PHOTOGRAPHY BY
DAI OINUMA

PHOTOGRAPHY BY
PAUL MPAGI SEPUYA

DRAWINGS BY
AUREL SCHMIDT

PHOTOGRAPHY BY
JESPER ULVELIUS

EXHIBITION BY
STEPHANIE CARRICK &
SUMU SIVANESAN

DRAWINGS + PHOTOGRAPHY BY
ANTHONY GOICOLEA

PHOTOGRAPHY BY
ROBERTA RIDOLFI

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY BY
LAURA LIVERANI

click images to enlarge
IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“Darkness is simply the blankness, on which I can create my imagery. It's like a blank canvas for painting.”

INTERVIEW by Marcus Cowan

1. Where are you from?
I’m originally from Tokyo, and living in Tokyo for the past 9 months. I don’t like staying in one place too long.

2. How does being a Japanese artist based in the US influence your work or style?
I don’t like to have my work influenced by or associated with any culture. This is something I have been paying attention for a long time. I would like to make something universal.

3. How would you describe your work?
My work is heavily influenced by film. I consider my work to be a series of still shoots from a non-narrative film. When I watch a film, all I remember is some characters and some particular scenes they are in, and that’s pretty much what my work is. I like pictures on a video box rather than the film itself

4. A lot of your work is shot at night. What do you feel this lends to the outcome?
By shooting at night, I have more control over what to show. Darkness is simply the blankness, on which I can create my imagery. It's like a blank canvas for painting. I love the dreamy quality of shooting at night.

5. Some of those night shots have interesting light sources, such as fireworks. How important is lighting to a shot?
Very important. I can safely say that photography is all about lighting. When we see things, we are seeing light that somehow reflected by objects and reached our eyes. Light is all our eyes can really see.

6. What do you love the most about photography?
I like how the final product looks. I’m not sure if I like the production side of photography.

7. What's next for you?
My work is going to be more interactive and story-telling. I’m making videos and interactive installations.

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IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“Sometimes, even though I'm close to someone, they are still not comfortable in front of the camera, or it takes a while to gain that trust...”

INTERVIEW by Jason Lingard

1. Where are you from?
I'm from Southern California; I grew up in a the suburbs east of LA where there used to be miles of orange groves behind our house. Now it's all sprawl through the hills. I could never live there anymore, but I'm still drawn to Los Angeles as a place...

2. What does photography mean to you?
It's a tool, rather than an end to itself. I'm not really into the 'photography' any more than I need to get a good image. I like to think of images and creating work that addresses how photographs are used as tools of constructing and revisiting memories. Of people, and time. If I were more patient, I'd return to painting and drawing. Photographs were good for satisfying my need for instant-gratification. Recently I've started to let the film I shoot sit for a few months before touching it...

3. How would you describe your work?
It is photography, portraiture. It is an autobiography. I wouldn't have said that when I started taking portraits, but as the work and my relationships to the subjects moved into focus and replaced 'looking', it's sort of impossible for me to describe it as not being about myself right now. Sometimes I'm in the frame, but it's mostly told through these people's connection to me and to each other.

4. Your portraits exude a strong sense of intimacy. How close are you to your subjects?
I have grown closer to the subjects, and have narrowed the scope to people I am already close to. I began photographing models and now they are family, friends, people I've had relationships with…  Sometimes, even though I'm close to someone, they are still not comfortable in front of the camera, or it takes a while to gain that trust to make a portrait where the person isn't allowed to be shielded by 'character'.

5. To you, what makes a good portrait?
First I look for composition. Everything else… I don't know how to describe. I know it when I see it. I'm a very quick editor when looking through my contact sheets. It's whatever grabs me first. And I leave it at that. Or, I should say now, sometimes I'll go back and re-edit later!

6. If you could photography anyone in the world who would it be?
Honestly, I have no fantasy person to shoot. I'm into the people I already know and love. Maybe I'd photograph my father, that would be a interesting story. I do have a few really close people who are hold-outs and they know who they are!

7. What's next for you?
Right now, all that I can think of in the future is trying to make time to focus again on making work, to take off time from my jobs. I would like most to show a lot of the work that still hasn't been shown. Other than that I think it's good to keep myself surprised at the future.

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IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“For 90 days I swung recklessly between violent spells of tears to explosions of joy.”

INTERVIEW by Lulu Chan

Wisdom tells you that you are nothing. Love, terror, and excitement tells you that you are everything. For Aurel Schmidt, somewhere between the two, life flows.

1. Ok let's start with the basics. Age, occupation, medium?
24, artist, drawing, sculpture

2. Peres Projects held your first solo exhibition, "Body Swallows World."
How did you enjoy that?
It was really amazing. I was terrified.
I was asked to do the show with three months notice. I had no time to think. Just drawing, drawing, drawing. Not very many people had seen my work at that point, I had hardly shown at all, so being asked to do the exhibition was really overwhelming. I was so excited but so scared I was going to fuck up. For 90 days I swung recklessly between violent spells of tears to explosions of joy.

