David Uzochukwu: The coming of age of a talented photographer

Some say that ever since photography became digital, it has lost a lot of its magic. When something becomes easy, it starts to slip into the mundane, it becomes repetitive and loses slowly its power as a creative tool. And then, one day, someone comes and rediscovers the hidden potential and the endless possibilities. Someone comes and makes photography difficult again by making it seem effortless. I think it's time I introduced you to David.   

David Ejikeme Uzochukwu is a clever kid.

David Ejikeme Uzochukwu is good at school.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu reads a lot.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu shows signs of maturity way beyond his age.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu has an imagination that knows no bounds. 
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu has a curious spirit.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu looks for ways to express his sensitivity.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu starts to observe carefully.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu discovers photography.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu understands the rules and wants to break them.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu begins to experiment.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu learns the tricks of the trade. 
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu possesses a natural sense of frame and composition.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu decides to re-invent color.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu works equally well with black and white.  
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu discovers the power of the portrait.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu starts to unravel the poetry of the lens.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu begins to understand texture.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu is now taking his first steps into Photography.
David Ejikeme Uzochukwu is just 14 years old. 

And the world should now take note of this boy with the strange name. This is only the beginning...
  

To find the work and follow the progress of David Uzochukwu, please visit one of the following links:

David's site

Flickr

Tumbir

The Tiger Lillies perform "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

This is a match made in heaven, or rather... hell for that matter. The Tiger Lillies performing "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This dark, epic poem of the 18th century has been brought to life through the perverted aural delicacies of Martyn Jacques and Co. and the stunning virtual world of photographer and cinema artist Mark Holthusen. For an hour and a half you follow this dark story from the icy cold waters of the Antarctic to the burning flames of hell. After having killed an albatros that had safely guided the ship in the treacherous southern waters, the mariner suffers the revenge of the spirit world who unleash their wrath on the ship. Death comes for the mariner's companions as one by one they perish from thirst and exhaustion. The irony is not lost to Coleridge who writes:


"Water, water, everywhere
And all the boards did shrink 
Water, water, everywhere 
Not any drop to drink". 




By projecting filmed segments on a transparent screen, Mark Holthusen creates a magical, fairytale world that can quickly turn into a nightmare that brings to life the famous wood engravings of Gustave Doré. Sublime creatures can be seen floating around the Tiger Lillies whose decadent and macabre delivery is often interlaced with black humor and existentialist reverie. 




Adrian Stout does not limit himself to playing the double bass. He produces the strangest of sounds on the musical saw and the theremin, creating an ever shifting background on which the inventive percussion effects of Mike Pickering and the piano and bandoneon of Martyn Jacques can bring out the full glory of this, Soho with a litle pinch of pre-war Berlin, dark cabaret act. Coleridge, who fostered a lifelong addiction to opium would certainly have approved of this at times surreal, provocative and avant-garde rendition of his all time classic of romantic literature.

A special version of "Berlin" by Lou Reed

In 2001, the release of the initially bootlegged album "Lou Reed: An American Poet", captured Lou Reed live at the Hempstead Theatre, New York on Boxing Day 26 December 1972. Hidden in the setlist there is a jewel version of the song "Berlin" from his first self titled album. Lou Reed went on to re-record the song with a different arrangement, one year later, for his 1973 album "Berlin". But this version, the live one, the badly recorded one, is for me one of the best that he ever recorded. The lyrics of the song say at one point "...you could hear the guitars play / It was very nice / it was paradise / You're right and I'm wrong / hey babe, I'm gonna miss you now that you're gone". And that says it all.

Listen to:
Lou Reed - Berlin(Live)

"Ο Ηθοποιός" Ένα ποίημα της Ματίνας Μόσχοβη

"The Return" A short animated film by Natalia Chernysheva

A sweet and short animated film about the change and difference of perspective between a child and an adult. But memory, when it's triggered by direct experience, is capable of dissolving this kind of difference and in an instant, a magical instant, the adult becomes the child once again.
   

Le retour from Natalia Chernysheva on Vimeo.

"Permanently" A poem by Kenneth Koch (1925 - 2002)

"Permanently"
 by Kenneth Koch


One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.

An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.

The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.

The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence.



Each Sentence says one thing—for example, “Although it was a dark rainy day when

the Adjective walked by, I shall remember the pure and sweet expression on her face

until the day I perish from the green, effective earth."

