35 Minutes 07
The way this work was created was in no way predetermined, and it was influenced by the surrounding conditions. Our daily interactions with the outside world force us, and what we are working on, to follow certain paths that cannot be changed. Although I was addressing the general state of the human and environmental nature- between the vicious and compassionate, and how existence plays on it, I never set a specific course for this work, for art has become a way of life. My 35 minutes of observation aimed at searching and discovering photographs. It wasn't intended as a technical presentation of photography, but rather as a documentation and affirmation of the authenticity of the photograph. The passing of time intervals forces a sequencing of the event rather than a sequence of events, and puts the characters in the photograph in the foreground. These documentation photographs are an interpretation of time and space through my eyes, transferring a small portion of an environment for about 35 minutes. The connection between the photographed area, the time, and the sequence of interactions with the events of that location captivated me for 35 minutes, while I captured it for an eternity. Did I, therefore, live through the scene, or did the scene come to life through me?
What is interesting is that wide cognitive gap between being a viewer looking at a scene and being the character in that scene looking back! From my work "35 minutes" I say that our life in the present takes place at a moment in the past.
I started taking pictures at four in the afternoon, and it took 35 minutes. I presented the photographs as if they were scenes of actors in a theatrical play with each one moving in a preset manner towards economic, cultural, social, political and environmental directions. On that theater, the illusion of homogeneity and harmony between individuals and their surroundings is exposed, and they appear to clash with the environmental scene, and professional nature. What the viewer sees is nothing but fragments from the memory of time and space, a copy within a frame arranged deliberately not impulsively. This mode of display and presentation places the sequence of scenes in different perspectives and contexts, giving rise to numerous inquiries concerning the purpose behind these photographed scenes.
Some may ask why this work wasn't done in video. The ambiguity posed by the photograph is intended to drive the viewer to contemplate and appreciate the often ignored or overlooked elements of our environment, and their relationship with the photograph. Thus, awareness is created of the struggle between human beings and nature in which the humans emerge victorious. The scene is not simply the photograph- it is the story.
What is interesting is that wide cognitive gap between being a viewer looking at a scene and being the character in that scene looking back! From my work "35 minutes" I say that our life in the present takes place at a moment in the past.
I started taking pictures at four in the afternoon, and it took 35 minutes. I presented the photographs as if they were scenes of actors in a theatrical play with each one moving in a preset manner towards economic, cultural, social, political and environmental directions. On that theater, the illusion of homogeneity and harmony between individuals and their surroundings is exposed, and they appear to clash with the environmental scene, and professional nature. What the viewer sees is nothing but fragments from the memory of time and space, a copy within a frame arranged deliberately not impulsively. This mode of display and presentation places the sequence of scenes in different perspectives and contexts, giving rise to numerous inquiries concerning the purpose behind these photographed scenes.
Some may ask why this work wasn't done in video. The ambiguity posed by the photograph is intended to drive the viewer to contemplate and appreciate the often ignored or overlooked elements of our environment, and their relationship with the photograph. Thus, awareness is created of the struggle between human beings and nature in which the humans emerge victorious. The scene is not simply the photograph- it is the story.
