becoming-animal

photo by the brilliant Sindy Püssa

The LSBU Degree Show 2009 opend on Friday last week and was a success. Thank you all who could turn up and I hope you enjoyed the evening as much as I did! I know I'm not smiling on this photo, but I was actually super happy. :)

All the images can be seen in their final form at my web site www.karelpolt.com.

The exhibition is still open from today until Thursday, every day from 10am to 5pm.
London South Bank University
Keyworth centre
Keyworth Street
Tube station: Elephant & Castle

Artist's statement:

becoming-animal

Digitally composed photographic prints, 744mm x 744mm

Derived from my personal experience of living in London for the past five years, this series of images examines the philosophically occult notion of ‘becoming-animal’, as developed by French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari in their book A Thousand Plateaus. For me, the concentration of humanity that London represents with its millions of people, cityscape and technology, is a paradoxically repulsive yet beguilingly seductive mixture. The availability of culture and modernity is weighed down by lack of personal space and wild nature. In a sense, I am searching for ways to reconnect with the natural world without giving up the comforts of civilisation.

Becoming-animal follows the subject at a domestic location, yet it appears that this creature is somewhat out of place. Whilst following the rules of a human’s home, he has either forgotten how to behave as a human or has never learnt to use the rather simple technology and cultural codes. Is the physical metamorphosis a result of a psychological condition due to living in a confined claustrophobic place, locked in, away from other humans? Taking advantage of posture, lighting, facial expressions, ‘the wild look’ and possibilities of digital image manipulation, I have juxtaposed the familiar contemporary setting with elements of animals as seen on wild life documentary programmes. This is kitchen or bathroom is disturbingly the subject’s natural habitat.

In the centre of my working practice is the contradiction of using pixel-based image manipulation for introducing the subject to a more animalistic state. The body shapes and colours are composed of several exposures and edited in post-production, resulting in a seamless montage, creating a new photographic reality. Similarly to the creature, the physical space on the images as been reconstructed in the computer. There are elements added, removed, copied from other shots or rearranged within the space.

iGoogle I hope

I've entered the Google Photography Prize for a chance to meet the great British photographer Martin Parr. Quite frankly, I'm confident, that I could meet him though much easier means, but this competition is more exciting. Also, the best 36 shortlisted photographers will see their images turned into iGoogle themes and 6 finalists will be exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery London. I'd be happy with both of these options. The deadline has passed, so all I can do is wait and see if the jury has gone for the artistic photography or simply pretty pictures that would please the masses. This time I chose the latter option. You can have a look at my images here.

You can buy my book on Amazon now

The photobook I created for a unit in university is now available on the biggest retail website Amazon.com. Alternative to 'subculture' gone mainstream costs $29.05, which is more than if you would buy it directly from the Lulu.com website, but I guess it reaches a bigger audience like this. Here are the links to the two online shops:
Amazon
Lulu

The Degree Show

My BA Digital Photography course at the LSBU is nearing the end. In the past months I've been working on the Final Project titled becoming-animal, and it's nearing completion. In less than a month the whole course among other media students at the London South Bank University are holding the 2009 Degree Show and my work will be on display as well. Here's a teaser of my project:With this project, I am exploring what it means to become an animal in contemporary Western society, while being human. All the issues I deal with, revolve around being human, being animal, change, mutation, mutability (both physical and digital), self and personality. I use lighting and digital editing to emphasize the physicality of becoming-animal while the pose and gestures seem to deal with psychological side of the same idea.

Come see the show on the opening night on Friday the 5th of June! I will have 4-5 large-scale images mounted on the wall. Here are the details of the show:

Opening night 5th of June 2009 at 6pm
Show runs from 5-11 June 2009
Opening times TBA
Location
London South Bank University
Keyworth Building
Keyworth Street, London, SE1 6NG
Tube Elephant & Castle



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New look for Jüri Nael

Jüri is about to finish his masters in London's RADA and this, apparently, is what the famous school does to you. He's lost his pretty blond hair and moved to a council estate in South London. Well, not in actuality, but it's always intriguing to speculate. The hair loss is the result of last week's end of semester performance The Flood, which was, like the haircut, radical, to say the least. Nudity, violence and sex were mixed with biblical underlying themes in a contemporary metropolitan context, resulting in laughter, tears, horror and passion. Brilliant! The play, not the new look. :)

But the photo shoot was a treat on its own. The grim Elephant & Castle council estate, the red braces, an odd pink tie and of course the military cut are all playing with the stereotypes of skinhead subculture and run-down inner city life with a little twist of Jüri's craziness.

Studio time with Victor

The past week has been a very productive week. Among the five photo shoots I had some studio time with Vìctor on Friday. We booked it to practice my studio skills and his modelling skills, and of course my Photoshop skills as well. There are larger resolution images on my Flickr.

Towards the Degree Show

The end of the Digital Photography course at the LSBU is nearing. The Dissertation is due in on 1st of May and the Degree Show of the Final Project is scheduled for the first week of June. So, just about two months to go.

Once the date for the opening night of the Degree Show has been settled, I will post and ad here. The show will take place at the LSBU in the Elephant & Castle, London. Until then, I still have a long way to go finalizing my project. The image above is just one example of the creative process, which you can follow at my electronic work book.

I'm still exploring the ideas of becoming-animal, what does it mean to be animal or become animal or become human or anything in between. I use the posture, the body language, the cultural elements and digital manipulation to answer these questions. Stay tuned!

