GORM VALENTIN

GORM VALENTIN

The striking about Gorm Valentin’s work is the dynamic compositions – full of energy and movement. Following the rhythm of the music, Valentin captures the performance’s atmosphere and the essence of his subject, and with a keen eye for framing, he uses light to create leading lines towards his subject. As a former land surveyor, he is a master of composition and patterns, and after many years of playing the clarinet in jazz orchestras, he shows great sensibility to various musical genres. Since he embarked on his photography journey in 1975, Valentin has created both soulful and atmospheric portraits and dynamic and grainy rock portraits, all in B/W and with a high-contrast style. His photos are timeless markers of many of today’s most iconic musicians, including David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Liza Minnelli, and Stevie Wonder. 

GORM VALENTIN (b. 1944) is from Copenhagen, Denmark. He is an award-winning music photographer and has photographed both jazz, rock, and classical music. Moreover, he was engaged as a photographer in the theatrical scene and did portraits for newspapers, magazines, journals, and numerous record covers, including stamps. He has exhibited in Denmark and abroad and received a number of awards, notably the Fogtdal’s Photography Award in 2005 and DJBFA’s Award in 2016. 

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Gorm VALENTIN - David Bowie Gorm VALENTIN - Leonard Coen Gorm VALENTIN - David Bowie Gorm VALENTIN - Bob Marley

STEPHEN WILKES

STEPHEN WILKES - DAY TO NIGHT

A self-proclaimed collector of moments Stephen Wilkes, in his series entitled, “Day to Night,” masterfully captures the transition from day to night in one comprehensive image. He began the series in 2009 and has worked diligently to document some of the world’s most beautiful places. Having photographed the Tournelle Bridge in Paris, Stonehenge in England, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and the Serengeti in Africa, Wilkes has created a body of work that appeals to a collective memory. Using a 4×5 large format camera with a digital back and shot from a fixed perspective 40-50 feet above the ground, Wilkes creates images that are designed to emotionally and visually resonate with the masses.

Wilkes’ photographs are visually dynamic, embracing the life of a single location over time. To maintain continuity, his camera has to be completely still as he captures image after image to manifest not just a photograph but an experience for the viewer; constructing a composite picture that only exists in the final photograph. Wilkes, who was influenced by the photomontage work of David Hockney, discovered that by piecing together photographs that were shot over an extended period of time, he could make the passage of time visible in a two dimensional image. Using the tools of digital technology, Wilkes is able to proficiently craft images with the same concept but a different aesthetic.

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Over the course of 12-15 hours, Wilkes takes 1,200 to 1,500 pictures, narrows them down to about 50 in post-production, and seamlessly blends the different elements over the course of a day, constructing a time vector, drawing a line where day ends and night begins, while simultaneously developing a narrative in the process. His photographs are tangible memories that explore both time and space with the same science and passion that early foundation black and white photography explored movement.

Stephen Wilkes is a uniquely creative artist in contemporary photography. By utilizing the digital resources available today, he has developed a process that has expanded photography’s preconceived notion that a picture can only depict a singular moment in time and has opened up the possibilities of a fourth dimension of time and space.

Stephen Wilkes - Serengeti National Park , 2015 Stephen Wilkes - Pont de la Tournelle, 2013 Stephen Wilkes - Central Park view from Essex House, 2014 Stephen Wilkes - Grizzly Bears 2022 Stephen Wilkes

ANDREA TORRES BALAGUER

ANDREA TORRES  BALAGUER

Andrea Torres Balaguer (b.1990) is a Spanish photographer. Her passion for photography remains deeply rooted in her preoccupation with the mystery and ambiguity the medium provides. Looking to masters like Duane Michals, Sally Mann and Annie Leibovitz, she has developed a distinct quality to her works pushing the boundaries of portrait photography beyond its traditional limitations. 

Working as a fashion photographer in Barcelona, Torres intersects this aesthetic with elements of couture in the series’ The Unknown and Hivernacle. The self-portraits are photographed in natural light, and draped in provocative silks, lace, and velvets. Her execution of the composition creates a painterly portrait that triggers all of the senses – so rich in texture and their brilliant, jewel-toned colors. The narrative is pushed one step further with the unique brushstroke that is applied across the subject’s face post-production, making each image slightly different from the others in its small edition.

