The Provocative Images of Nicolae Cosniceru

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The Romanian photographer Nicolae Cosniceru puts a new spin on commercial and fashion photography. His images are stylish and polished, yet also have a rough, urban, element that takes viewers by surprise and makes them look closer at his pictures. They are often a study in contrast, in juxtaposition. Take, for instance, his high fashion photo shoot that takes place in a prison. The gorgeous models, dressed for a red carpet event, elegantly step out of the prison cells as if they were leaving a fancy restaurant. Next to them we see several prisoners, dressed in dingy prison uniforms, sitting calmly on a bench and getting their buzz haircuts. From their facial expressions you’d think: life as usual, for both the glamorous women and the imprisoned men. But the incongruity of the setting for the high fashion shoot adds an element of surprise that makes you do a double-take. Whatever may seem familiar about the world of entertainment and high fashion–which has almost taken the place of politics on the news–becomes, once again, refreshingly new.

Many of Cosniceru’s images also have more than a hint of humor. In Self-Portrait, featured above, the subject poses with the insolent manner of a European artist and intellectual: cigarette in hand (à la Jean-Paul Sartre?); in a spiffy black jacket; white striped shirt not buttoned all the way (only businessmen do that); gaze oriented upwards, most likely lost in profound thoughts. But the setting, once again, is rather unexpected and incongruous. The intellectual conducts his artistic contemplation not quite on the throne, but close enough: in a public restroom. For an added humorous touch, the toilet paper on the table is offered at a discount. And just to make sure viewers know they’re dealing with an Eastern European context, the bathroom door is smeared with the word DEFECT.

In a recent interview, Nicolae Cosniceru told me that he plans an artistic image to the same degree of detail that a painter would plan his painting. Self-Portrait includes relevant details, such as a cockroach on the floor, symbolic of the misery of the communist era. The photographer also revealed that he thought about placing a female model inside the stall, so viewers could see a woman’s feet and shoes instead of a man’s, to heighten the effect of the juxtapositions of the image. Devoted to the art of photography and a passionate aesthete–as well as, simultaneously, a loving and devoted husband and father–Cosniceru gives it his all, both in his art and in his family life.

Bakhtin, the famous Russian literary critic, argued that good literature (and art) is great at rendering the familiar new again. He coined a word for this process: defamiliarization. Through its surprising and innovative contrasts, Cosniceru’s photography defamilizes every concept and context it portrays, obliging viewers to look at his subjects with new eyes: not just once, but twice. Because when you look at Cosniceru’s provocative images it’s nearly impossible to resist doing a double-take. You can see more of his photography on his websites http://cosniceru.com/ and  http://www.fotofactory.ro/

Claudia Moscovici, postromanticism.com

http://www.amazon.com/Romanticism-Postromanticism-Claudia-Moscovici/dp/0739116754

 

Jonathan Root’s Memorable Portraits

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The art of portraiture is as old as human civilization itself. Until relatively recently, a portrait used to be, above all, a statement of cultural value. It revealed who, in any given society, had enough value that his or her image was worth being captured and preserved for posterity. While being a general statement of cultural importance, a portrait is also the most intimate and personal art form. A good portrait reveals a unique personality and captures the essence of a person.

Award-winning British photographer Jonathan Root is a master of the art of portraiture. He has photographed some of the most famous artists and designers in the world, including David Hockney, Philippe Starck and Ron Arad.  In each shot, he’s able to capture each person’s uniqueness and accomplishments through a careful orchestration of so many elements: setting, lighting, color scheme, facial expression and pose. The subject and his environment become reflections of each other, yet remain distinct. The setting mirrors who that individual is as much as his expression and pose blend in perfectly with his surroundings. This art of portraiture as simultaneous expression and camouflage makes each of Root’s portraits stand out. No two portraits are alike because no two individuals he has photographed are alike.

