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FINAL CALL TO ENTER AAP MAGAZINE PORTRAIT: PUBLICATION AND $1,000 CASH PRIZES
FINAL CALL TO ENTER AAP MAGAZINE PORTRAIT: PUBLICATION AND $1,000 CASH PRIZES
Patrick Morarescu
Performers catalogue
Patrick Morarescu
Patrick Morarescu

Patrick Morarescu

Country: Germany


Statement
"Due to the natural dynamic and complexity of the individual, I have always been drawn to portraiture. I photograph persons to whom I feel an initial attraction and try to reflect this force in images. A power that you cannot describe in words or in rational concepts but it captures the attention and creates a strong curiosity, a sort of addiction not only to body shapes, eyes, skin tonalities, but to what is behind: the thoughts and the mental state of that persons. And I feel a sort of instinct of possession, a desire to materialize the moment that this person is living.

The human presence, with it’s emotionality, is some times too strong; it is almost insulting, shouting to get all the attention: Like a red dot in the green, like a flash in the darkness. To balance that force I need the background, the space that as a negative form defines the contour of the figure. Through that supplementary space I create a whole story. The key of my research lies in the dialogue between the person and its background; sometimes I think I am not portraying a person with a background, but the background with a person; sometimes it is the opposite. The background speaks about fear, happiness, peace, desperation; it speaks about the circumstances through an atmosphere. There is one basic element that is crucial to bring all the elements together: The light. Like a thread that creates structure and consistence in a tissue; the magical substance of photography. It is a physical condition that contains many extraordinary qualities. The photography is a chemical reaction in which the light is transcripted in a plain surface, creating a code that by the eyes suggest reality; but photography is not reality itself but an abstraction of it. And this is the point that fascinates me; the possibility of recreating the reality through the chemical process."
-- Patrick Morarescu
 

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More Great Photographers To Discover