The viewer is left to create their own interpretation and decipher for themselves what is reality and what is fiction.

 Upcoming exhibition at In The Gallery Copenhagen : From September 21st to October 30th.

Andrea TORRES BALAGUER - Pansy Andrea TORRES BALAGUER - Nebula Andrea TORRES BALAGUER - Faun Andrea TORRES BALAGUER - Silk Andrea TORRES BALAGUER - Poeme bleu Andrea TORRES BALAGUER- Poeme Jaune Andrea TORRES BALAGUER - Hivernacle Lotus Andrea TORRES BALAGUER - Hivernacle Cala

CAMILA FENSTER

CAMILA FENSTER

“I often find myself wrapped around in a cocoon. The silence inside helps me give dimension to each and every thought and emotion. This is the place where I create my art, it is where my ideas gain perspective and start to evolve. I use my art to form a solid and visual object of a specific chapter that has touched me in a moment. Every work I make becomes a memory, an expression.”

Camila Fenster (b. 1970) lives and works in Portugal. She has a background as a Production manager in advertisement films. Later on, she pursued a photography course at the renowned Ar.co school in Lisbon. Here she not only acquired technical expertise in mastering digital cameras but also discovered a profound love for the art form. Since then Fenster has used the lens as her gateway to the world, exploring and capturing stories of a range of different places, cultures, and people. This also shows in her extensive work of photographs which are rich in details – textures, shapes, and objects, that she later uses as if they were “paints”.

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Strange shapes, floating body parts, and bizarre apparel. Fenster’s body of work is a tapestry of visual narratives. Each piece is based on deconstructed photographs which are recombined into new photographic montages, unfolding stories about eight distinct women. Photomontage is a technique first used by the Dadaists and later adopted by the surrealists to reflect the workings of the unconscious mind. Like the surrealists, Fenster challenges the notion of our reality and rejects rational ways of seeing the world. Instead, the body of work draws inspiration from the artist’s own dreams and imagination and unveils Fenster’s observation of the world and human behavior.

Her artworks have been sold with huge success to almost every EU country, Norway, Switzerland, UK, and Brazil. A few years back, Fenster was invited by the Danish brand “By Malene Birger” to create a Unique Piece based on her aesthetic which now hangs in their headquarters. Furthermore, her artworks have been published in magazines in Portugal and Denmark as well as online magazines and social media.

Camila FENSTER - Umi Camila FENSTER - Astrid Camila FENSTER - Aquarium Camila FENSTER - Amari

LISE JOHANSSON

LISE JOHANSSON

The artistic practice of Lise Johansson unfolds somewhere between the conscious and unconscious mind – it exists both in the realms of reality and fantasy.

Johansson investigates notions of authenticity and challenges the classical order and structures with which photos are usually constructed. In her studio she edits and merges different photographic elements into final compositions depicting worlds of dreams and emotions, association and longing. These sceneries hold atmospheres as light and breezy as Hockney’s pastel paintings or as gloomy as Tarkovsky’s filmic universe. They make us question not only how we perceive each other and the world, which surrounds us, but also how we connect with the self, the mind and its various inherent potentials.

In all of Johansson’s work themes of identity and belonging come up, take for example the series Hearth, where photos of doll-like humans are superimposed into environments consisting of architecture models, planning future homes to come. This is not an illustration generated to make potential buyers relate better, this is a slightly unsettling juxtaposition, confusing us with its scale and perspective and thereby making us wonder about the unknown parts of the images.

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The mood is set, and like in the 50’s television anthology The Twilight Zone, we don’t quite know what eerie twists and turns are waiting for us around the corner.

Johansson allows us to imagine, and in the end leaves the final interpretation open to the viewer’s own composition.

Lise Johansson (b. 1985) is from Sæby, Denmark, and currently lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is educated from The Media College Denmark in 2016, and has travelled the world extensively as part of her photographic practice. Johansson has won several prizes, including the Sony World Photography Awards.

