fovea ardour

2013-09-29

LUXLIT FEATURED ARTIST PHOTO SELECTION
Featuring Mark Floodwork (http://blankdiary.tumblr.com)

Simplicity, elegance, pure beauty. Maybe you are familiar with “http://blankdiary.tumblr.com/” and if you are, then you know this is what his work portrays every time you look at it. His photos capture our attention with a direct message. Utilising superb composition and a mix of classical and vanguardist influences, he gives us a vision that we could call “romantic-conceptualism”. Evocative images, most of them focused on simple objects and realities which captivate our vision and mind almost like we have become integrated within a surrealist dream. The images are treated in such an elegant way that they move us closer to the concepts of realist paintings. Mark Flood’s black and white images stand out due to their embedded subtleties without turning into over-processed abuses to catch our attention. When looking at his colour images we appreciate a sober, exquisite, and natural approach, again without turning to easy resources in an attempt to display what is not there. We could call it a black-and-white/colour. The images themselves catch our eyes in the most satisfying way and we think the best thing is to let him to speak about his own opinions, ideas, and photos. Don’t forget to visit his blog http://blankdiary.tumblr.com/. Aesthetic enjoyment is guaranteed.

BIOGRAPHY

A little quiet boy grows up in a little quiet town, meets a little quiet girl and gets married in a little quiet church. They move to a bigger quiet house and have a few noisy children. Little by little their lives grow apart, so the little quiet boy moves to a little quiet apartment and starts to take little quiet photographs to post on his little quiet blog. The little quiet boy dreams of little else except making more and more little quiet photographs for his little followers. One day, the little quiet boy is asked by a quiet Spanish photographer to write a little biography about his little quiet life.

LUXLIT QUESTIONNAIRE

1.- QUESTION: What subjects do you like to shoot?

Mark Flood response: It could be anything – the beauty of a torn poster, a dead animal or a broken chair. The face of a forty-five year old woman is far more profound and exquisite than a pretty young model. There are subjects I haven’t seriously explored yet - like nudes and landscapes.

2.- Q: Colour or B/W and why?

R: I love day and night for their own peculiar qualities. Colour can be an unnecessary distraction, but colour is essential to Guy Bourdin’s oeuvre. In contrast - Avedon’s ‘In The American West’ portraits are so powerful and enigmatic – they simply don’t require the indigo of a girl’s dungarees or the brown and mustard check of a cowboy’s shirt. The image content dictates such a decision.

3.- Q: Your inspiration is?

R: Unrequited love.

4.- Q: Tell us a little bit about your creative process?

R: I trust chance more than anything else. When I awake, I hear the rumble of a subway train, or the laundry man dragging a steel cage across the yard to a hotel, and I’m trying to pull the remains of a dream into focus, like a fisherman reeling in his net on a slippery deck, and all these routines are in themselves inspiring because there are stories in these small fragments of information. I think that’s the difference between film and a still image – a photograph provides the viewer with a brief glimpse of a story, but it’s up to the viewer to participate, to imagine what happened or may happen. I keep Moleskine Sketchbooks (I adore the heavy sallow paper) to jot down quotes, passing thoughts, stories and observations. The truth is, I don’t have a creative process, I depend on uncertainty for inspiration.

5.- Q: What gear do you use, and what’s your preferred equipment?

R: I tend not to read manuals, and enjoy fumbling with controls – Oh, I see that button does that!. Not clever to admit perhaps, but I’m still learning and keen to try different cameras. Does a more expensive camera make one a better photographer? Definitely not. I own a Canon 7D which I bought new, the others are secondhand : Nikon F3, Canon EOS3 and two Canon Ixus 70’s. I’d love a new toy – maybe, an H4D for Christmas?.

6.- Q: How do you develop your photos (digital/film/software used)?

R: It’s been a year since I processed 35mm negative film - I miss the tactile quality of contact sheets. I’ve always used Portra and Ilford mainly for portraits. However, the convenience of loading raw data from a camera to my iMac is irresistible, but I live in constant fear of my digital archive evaporating. The lab was charging fifty bucks a day to hire a Nikon Coolscan. It’s stupid, because it’s so time consuming, but I love the ritual of sticking the negatives in the scanner, the wacky sounds it made, the waiting, and the anticipation. I should upgrade to Capture One but right now I’m using CS5.

7.- Q: What would you like to transmit with your photos?

R: I want to expand my visual vocabulary – but how?. Nietzsche said : “No artist should tolerate reality”. The act of taking photographs is a way of confronting and rejecting reality, the war against time. I’m avoiding reality too, by capturing it, I’m trying to nullify it but I want to preserve it’s potency. Perhaps, it’s also a defense mechanism. Recently, I was walking around an old factory building where I saw iron rails exiting massive doors and suddenly vanishing on the paved surface. I felt a chill in my bones, I thought - that’s where we all go – where the journey ends. The here and now suddenly becomes nowhere.

8.- Q: Tell us an anecdote or a ‘secret’ regarding your photos?

