ORLI PEREL NIR: FAIR SVETLANA
scopio aboveground: territory
Fair Svetlana is a series of portraits (77x150 cm) that were pictured in an old metal factor that seems to belong to a far and strange place in which time stood still. The series touches the human aspect – manhood, dreams, disappointments, normality vs. abnormality and what lies between them, while trying to take off all the masks and protections from the figure in this short meeting with my camera.
Fair Svetlana was pictured using a 4x5 format, and was done with a unique technique that enabled multiple focus planes in each image, by that I was able to blend the figure with its surroundings, obscuring the dominance of the solitude masculine figure in the scene. Governing the furnaces and the metal wires and nails doesn’t add these man power, the opposite is true, it leaves them with dubious honor fragile despite the rough facial expressions.
The subjects were picked carefully and were staged like puppets on a theater stage; all were pictured directly, individually and with no glamour, becoming a part of the view, merging into it.
The way the subjects were posed, the space in which they were staged, the monochromatic colors and clothing, all create an artificial atmosphere, making the figures a bit non-human as if they belong to another world – both new and old.
The series travels between contrast edges – darkness and light, private and public, voyeurism and documentary.
The name - Fair Svetlana, ties up together threads between two realities, the first being imaginary and desolate and the second being concrete.
Hidden political, cultural, sentimental and social connections are reflected in every portrait.
Fair Svetlana was exhibited internationally since 2010 and was awarded the first prize on the 7th Warsaw festival of Art photography in Poland 2011.
Contact
orlipn1@gmail.com