Or, “Will you please close the window, Andrew?”

Or, for example, “Thank you, the pink pot of flowers on the window sill has changed color

recently to a light yellow, due to the heat from the boiler factory which exists nearby.”



In the springtime the Sentences and the Nouns lay silently on the grass.

A lonely Conjunction here and there would call, “And! But!”

But the Adjective did not emerge.



As the Adjective is lost in the sentence,

So I am lost in your eyes, ears, nose, and throat—

You have enchanted me with a single kiss

Which can never be undone

Until the destruction of language

 

The puppet theatre scene from the film "La Double Vie De Véronique" (1991)

As a child we experience the world in a completely different way from adults. Our senses are attuned to even the slightest external stimuli. Our unbound, fertile imagination whirls and creates wondrous links and conceptions that exceed all logic and "common sense". Images and sounds are conceived like fractals that give birth to new infinite designs. For, at that young age, there are no boundaries and so many empty spaces to fill in. Later on in life, these empty spaces will become casts regulating behavior and understanding. 

A child can very easily relate to a puppet or a marionette because the puppet world is an airy miniature of the real world. The child, dwarfed in it's everyday existence by all things grownup, suddenly sees something small and familiar. Something that it can relate to by intuition alone, effortlessly. Imagination takes over and the child believes. It's whole being is in fact absorbed into the characters, into the story. 

In our adult life we sometimes get flashbacks of our childhood. But it's always a fleeting moment when you loose control and dive into the rabbit hole like Alice. Just a spark and it's gone. The shadow of a memory long forgotten. But in that tiny moment there is something magical in what we experience. A letting go of all the templates, the iron casts and the frames. A re-emergence of that innocence. The infinite contentment of re-living that instant of childish insouciance.  

These thoughts came to my mind when I first saw the puppet theatre scene in Krzysztof Kieslowski's " La double vie de Véronique" in 1991. The music, by Zbigniew Preisner, makes this magical scene a cinematic moment you will always remember. A shortcut to the rabbit hole.

Transient art on the walls of Athens - Summer 2013 - part 2

The walls of Athens are canvasses on which artistic freedom of expression runs wild. No need for galleries, no patrons, no intermediaries. Just pictures at an exhibition. 

Transient art on the walls of Athens - Summer 2013 - part 1

1. The drawing style and technique of this artist distinguishes his/her work from traditional graffiti. Drawn on large pieces of paper and then plastered on the wall, his/her themes mainly include beauty, innocence and hope in the face of ugliness, adversity and racism. 

2. The following artist uses a mixed technique of stensil and graffiti to create a pastel-like soft texture. Great use of light and shadow and attention to detail. Theme: Wind and flying hats. 

3. An imaginary world of monsters and strange creatures lurk in every corner of Athens. Some of these would make H.P.Lovecraft proud while others seem to pop out of comic books.   

And here is finally the most ferocious monster of them all. A perfect specimen of the "politician" creature. It sports a long Pinocchio nose and carries a knife and fork. It has sharp teeth and greedy eyes. Beware of it's many promises... 

Transient Art on the Walls of Athens 2013: 1. Graffiti

Athens, Greece.
Summer 2013.
In the midst of a suffocating crisis, when everything is falling apart and people are sucked into swirling black holes of depression; when most of us are transformed into casual observers of the deadening of our own senses and emotions; when our backs are against the wall... We, in Athens, we turn and look at that wall. And we get a grip on ourselves, we regain our footing, we loose the numbness. For the walls of Athens are alive. They are vibrating. They carry the thoughts and feelings of young artists who refuse to cower in front of that giant crushing wave that hovers above. They just surf effortlessly through it, cutting it in half with an image, a message, a thought.

Take the graffiti artist who signs WD for example. Irony is the name of his game. All you need is Joke... You could take it literarily of course. But then you hear from the television..."- The government may be optimistic about a recovery just around the corner...". Shiny happy people and politicians kissing babies all over again... It's all a joke. The joke is on us. And in the end we live by this joke. Inspired by the Joker character in the Batman comic book, WD "defaces" his own work sending a message that ultimately aims to make you think and make your own mind about the state of things, about ways to turn the tables and react. Take laughter out of slaughter. What a Killing Joke indeed...

Listen to:

Killing Joke - Colony Collapse