Untitled

Paris (France), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2006 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

FOCUS: “Cosmos Maya” by Jan Adamski

“Today, expressions of their long lost traditions, condemned by the Catholic church are regaining life in Guatemala and Mexico. Mayan conscience  in all its purity, in which the elements of nature are of great importance and where the relationship and respect between humanity and planet Earth is mutual.”

in Burn Magazine
Jan Adamski’s website

From the series: Aseptic

Aseptic   adj., 1. Free of pathogenic microorganisms; Using methods to protect against infection by pathogenic microorganisms. 2. Lacking animation or emotion.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
Paris (France), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

Previous from the same series

‘SCAPE: Sean Gallagher

From China’s Growing Sands, Sean Gallagher

From the series: Aseptic

Aseptic   adj., 1. Free of pathogenic microorganisms; Using methods to protect against infection by pathogenic microorganisms. 2. Lacking animation or emotion.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
Paris (França), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2006 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

‘SCAPE: André Cepeda

Afurada, André Cepeda 2005

From the series: Deus Ex Machina

In the ancient Greek dramatic theater (and later on the Roman), to enhance the ‘terrible’ effect, a deity’s statue was lowered by means of a machinery – the Deus Ex Machina. Often, this was the turnaround point, when the divinity would bring the solution to a difficulty or to a probable dead end. Still, today’s people expect their god to bring them miracles as a reward of their faith. It is their despair that keeps the machina working.

Deus ex machina comes from Latin and is literally ‘god from a machine’. The camera, made from intricate mechanisms, mirrors and optical prisms, is a perfect alchemist tool were inorganic chemistry delivers the epistemological immortality imprisoned in the gelatinous emulsion. The camera as the machina.

Toledo (Spain), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

Previous from the same series

EROS: Robert Mapplethorpe

Lisa, Robert Mapplethorpe 1981

From the series: Aseptic

Aseptic   adj., 1. Free of pathogenic microorganisms; Using methods to protect against infection by pathogenic microorganisms. 2. Lacking animation or emotion.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

Madrid (Spain), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

Previous from the same series

FOCUS: “Born Kings” by Alessandro Penso

“From the first Italian “gay pride” to the conquest of real and proper meetings, both at the local and national levels, this exuberant movement, the result of different stories and souls, has looked for a thread with a common language, speaking, above all, about the right to exist. So, in this work, the body becomes the protagonist, the soul and instrument for this assertion. As in “Born Kings” shows, stereotypes are overcome by means of the same stereotypes and, with slashing irony, a temporary identity is sought, to be discarded after a few minutes. The moments preceding the exhibitions are recurrent and it is exactly there that the complexity at the bottom of my research is to be found. The glances emerging from the masks artfully created to frame them and never to hide them are superimposed to the muscles that contract while in the shadows loneliness and affection emerge.”

Alessandro Penso’s website

From the series: Deus Ex Machina

In the ancient Greek dramatic theater (and later on the Roman), to enhance the ‘terrible’ effect, a deity’s statue was lowered by means of a machinery – the Deus Ex Machina. Often, this was the turnaround point, when the divinity would bring the solution to a difficulty or to a probable dead end. Still, today’s people expect their god to bring them miracles as a reward of their faith. It is their despair that keeps the machina working.

Deus ex machina comes from Latin and is literally ‘god from a machine’. The camera, made from intricate mechanisms, mirrors and optical prisms, is a perfect alchemist tool were inorganic chemistry delivers the epistemological immortality imprisoned in the gelatinous emulsion. The camera as the machina.
 
Madrid (Spain), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

Previous from the same series

‘SCAPE: André Cepeda

Untitled (Porto), André Cepeda 2008

From the series: Aseptic

Aseptic   adj., 1. Free of pathogenic microorganisms; Using methods to protect against infection by pathogenic microorganisms. 2. Lacking animation or emotion.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
 
Aveiro (Portugal), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

Previous from the same series

FOCUS: “Marilyn and I” by Yury Toroptsov

«“Marilyn and I” started in June 2005 at the Julien’s auction house in Los Angeles where a friend of mine bought an authentic summer dress designed by JAX from the personal wardrobe of Marilyn Monroe. The dress has a strong evocative power. It became an essential element of my artistic project.
(…)
With the dress folded in my photographer’s backpack I went to meet a lot of people at their homes and work places where I collected and recorded the stories of men and women of all ages and all social categories who share at least one thing in common – a strong personal emotional attachment to Marilyn Monroe.»

From the series: Aseptic

Aseptic   adj., 1. Free of pathogenic microorganisms; Using methods to protect against infection by pathogenic microorganisms. 2. Lacking animation or emotion.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

Aveiro (Portugal), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2007 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

Previous from the same series

FOCUS: “Revenge” by Ellen von Unwerth

“The always provocative Ellen von Unwerth has created a sadomashochistic story told in pictures.”

in Staley Wise gallery.

From Revenge, Ellen von Unwerth 2002

From the series: Deus Ex Machina

In the ancient Greek dramatic theater (and later on the Roman), to enhance the ‘terrible’ effect, a deity’s statue was lowered by means of a machinery – the Deus Ex Machina. Often, this was the turnaround point, when the divinity would bring the solution to a difficulty or to a probable dead end. Still, today’s people expect their god to bring them miracles as a reward of their faith. It is their despair that keeps the machina working.

Deus ex machina comes from Latin and is literally ‘god from a machine’. The camera, made from intricate mechanisms, mirrors and optical prisms, is a perfect alchemist tool were inorganic chemistry delivers the epistemological immortality imprisoned in the gelatinous emulsion. The camera as the machina.

Lisbon (Portugal), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2006 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

Previous from the same series

´SCAPE: Paul Strand

Wall Street, Paul Strand 1915

Untitled

Paris (France), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2006 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

FOCUS: “Outside” by Alexander Mendelevich

“The project describes an “outside” state. I put the occurring in the field of fantasy, of an “incubator” – the place where emotions, pain, vulnerability and experience are naked, where situations are somewhat absurd, associative, where they echo childhood, and question female and male nature. (…) And my wish was to show and create by distortion, absurdity, environment cleaning, some true space where I try to exit from the standard representation of a portrait image.”

in Burn Magazine
Alexander Mendelevich’s website

From the series: Aseptic

Aseptic   adj., 1. Free of pathogenic microorganisms; Using methods to protect against infection by pathogenic microorganisms. 2. Lacking animation or emotion.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

Paris (France), Nuno Vieira Matos, 2006 (gelatine silver print) – click to enlarge

Previous from the same series

‘SCAPE: Josef Koudelka

Prague, Josef Koudelka 1968