R: Almost all of the images I’ve shot so far are spontaneous representations of reality from my own perspective. Of course, I’m uncertain if any given image resonates with anyone who sees it. I never consider what the viewer may think, I’m only acting instinctively by whatever grabs my attention. The moment I capture an object, place or person isn’t a premeditated act of deception, it’s exactly what was there, in front of me. But, reality can be deceptive. So, I deliberately shot an image in order to deceive, or at least to sow uncertainty in the viewer’s mind. A few friends who’ve commented on the image don’t know I’ve deceived them, at the time I was just having a bit of fun. A clue : 09.12.

Many thanks Mark for your collaboration and wonderful work that we enjoy in your blog.

Mark Flood PHOTO SELECTION FEATURED in our SUPPLEMENTAL POST

Lux Lit Featured artists team.

2013-05-13

redoxmagazine:

Interview#2 Mark Flood
How old are you?
My shoes are size 10.
Where are you from?
A village north of Neverland nestled between a spooky forest and a deep river.
What kind of photographic equipment do you use?
Currently, I own a Canon 7D, a Nikon F3, a Canon EOS 3 and a Canon Ixus70. I also like using the Mamiya RZ67.
What do you do when you are not shooting?
All kinds of boring stuff like reading, visiting art galleries, meeting friends, hanging out in coffee shops, watching movies and browsing in flea markets.
What was the first photograph you were proud of?
I was really into Sci-Fi from an early age, I think it was a shot of a toy spaceship that I’d suspended with thread, hanging over a large oval mirror in the back garden. I shot the reflection which made it look as if it was landing. Of course, it was a terrible forgery, but I didn’t see it that way, it was another perspective of reality.
How much preparation is there behind your photographs?
Well, there’s no preparation at all regarding the images in “Blank Diary”. Every image is random - an instant capture. But, if by chance the object is a tree and the light is too hard, I may re-shoot it. I love a flat grey sky. I’m always spontaneously reacting to what I see in daily life, however, I will execute new projects with controlled environments where the image content is planned, where detail becomes even more critical. I want to explore storytelling.
Have you ever done sacrifices or compromises as a photographer?
I embrace compromises and mistakes. I don’t believe in seeking the ‘perfect’ image. No matter how much one tries to control events, there’s always something askew. In fact, random glitches can add something beautiful to the image. I’m open for everything.
What is your safe place?
A coffee bar where I daydream, observe the hustle and bustle and make notes over a double espresso.
Do you have any obsessions?
This question has obsessed me… Gosh - a truckload! But, what should I reveal and what should I hide? If a barista has exceeded the precise measure for a double espresso or served it in a cold cup I always complain. I never drink coffee at home, so I expect a consistent quality, it’s important because it set things in motion if the espresso is good. My curiosity and voyeurism is rampant, but I don’t think it’s something I should worry about. I consider all children to be predatory voyeurs - they don’t miss a trick. Within the act of looking, I keep asking myself what am I looking for, and if I find something that interests me, I question how I should look at it, how should I frame it? However, I quite often reject images that momentarily held my attention at first glance. Presence and absence are obsessions, alienation, identity, duality and ambiguity.
Is there an artist you’ll gladly collaborate with or that you regard with esteem?
I’d love a cameo in a Cohen Brothers movie. Something dark and twisted. Avedon, Lartigue, Leiter, Billingham, Bellmer, Witkin, Stieglitz, Penn, Newton, Halsman and Klein are artists I revere. However, collaborating with musicians in the way that Anton Corbijn has with Depeche Mode, using still and moving images to define the band fascinates me. This would be a great challenge - preferably with a raw undiscovered group.
▶ The human figure is the most notably absent in your photographs, but the focus is on the objects shaped by it. Is it a way to talk about it in a oblique way, or are you more interested in the formal feature of things?
“Blank Diary” started as a project to document the city where I live, the intention was to ignore the traditional cultural icons used by tourist organizations and publishers. I wanted to record the neglected nooks and crannies, details of objects or places that aren’t important, things that are insignificant or useless. I also wanted to explore the confines of using a pocket camera, shooting spontaneously what I’m confronted with. It’s a street map without an index, it’s an intimate human map of anonymous lives. Recently, I started capturing reflections of myself on various surfaces, later, I will explore self-portraiture with more candour. I appear interested in the formal feature of things, surfaces and textures are enchanting, but I’m always looking for images hidden within images, or if there’s another meaning or message within a photograph. For example : I shot an old mattress on the street that was wet and wrinkled, but what I saw was a stack of bones, it was as if human remains were trying to escape from inside the mattress. I’m a sensualist, every time I see a “don’t touch” sign beside a sculpture I immediately want to run my hand over it in defiance. There’s an idea I have based on the Renaissance which is figurative yet complicated to execute because I need a dedicated space where I can construct sets and then there’s the problem of finding the right models. It’s a question of when things fall into place, rather than pushing it.
[If you want to see more, find him on www.blankdiary.tumblr.com and on www.foveaardour.tumblr.com]

Source: redoxmagazine

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