VISUAL POETRY
The seed of this photo project was planted many years ago, in 1989, when I was hired under contract by the “Garun” literary magazine. Though I had no permanent salary, I found great reward in the constant flow of communication with young poets and writers. That year the national movement in Armenia was at its peak. New names appeared in Armenian literature, unsullied, for they had no collaboration with the former communist regime.
Lack of money compensated by gatherings in bars where young poets read their poems for the first time. I was lucky to find myself in a foreign language environment. I was learning Armenian in good company - listening to poems read by the authors themselves. Alcohol only helped to accelerate the learning process.
To impart a sense of what “Garun” magazine of those days was, it suffices to say that I knew families who ordered two subscriptions so as not to argue about whose turn it was to read each new issue. Circulation of the magazine reached six-digit numbers. In other words, every twentieth inhabitant of such a small country as Armenia was familiar with the content and authors' names that appeared in the magazine.
It was then that I met Armen Davtyan, Tigran Paskevichyan, Vahagn Atabekyan, Vahram Martirosian, Khachik Manukyan and others. I was young and did not doubt that I was a genius in photography. We are all geniuses when we are young. Many years later I realized that I was a minion of fortune, having turned up in the company of poets and writers by chance, and was not ready to implement such a serious project. Any idea that came into my head at that time, held that photography should be in a dependent position to poetry. Photography assumed the function of illustrations to poems. Somehow, this was not enough for me. I wanted to present photography and poetry as equals.
It took 25 years for my idea to completely take shape. Only when I read Joseph Brodsky's essay, “To Please a Shadow,” did I find the solution to my dilemma: “Strange things they are, faces of poets. In theory, authors' looks should be no consequence to the readers: reading is not a narcissistic activity, neither is writing, yet the moment one likes a sufficient amount of a poet's verse one starts to wonder about the appearance of the writer. This presumably, has to do with one's suspicion that to like a work of art is to recognise the truth, or the degree of it, that art expresses. Insecure by nature, we want to see the artist, whom we identify with his work, so that the next time around we might know what truth looks like in reality.”
These words are the key to my Visual Poetry photo project.
German Avagyan
Find the book "Visual poetry" in bookstores
Lack of money compensated by gatherings in bars where young poets read their poems for the first time. I was lucky to find myself in a foreign language environment. I was learning Armenian in good company - listening to poems read by the authors themselves. Alcohol only helped to accelerate the learning process.
To impart a sense of what “Garun” magazine of those days was, it suffices to say that I knew families who ordered two subscriptions so as not to argue about whose turn it was to read each new issue. Circulation of the magazine reached six-digit numbers. In other words, every twentieth inhabitant of such a small country as Armenia was familiar with the content and authors' names that appeared in the magazine.
It was then that I met Armen Davtyan, Tigran Paskevichyan, Vahagn Atabekyan, Vahram Martirosian, Khachik Manukyan and others. I was young and did not doubt that I was a genius in photography. We are all geniuses when we are young. Many years later I realized that I was a minion of fortune, having turned up in the company of poets and writers by chance, and was not ready to implement such a serious project. Any idea that came into my head at that time, held that photography should be in a dependent position to poetry. Photography assumed the function of illustrations to poems. Somehow, this was not enough for me. I wanted to present photography and poetry as equals.
It took 25 years for my idea to completely take shape. Only when I read Joseph Brodsky's essay, “To Please a Shadow,” did I find the solution to my dilemma: “Strange things they are, faces of poets. In theory, authors' looks should be no consequence to the readers: reading is not a narcissistic activity, neither is writing, yet the moment one likes a sufficient amount of a poet's verse one starts to wonder about the appearance of the writer. This presumably, has to do with one's suspicion that to like a work of art is to recognise the truth, or the degree of it, that art expresses. Insecure by nature, we want to see the artist, whom we identify with his work, so that the next time around we might know what truth looks like in reality.”
These words are the key to my Visual Poetry photo project.
German Avagyan
Find the book "Visual poetry" in bookstores
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Маска
Маска, по своему назначению, призвана скрывать истинное лицо. Люди «носят маску», дабы уберечься от излишних стрессов в повседневной жизни, и, как им кажется, ограничить свой «внутренний мир» от посягательств извне. Фотографу иногда бывает трудно «снять» с лица людей маску, которой они прикрывают свое истинное «я», чтобы сделать хороший портрет. Но и фотограф, снимая того или иного человека, подстраивается под него, «надевая» на свое лицо ту или иную маску, таким образом пытаясь раскрыть своего героя, заставить его чувствовать непринужденно. В данном проекте я попытался, образно выражаясь, убрать «маски» с лиц своих героев, расположить их к непосредственному общению во время съемки, дав им в руки.. свою маску. Маска, с которой позируют мои герои, была сделана путем заливания гипса на мое лицо с последующим изготовлением папье маше моего лица. Образно выражаясь, сняв маску с моего лица, я попытался снять маски и с лиц моих моделей, дав им в руки свою маску. Получив в руки маску папье маше, сделанную с гипсового слепка моего лица,, люди перед аппаратом преображались. Каждый из снимающихся начинал играть , как ему казалось, свою ролевую игру. Но в результате получалась игра, которую которую модели навязывал фотограф, или, точнее, маска, сделанная с лица фотографа. Надо отметить, что в процессе изготовления маски (заливка лица гипсом, изготовление папье маше, покраска), она перестала быть точной фотографической копией лица автора, все более превращаясь в симулякр лица фотографа, на котрое изначально заливался гипс. В конечном итоге, маска зажила своей жизнью, заставляя людей, как им казалось, играть с ней некую игру. У меня же сложилось твердое убеждение, что это маска- симулякр, играла «свою игру» с героями моих съемок, незаметно для снимающегося, «расскрывала» его перед камерой. |