One of Root’s most famous portraits is the one of  Philippe Patrick Starck (see image above), a French designer known for the New Design style. He has furnished some of the most posh hotels around the world, including the Mondrian in Los Angeles and the Delano in Miami. Designing everything from furniture to toothbrushes and houses, Starck is innovative, avant-garde and flippant about his creativity. In an interview with Spaces Magazine, Root recounts the (in some respects fortuitous) adventure of photographing him:

 “This turned out to be one of my most enjoyable shoots. I had to go to Venice and then onto the island of Burano. Unfortunately, my tripod had been damaged in transit which I was worried about. When I arrived on the island I went to a restaurant only to discover that everyone was celebrating because they had just won the famous annual rowing competition. No one spoke any English but with lots of sign language one of the guys there came out with some tools and mended the tripod. He arrived in this crazy Agnes B suit and I thought ‘what have I let myself in for’. He found the Wet Floor sign and wanted to use it in the shot so we wandered around for a while and found a brilliant orange wall. I used one of his Ghost chairs in the picture and got him leaning backwards, which is very hard to do for any length of time.” (Spaces Magazine, April 2008)

The picture turned out phenomenal: a modern, avant-garde treasure of design in itself. Every element expressed Starck’s persona (which, for an artist and designer, may be far more important than his actual personality!): the zany, colorful clothes; the orange background; the Wet Floor sign; the comical, almost clownish pose, and despite it all, the stylishness of the image, evident even in significant details like the sunglasses, red gloves and toppled ghost chair. This portrait really screams, rather than subtly hinting, Philippe Patrick Starck! But, at the same time, it also expresses Root’s own signature style. That style constantly changes because, like a chameleon, it adapts to both subject and setting alike.

Take, for instance, Root’s portrait (above) of a more understated but equally creative artist: the Israeli-born designer and architect Ron Arad, who creates everything from showers to chairs. This picture is starkly black and white, modernist, topological: similar to Arad’s designs themselves.  Root captures his friend’s relaxed yet confident pose; his trademark hat and Crocs; his designer chair. Arad’s studio environment becomes a reflection and an extension of his identity and creativity, just as his image gives meaning to the carefully chosen objects that surround him.  Jonathan Root has stated in an interview that “some of [my] best shots have come about by chance” (British Journal of Photography). What wasn’t left up to chance, however, is a fluid style that adapts perfectly to each subject and setting, creating memorable portraits that speak volumes about each individual they come to represent. You can find out more about Jonathan’s portraits on his website, www.jonathanroot.co.uk.

Claudia Moscovici, postromanticism.com 

The Magical Realism of Michael Parkes

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aesthetic philosophy, aesthetics, art, art criticism, art history, Claudia Moscovici, contemporary art, fantasy, fine art, fineartebooks, fineartebooks.com, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Greek and Roman mythology, history of art, Love in the Time of Cholera, magical realism, magical realism in art, Maxfield Parrish, MIchael Parkes, modern art, mythology, One Hundred Years of Solitude, painting, postromantic art, postromantic movement, postromantic painting, postromanticism.com, sculpture, sensual art, sensuality, Surrealism, The Magical Realism of Michael Parkes, The World of Michael Parkes, theworldofmichaelparkes

Michael Parkes is a master of contemporary magical realism in art. Parkes is a painter, lithographer and sculptor of international repute. In literature, magical realism is associated with the works of Nobel-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose novels One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985) play with myth and fantasy in their representations of reality. The critic Matthew Strecher defines magical realism as “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.” In Marquez’s fiction, the depiction of everyday human lives takes on allegorical, and even mythic, proportions. Trespassing the boundaries between reality and imagination, magical realism taps into myth and fantasy to offer a deeper version of reality. So does the art of Michael Parkes.

Born in the state of Missouri and a graduate of University of Kansas, Michael and his wife travelled all over the world, including to Europe and Asia, where they found a wealth of artistic inspiration. In an interview, Michael states that he’s always had “two loves in [his] life… art and philosophy.” An avid reader of Greek and Roman mythology as well as Eastern philosophy, Michael integrates mythical motifs into his art, similarly to the legendary American painter and illustrator, Maxfield Parrish.

In the lithograph above, called Angel Affair, Parkes harmoniously combines the fantasy of a seductive angel with elements of a Greek goddess and the realism of a man dressed in a business suit. Angel Affair depicts an escape from the mundane reality of work through the promise of a pleasure with no sacrifice: a sensuality that retains its innocence. What may be impossible in real life, becomes possible in the world of of magical realism.

