ridiculous for me if it is reductive and abused by someone’s ego/illusions/pretense getting between the art/activism, fame, money, and vanity. The "artworks" by plastic-poured fishes/flowers are as lush as any plastic toy you can see on any Amazon store (with tags HDPE or HDP); the flashed photographs selfies (with analog cameras) are visually as any self-ie-oh you see in a sea of the internet, printed on grade note paper size, smudged or cut and collaged to insist dada-y flair or not (you may need a magnifying glass if your eyes are bad); all framed elegantly in expensive materials. A video that zooms in and zooms out of nothing, voiceover, or carefully bolded subtitles so you can easily pause, take a screenshot, and post it to your "story." The video runs for 5 minutes (thankfully longer than the "reel"). Shot on an eBay bought 8mm camera that mimics the style of Mekas, Chantal Akerman, or any wave. The 5-minute video has paid a lot of money to unknown festivals to receive enough laurels to highlight the poster and trailer.
The "makers," "curators,” and “sponsors” appear stylishly dressed in luxury outfits, all standing on podiums to speak about genocide, class exploitation, colonialism, environmentalism, feminism, human rights, animal rights, etc. The curatorial texts and manifestos highlight trending keywords and are carefully edited. Media campaigns, news, hashtags, and reviews (by friends-with-benefits) are prepared, paid, and spread out quickly.
99.99% of all the bluffers would have cashed in on fame and immediately on a viral work of inspiration/education/propaganda, by that way, and all happy to push each other’s mediocrity.
I think you see many things like that happening over in [the U.S.]. If all that is some kind of “purpose” of art, I’m very proud and self-ironic that I became a marginalized outsider for my solid stance against this poor system over the years. I lose no hardcore attitude here, the same always.
As a multidisciplinary artist, how does your creativity interact with different mediums and forms of expression?
I must share that the main practice and the whole path to which I commit myself is cinema - “absolutely cinema” ( copied “Martin Scorsese pandory,” self-ironically). Somehow, I also allow myself to be free of the limitations of creativity as I move between many (self-vanishing) self-artist aliases; between the boundaries, dimensions, and frameworks of other creative mediums and forms.
Making images and moving images, engaging in philosophical and literary research, producing/curating arts and cultural activities, building scenes, and involving civil society activities... an under-construction path was toward greater diversity, expression, and emancipation.
Share with us one or two beginning photography tips. What “rules” do you swear by to make a great photo?
Honestly and frankly, I try to avoid giving cliché advice or dogma, as impostors do. From my perspective, I just want to share a little note that intuition, discipline, perseverance, patience with the truth, and the path you choose and commit to… all of that is key.
Why do I mention the truth? I think that, notwithstanding, you have full knowledge, skills, and tools in any aspect (in painting, filmmaking, artmaking, business, life, etc.), if you lack honesty and truths - honest and true with yourself and others - your works are just shiny, empty shells without depth and sense. It’s not only about your works becoming truths; it’s about unbecoming false so that all that’s left is truth.
Name a few artists whose creations inspire or excite you and why.
Most of my inspirations, uplifts, and influences are music and philosophy and cinema and literature. Especially music/sound. My mostly mellow tastes and senses are unlimited with post-rock, noise, ambient drone, atmospheric, (modern/contemporary) classical, neoclassical, (modern/ contemporary) electronic, minimalism, elusive sound, musique concrète, soundscape, free jazz, synth...
The echoes and chambers of Alfred Schnittke, Gustav Holst, Sandro Brugnolini, Amenra, Aqilus, Ulver, Oasis, A Swarm of the Sun, Massive Attack, Cluster/ Roedelius, Portishead, Robin Rimbaud, and beyond. The masters kept the embers burning so I can sit around: Friedrich Schiller, Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein.
About literature and poetry, I also admire C. P. Cavafy, Ahmad Javad, Thomas Pynchon, Bùi Giáng. I also owe my gratitude to other reclusive and nameless artists and authors.
Before saying good night to the readers of Mud Season, I hold the fire in my hand with a wish - wonderful moments for you, and hope they will find us, too, at the gateway.