Central London apartment

A few weeks ago I was photographing this beautiful apartment in central London for Millbank Interiors. And it was not only the interior that was amazing, but the views from the balcony as well. If only the weather had been better...There are more images at www.millbankinteriors.com

Shochiku Grand Kabuki Twelfth Night after William Shakespeare

Frédéric worked hard to get to photograph backstage of the Shochiku Grand Kabuki Twelfth Night after William Shakespeare at Barbican Theatre. The Japanese great masters of traditional Kabuki theatre were in London for just a few days and considering their busy chedule, it was probably Frédéric's good nature, persistance and of course knowledge of Japanese that got him the permission to photograph. I was lucky to be his assistant and to to see the preparations of one of the most celebrated Kabuki actors Onoe Kikunosuke V.

The Final Project - in production

Let's see if I can summarize my Degree Project in just a few sentences...

The Final Project draws inspiration from the ideas of becoming-animal in contemporary culture disgussed in the book A Thousand Plateaus by the two French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari, who emphazise the becoming part of the hyphenated word. Another underlying idea is the notion of me myself being tired of living in a city while unable to really return to the nature (I refuse to live away from the city), so I use the digital technology to alter my own image in hope to take myself closer to the nature if not physically, then in an idea. Here's the controversy of the project - to get away from the modern and the technological, I have to use the technology to get closer to my aim.This image is a test I have created after shooting at different locations and after quick editing of the image. The final image should be animated, so that the facial features change constantly and randomly in an endless becoming, never looking what I look like in reality and never really turning into an animal.

Here's a link to my online workbook.

34 years of experience - Millbank Interiors

The brand new GT magazine's March 2009 issue is out in stores since Friday and in it you can find my latest graphic vision for Millbank Interiors - the interiors and design company that can transform your house into home.
www.millbankinteriors.com

Frederic's shoot for Vogue Nippon

Frederic was photographing for the Japanese Vogue last week and I was doing my bit by holding the reflector or lenses or whatever needed holding. Another, increasingly important part of my job as an assistant is modelling. So, I pose. From crazy stunts to dead serious poses, Frederic must have hundreds of photos of me already, all in the name of fixing the lights and figuring out the best corners to photograph. Not that I mind, of course, this keeps me occupied while the real models are getting their hair and make-up done. This time there were only two models, one of them Alice Dellal, smiling here with Freddie.
Frederic Aranda
Vodue Nippon

Google Estonian translates now. Me English no good.

About time, I would say! Google has finally got Estonian listed among other languages on it's translating service under Langauge Tools. http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

But, as we all know, Google Translator is infamous for its quirky weird machine-like translations that give surprisingly funny results with all the grammatical mistakes, not to mention the strange word order or the overall wrong feel to the translation.

My first test to translate from English to Estonian had these results:
Today is a rather dull day in London. > Täna on üsna nüri päev London.

Not bad, but nevertheless with a mistake. Cheers for the start of a new era for Estonian language!

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Nuri Bilge Ceylan is a critically acclaimed and highly awarded Turkish film director and photographer, whose latest feature film Three Monkeys (Üç Maymun) will be in cinemas from March 2009.

I photographed him at the British Film Institute in London Southbank, where you can also admire his photography exhibition For My Father. Here's a copy of one of his mystically painting-like photos. This copy doesn't do it justice though. The original is printed in large format on cotton rag paper which gives the image a subtle texture.His official website www.nuribilgeceylan.com

'Two Lovers' by Bartosz Wisnievski

I've known Bart for the past four years and it hasn't exactly been a secret that he's interested in music. Nevertheless, it was the first time I heard him sing when he sent me his latest creation 'Two lovers', which you should be able to find attached to this post. If you cannot see it, then try this link http://www.karelpolt.com/audio/two_lovers.mp3

Bart wrote it and composed it and has already received good feedback from industry specialists. Well, I hope this is a start for a great career! Also, I hope my photos will help him promote the first single. www.myspace.com/tafkanik

Tafkanik

Millbank Interiors' new website now live

I know, I know! I've told you all so many times that I am not into building websites any more and that I am concentrating on photography. But every once in a while I update my own website and other sites I have already produced in the past. One of these is the homepage of the London's most established gay building company Millbank Interiors. Here are some snapshots from www.millbankinteriors.com. Oh, and please do let me know if you are running into any technical problems on the site. You can leave comments right here, on my blog.Special features include the slightly animated builders under the 'About us' section and, my personal favourite, the adverts section under 'Press' - a credit to my own creations, a kind of historic record of the past three years.

The sun and fashion on Tenerife

photo by Frédéric Aranda www.fredericaranda.com

Frédéric amazes me sometimes. Quite often, actually. Just before Christmas he asked if I can assist him at a photo shoot for a Japanese magazine... on Tenerife. I couldn't see any reason why not. I'm extremely thankful, of course, for Frédéric taking me along to the sunny and warm Canary island in the middle of January. Even better, the crew was wonderfully international and I had very good time both working and after work.

The magazine is called Casa Brutus and it is an upmarket architecture, design, style and fashion magazine from Japan. They have a superb idea of mixing contemporary architecture with fashion and there are a few gems on Tenerife that are just the perfect locations.
TEA - Tenerife Espacio de las Artes is the arts and culture centre in Santa Cruz de Tenerrife. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron Architekten (TATE Modern, Beijing Olympics stadium, etc.) it is a refreshingly contemporary piece of architecture in otherwise dull city. www.teatenerife.es

Camille and I
photo by Frédéric Aranda www.fredericaranda.com

Auditorio de Tenerife by Santiago Calatrava is commonly referred to as the Tnereife Opera House and can also be found in the capital of the island - Santa Cruz.
www.auditoriodetenerife.com

Frédéric with Camille and Yohan

MAGMA Arte & Congresos is an amazing events' centre in the south of Tenerife in Costa Adeje. Designed by AMP arquitectos, it's built of crude and raw local materials.
www.magmacongress.com
stylist of the photoshoots: Tomoki Sukezane