Van O

     Movement, the key moment of interaction that invites the viewer to extrapolate it into the past and the future – that’s what I always want to show in my works. Even in externally static genres, such as “still life”, I try to reveal internal dynamics and tension, to create the illusion of reportage shooting of a previously modeled situation. At the same time, not the physical or emotional movement, but the moment of transformation, the change of physical appearance, historical and social role, mask or image are especially interesting. During my studying of entomology at the biological faculty of the university I devoted a lot of time to the study of complete and incomplete metamorphosis of insects – and photography, with its charm of documentary, allows me to accumulate my scientific, theatrical and design experience in one work. But unlike temporary arts such as theater and cinema, we can concentrate, condense time, so that the image of maximum intensity appears in perceptual space. The staging of the shooting scene can take time, quite comparable with painting a picture (from a week to a month) – only the dynamics of the process is different: long preparation and instant fixation. For shooting I use wide film – its color- and light rendering seems to me the most congenial to the human eye. Now I am more interested in monochrome images - either shot on black and white film and tinted in different colors when printing, or obtained by shooting pre-painted objects. They focus the viewer's attention on the composition and graphic of the work and keep a powerful emotional background that corresponds its theme.