Bubblescapes
Traditional photography, by its very definition, copies reality, reflecting and reporting on it. My work, however, is concerned with the basic elements of art: time, light and substance. For this reason, I have constructed micro-realities, or captured them in real sites. Each micro-reality can be interpreted as an alternative landscape. These landscapes may look generic, but at a second glance they reveal both their materiality and their instability. These images capture forms that are temporary, brief, and fragile; therefore, these moments are almost hidden from the viewer.
The darkroom to me is a magic palette. I develop the final prints while placing bubbles over the negatives or the slides. The bubbles change their forms quickly and I capture them “aging” and in transformation. When I wish to achieve a different structure of the bubbles I catalyze their transformation by agitation, then their shadows moves on the photographic paper until the capturing moment. Sometimes, I overexpose slides in order to gain the bright look of a memory. I then print them as if they were negatives, resulting in an inverse color effect in this memory-atmosphere.
I construct my landscapes, manipulate them, and maintain a dynamic dialogue with their ever-changing fragile substance. The visual qualities of substance-non-substance bubbles have become a subject to contemplate in my work. Bubbles are not only objects to look at and study, but they are also tools to work with in order to draw the thinnest, most delicate and transparent lines.