Kathryn Nee
United States
Kathryn is an Fine Art/Freelance Photographer/Food Photog/Urban Explorer living in Atlanta. A Georgia native, she has been photographing life as art for over 15 years. Kathryn finds incredible beauty in old, decaying, and forgotten places and objects and loves all things vintage, weird, macabre, dark, whimsical, unusual, and strange. When she's not photographing abandoned and vacant structures, Kathryn steps into the land of the living and captures the beauty of people. Kathryn works as a freelance photographer for Sports Gwinnett Magazine and is the director of photography for the Urban Mediamakers Film Festival. All about Kathryn Nee: AAP: When did you realize you wanted to be a photographer? I knew I wanted to be a photographer when I was in elementary school. I'd rummage through National Geographic magazines in the library, mesmerized by the images. I knew that one day, after working several lousy jobs that I hated, I'd become a photographer. Where did you study photography? I am self taught. I learned through trial and error, years of studying, and practice. Do you remember your first shot? What was it? I remember my first roll of film with my first 'real' camera, a Nikon N60. I was a teenager who would sneak into Atlanta clubs and bars on weekends. I'd roam around photographing graffiti. I found the mess to be beautiful. What or who inspires you? Decaying, forgotten, and unloved places. I have a vivid imagination that runs wild all day, every day. I can call a friend and say, "I need you to suffer through a long, strenuous shoot in an abandoned building. It will be weird, but I have a vision" and they trust me enough to go through with it. It works out well. What kind of gear do you use? Camera, lens, digital, film? I use all Canon equipment. Do you spend a lot of time editing your images? I actually don't. I like my photos the way I like my food: organic. I try not to over do it with editing or manipulation. What advice would you give a young photographer? Break rules to get the shot you want. Don't waste money on art school. What mistake should a young photographer avoid? Please don't HDR all of your work. An idea, a sentence, a project you would like to share? I'm currently working on a new series that will be a visual expression of how work, domestic home life, parenting, and society can beat us down physically and mentally. It sounds depressing but it's actually the most fun I've ever had shooting. Your best memory as a photographer? Being published by National Geographic twice in one month. I couldn't believe it. If you could have taken the photographs of someone else who would it be? I'd give just about anything to photograph Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire.
Lucien Clergue
France
1934 | † 2014
Lucien Clergue was born in Arles. From the age of 7, he learned to play the violin. Several years later, his teacher revealed to him that he had nothing more to teach him. From a family of shopkeepers, he could not pursue further studies in a conservatory. In 1949, he learned the rudiments of photography. Four years later, at a corrida in Arles, he showed his photographs to Pablo Picasso who, though subdued, demanded to see others. Within a year and a half, young Clergue worked with the goal of sending photos to Picasso. During this period, he worked on a series of photographs of traveling entertainers, acrobats and harlequins, the Saltimbanques. He also worked on a series whose subject was carrion. On 4 November 1955, Lucien Clergue visited Picasso in Cannes. Their friendship lasted near 30 years until the death of the Master. The book, Picasso my Friend retraces the important moments of their relation. Clergue has taken many photographs of the gypsies of southern France, and he was instrumental in propelling the guitarist Manitas de Plata to fame. In 1968 he founded, along with his friend Michel Tournier the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival which is held in Arles in July. His works was presented during the festival from 1971–1973, 1975, 1979, 1982–1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2003, 2007. Clergue has illustrated books, among these a book by writer Yves Navarre. Clergue’s photographs are in the collections of numerous well-known museums and private collectors. His photographs have been exhibited in over 100 solo exhibitions worldwide, with noted exhibitions such as 1961, Museum of Modern Art New York, the last exhibition organized by Edward Steichen with Lucien Clergue, Bill Brandt and Yasuhiro Ishimoto. Museums with extensive inventory of photographs by Lucien Clergue include The Fogg Museum at Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. His photographs of Jean Cocteau are on permanent display at the Jean Cocteau Museum in Menton, France. In the US, the exhibition of photographs of Jean Cocteau was premiered by Westwood Gallery, New York City. In 2007, the city of Arles honored Lucien Clergue and dedicated a retrospective collection of 360 his photographs dating from 1953 to 2007. He also received the 2007 Lucie Award. He is named knight of the Légion d'honneur in 2003 and elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institute of France on 31 May 2006, on the creation of a new section dedicated to photography. Clergue is the first photographer to enter the Academy to a seat devoted to photography.Source: Wikipedia (…) Until I saw Picasso…I lived in the most perfect solitude and did my work without thinking of anything beyond that. After seeing Picasso and being received by him in Cannes when he repeated: “I’ve never seen anything like it, I’ve never seen anything like it”, I thought, or rather I let myself be convinced that despite my 21 years the time had perhaps come to begin showing my work. -- Correspondence Jean Cocteau, Lucien Clergue Lucien Clergue frequented Pablo Picasso for twenty years, being received on numerous occasions at his villa the California, in Cannes and at Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins where he made his last portrait of the artist in 1971, two years before his death. Picasso, enthusiastic about Clergue’s images of dead animals and the circus children, considered him to be a greater photographer than Henri Cartier Bresson, and complimented him by saying: Clergue’s photographs are the good Lord’s sketchbooks! Or again was quoted in one of Cocteau’s lettres to Clergue, dated 1956: Picasso told me… his complete admiration for your series Stomachs. “You could, he said, sign Renoir”. Thanks to Picasso, the young photographer was able to meet not only Jean Cocteau, but also the historian and art collector Douglas Cooper, who opened up his extraordinary collection of books and artworks to the young man, avid for visual stimulation. Picasso’s generosity to Clergue and his admiration for the work of the budding photographer resulted in many collaborations, notably Picasso’s illustration for the cover of Corps mémorable in 1957, where Clergue’s images accompanied Paul Eluard’s poems; or again, the poster for Clergue’s first exhibition in Cologne in 1958 and then the cover for the book Poesie der Photographie in 1960.Source: lucien-clergue.com
Rory J. Lewis
United Kingdom
1978
Rory J Lewis, a multi-award winning British macro wildlife photographer, is renowned for his artistic portrayal of invertebrates and ethical techniques to capture intricate wildlife images within their natural habitat. Growing up among the rolling hills of the Cotswolds, with a fascination for the local wildlife from a young age, Rory was exposed to cameras very early on, as his father was also a keen landscape photographer. After trying a few different genres, everything changed for Rory when he first aimed a macro lens at an insect. Through a blend of macro and traditional portrait techniques, Rory unveils the hidden essence of these elusive life-forms, creating compelling visuals that are both intimate and evocative. In an era marked by climate change and habitat loss endangering countless invertebrate species, Rory's images challenge viewers to perceive these often misunderstood creatures with newfound empathy and appreciation, in the hope of shedding new light on the critical roles they play within our fragile ecosystem. Rory’s works have been featured in many popular publications and have received awards from the Royal Entomological Society, World Nature Photography Awards, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, and was most recently the People of Nature Awards fauna photographer of the year. Rory has also represented Venus Optics Laowa lenses in their marketing on multiple occasions and has recently carried out Canon sponsored workshops in partnership with Wex Photo Video throughout the UK.
Emma Powell
United States
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AAP Magazine #57 Portrait
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