In his magnificent sculptures, Michael Parkes often relies upon characters from Greek and Egyptian mythology to represent not only the unique blend of magic, faith and supernatural explanations of reality that ancient cultures provided, but also the complementarity between masculine and feminine principles. In every domain–drawing, painting, sculpture and lithography–Michael Parkes’ magical realism unites the artistry of life-like representations with ancient cultural symbols that feed our imaginations and offer us an enriching escape into the world of fantasy.

You can view more of Michael Parkes artwork on his website, 

http://www.theworldofmichaelparkes.com/cm/Home.html

Claudia Moscovici, postromanticism.com

An Intimate Specularity: The Artistic Photography of Frédéric Bourret

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French photographer Frédéric Bourret offers a peek into mysterious, and perhaps unknowable, sides of us. His black and white images are hidden glimpses into an intimacy which is subtle, and only hints at the sexual, reminiscent in their perspective of Degas’s voyeuristic representations of dancers. Bourret often depicts feminine figures in shadows, or looking out the window, or mirroring each other, in a spectacular specularity that makes them both viewer and viewed. Inside and outside meet in this act of self-consciousness, reflected (quite literally) in the image below:

The photographer also depicts young women looking out the window, glimpsing at the city life which remains a mystery to them, as it is for the viewers. And here the themes of his intimate series à découvert mirror the motifs of his urban scenes, in his photographs of Paris and New York, a city where the artist has spent five years. Bourret’s skyscrapers, streets and secret corners all retain a touch of mystery despite the crisp clarity and polish of the images. The play of light and shadows, their impeccable artistry, and a furtive peek at objects and subjects partially hidden from view, all give the artistic photography of Frédéric Bourret an aura of intimate specularity. You can see more of Frédéric’s à Découvert images  on the link http://www.fredericbourret.com/serie-a-decouvert.

Claudia Moscovici, postromanticism.com

Philippe Pache’s Postromantic Reveries: The Shadows of Our Dreams

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Philippe Pache was born in 1961 in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was educated at the School of Applied Arts of Vevey. Since 1982 he has held solo and group exhibits in galleries and museums all over the world, including the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris and the Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.

For centuries soft shadows in painting expressed mood, emotion and intimacy at least as much as color can. Da Vinci used chiaroscuro to convey the ambiguity of human expression; Caravaggio to highlight the drama and tumult of life; Vermeer to hint at blooming youth and the inner world of thoughts and emotions; La Tour to suggest simple faith and pensiveness.

The Swiss photographer Philippe Pache (http://www.philippepache.com/) relies upon this time-tested technique in painting to bring life, drama and, above all, reverie and contemplation to artistic photography. His nudes exude beauty and tranquility. They are exquisitely posed yet look completely natural. The focus of his images is on how each gesture and expression—the body itself—reveals a rich inner world of thoughts and feelings. The interplay of light and shadow not only highlights the depth of human subjectivity, but also marks the fluid boundaries between humanity and nature. Some of his portraits, though always beautiful, are facial landscapes of light, contour and shadow.

They gleam with the insentience of the mountains, sea and land that sometimes surround them; they become one, interchangeable with their magnificent natural settings. The beauty of femininity captured by Pache goes beyond realistic visual representation. It is the landscape of haunting and delicate dreams. Sometimes, as in the photograph called Cecilia, below, there’s no clear distinction between dreamer and dream. The beautiful young woman, bathed in fiery reds, sleeps peacefully as she, herself, is depicted as a figment of our imaginations, as a dream. Recognizably beautiful yet also indistinct, she floats above the dark shadows and red sheets that envelop her like a vapor.

Dreams are often vague and fragmentary. When we wake up, we rarely remember the whole “picture”: just those frames that broke through the veil of sleep and rose to the surface of our consciousness. Since we often dream about our deepest fears or most poignant desires, the fragmentary, partial nature of our dreams is perhaps nature’s way to protect us from ourselves: from what we either pursue or try to escape most in life.  In Joined Hands, the photograph below, Pache once again captures both dreamer and dream. This image reveals an angelic young woman dressed in white, with her hands joined in quiet resignation or  fervid prayer: we’ll never know which, since in Pache’s postromantic reveries, the dreamer remains as partial and mysterious as her dreams.

Claudia Moscovici, postromanticism.com