Inspired by a newspaper article, the authors and photographers are made and Cedric Fabrice Nadjari Houin (aka Varial ) on their way to Afghanistan in order to make their own impression of the war zerütteten country. They visited a remote region in north-east of the country, which was spared by the war and the Taliban.During the trip, they documented the life of sedentary people and nomads Wakhis Kyrgyz people. The project ‘Wakhan, Afghanistan An Other’ documents this experience with a variety of media such as photos and videos and includes, among other things, the photo series “The Traces of Time ‘for the tribal members are confronted with their own appearance on a Polaroid. Captivated by the process of developing their own image and take it up to her gift.
I have always been fascinated by portraiture. To me a successful portrait has a presence. It has weight. The portrait evokes the emotional presence of the subject as well as the viewer. In my exploration, the defining goal is to create a portrait that becomes an experience to view. By using the familiarity of the face as the template, my process involves hand painting the developer in the darkroom, intentionally revealing specific, desired aspects of the face in the negative. Doing so creates a stark negative space that gives the portrait a lucidity. Instead of creating a realistic, straight from film portrait, I am more interested in exploring how the original image can be brought to the surface in alternative ways. The portraits embody their own unique strangeness. I enable the viewer to process impressions of a face, and of the shape of a head. I am comfortable with the viewer ultimately feeling uncomfortable. My job as an artist is to challenge the viewer. Make the viewer see differently, think differently, and most importantly, feel differently.
Art by Timothy Pakron