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Lise JOHANSSON - Absence #1 Lise JOHANSSON - Absence #2 Lise JOHANSSON - Absence #3 Lise JOHANSSON - Resort Lise JOHANSSON - I'm not here #4 Lise JOHANSSON - I'm not here #10 Lise JOHANSSON - I'm not here #1 Lise Johansson - Heart #4, 115 x 80 cm Lise JOHANSSON - I'm not here #6 Lise JOHANSSON - Lise JOHANSSON - Hearth # 2 Lise JOHANSSON - Hearth # 5

JACOB GILS

JACOB GILS

Whether turning his eye to iconic structures and landscape sceneries or to the female body, Jacob Gils creates fragmented, draped and deconstructed visual puzzles, with a strong attention to both aesthetic expression and technical detail.

The project Movement gives visible shape to the relationship between the concrete physical movement, taking place in the production phase and the established environment chosen as content. Through the use of multiple exposures Gils generates engaging interpretations of iconic structures and landscape sceneries.

At first glance these multi-point images appear out of focus or shaken, but in fact they consist of many different very sharp photographs of the same motifs, which are carefully combined to offer an illusion of being on the go – in movement. The technique invites the onlooker to come closer and discover the details, which do not fully reveal themselves from a distance. The hazy, translucent shapes created by the technique make for a photographic style that resembles impressionistic painting while still retaining all the detail of modern photography.

Transfer is a further development of the sophisticated multi-exposures of the Movement series, which is already known for its spacious and picturesque qualities. In this new extension of the series, the works undergo another transformation. 

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As polaroids they are further transferred onto watercolour paper. Through this technique a particularly atmospheric and dreamy mood arises, which lends a certain abstract expressionistic layer to the images. Upon closer inspection, however, the eye begins to decode that in these works there are real places depicted, all with their special characteristics. In this way, the viewer is left in a state of both presence and the chance to disappear deep into the works. Transfer opens up the idea of landscape photography as a form of portal to a deeper emotional scenery.

In the series Limit To Your Love, Gils presents images that offer a subtle contrasting vision of the depiction of the iconic and timeless subject matter of the beautiful female. The distinct visual quality and aesthetics of the images result from a unique artistic technique, which involves the transfer of multiple Polaroid images onto watercolour paper. The paper’s textured surface makes it difficult to completely control the process thus adding an element of chance to the final image. The random distortions seen as white areas on the surfaces ensure that the field of one image is never identical to that of its neighbour.

The tactile, disrupted surface of the works creates a distance to the motif, shifting focus from the specific woman depicted to the woman as multifaceted idea, making these works come across as emotive statements with natural imperfections.

Jacob Gils lives and works in Denmark. He graduated from The Copenhagen School of Photography in 1990 and his art has gained recognition in the form of prizes at the PRIX DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE PARIS (PX3) in 2012 and 2015. He has exhibited in solo and group shows across the globe and his works are represented in the Danish Royal Collection, Nanjing Art Museum, China and at Maersk in Denmark as well as in private collections all over Europe, and in USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Australia.

More info on the artist: www.jacobgils.com

Some articles about Jacob Gils

https://wsimag.com/art/27789-movement
http://www.galeriebettina.com/articles/jacob-gils-le-revenu.pdf

Jacob GILS - Lisbon #21 Triptych Jacob GILS - Sophienholm #1 Jacob GILS- Tramuntana Transfer blue Jacob GILS - Lisbon #25 Jacob GILS - Limit to your love XXIII Jacob GILS - Pibemoelle Transfer Jacob GILS - LTYL XX Jacob GILS - Hollywood Triptych Jacob GILS - Cali Transfer Jacob GILS - Copenhagen #23 Jacob GILS - Lisbon #4 Triptych Jacob GILS - Limit To Your Love Jacob GILS - Frederiksdal # 6 Jacob GILS - LA #3 Jacob GILS - Santa Monica #1 Jacob GILS - Cali #10 Jacob Gils -Copenhagen #22 Jacob Gils - Cali# 8 Jacob GILS - Lisbon Transfers Jacob GILS - Pibemølle #4