I worked extremely hard, drawing sixteen hours a day right up to the day of the show. I was absolutely deranged. On the night of my opening I began to experience horrible crippling waves of dread. My whole world began falling to pieces around me. I left the opening and walked three times around the block crying in the dark and considering suicide. When POOF! Just like magic, MDMA was distributed and all of the gaping holes in my soul where temporarily filled.

2. Your art seems to find itself directed towards something more intrusive and disturbing, do you wrestle with any inner demons?

Hoards.

My most relevant inner demons include: A sad and unrealistic quest for perfection. Constant dissatisfaction. Severe paranoia and crippling anxiety. Haunting unresolved issues with my father. Horrific nightmares. And most importantly, the never ending longing for meaning in the face of an existence that is ultimately pointless and hollow. Finding a religious-type fervor in art has fairly successfully stuffed the unfillable void where substance should be, but of course there are always savage moments of clarity.

I am thankful that outer demons occupy my mental space most of the time, allowing me to focus on hating the world instead of just myself.

3. Do you have any aliases? Barfly? Socialite? Detective?
Idealistic, self-righteous, slightly hypocritical activist!

I want to make the world a better place, I am trying, but of course it is hard to do everything right all the time.

I am horrified at the state of this planet, and embarrassed that we are the ones responsible for this shit hole mess. I am trying to address political, environmental and human rights issues on a personal level. I think it is crucial to act ethically in the face of these issues and avoid diverting responsibility. I want to try and do what I feel is the right thing even if it is inconvenient, difficult, or against my desires. I was raised to want, but I don't want to want anymore. I don't want to hurt anyone or anything.

My boyfriend and I actually just made a commitment to both give a minimum 5% of our yearly profits towards an environmental and/or human rights related organizations. On an individual level I try not to consume more then I need, ride a bike, buy locally organic food as much as possible, I try to buy things manufactured in countries with adequate labor rights and I recycle.

Of course nobody is perfect, and I certainly am not. I would rather risk being called a hypocrite trying to make a difference then make no difference at all.

4. What are you up to with Deitch Projects in 2008?
I will be having my first New York solo show! I'll be showing sculpture for the first time and putting out the first book of my work! The whole thing is blowing my mind. It really is a dream come true.

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IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“I like photographers that use themselves as a subject, instead of searching the world for a good shot. Everybody has a story only they can tell– you just have to think about what that story is.”

INTERVIEW by Jason Lingard

1. Where are you from?
I was born in Stockholm, Sweden and still live here with my father. In the fall I am moving to Gotherburg for five years to do my masters in photography.

2. How does being from Sweden influence your work? Is there a certain Swedish aesthetic?
Sweden for me is a the land that has frozen to ice. The people here are having trouble showing their true emotions. Many people just walk around with a forced smile. By living here I am becoming one of them. I couldn't take these pictures anywhere else... I think Swedish photography is much more silent and ethereal then in other European countries.

3. What does your work say?
A lot of my work is based on my relationship with my father and the search we have trying to find the true meaning of life.

4. What do you feel makes a good photo?
It's really hard to say what makes a good photograph or not, but I always feel it in my stomach when it's a good one.

I like photographers that use themselves as a subject, instead of searching the world for a good shot. Everybody has a story only they can tell– you just have to think about what that story is.

5. What doy uo love the most about what you do?
That I have the power to share my life with others through photos.

6. Does photography consume your life?
Yeah! Photography is my job/my life/my hobby/ I must shoot everyday or I go nuts. When I'm not shooting I like to play tennis, drink a cold beer and make my photomagazine called Swarta, which you can see at www.swarta.com (hehe, free ad!)

CROSSED SIGNALS

Stephanie Carrick and Sumu Sivanesan at the Underbelly Festival
3 - 14 July 2007

1. Where are you from?
Right now - inner Sydney. It is such a city of contrasts -  constantly throwing things out that need responding to. Originally we both grew up in the burbs, I'm from Canberra, and Sumu is from Sydney but we've both travelled around a bit. My mother is German and was conceived in a WW2 refugee camp, Sumu's parents are Tamil/Malaysian
and migrated here when he was three.

2. Tell us about your art practice?
It's largely communicating the shades of grey that get lost in transmission between right and left, black and white.  We like to combine media arts with real world events, or interventions. We like working within our surroundings or community but with universal ideas that can have outcomes in many forms, using communication tools such as Wikis or Google Earth.  We're both really interested in forgotten histories right now..

3. What are your preferred mediums?
Whatever is appropriate to the idea, our work together has involved video, sound, music, photography, public interventions and new media. Sumu's forte is sound and vision, and I'm strong with wordplay and new media, but it's always been about whatever works..   

4. What are the key elements you consider when you create work?
For me it's all about how you make people think about something in a new way - not neccesarily a particular way, in fact it's more about reintroducing complexity when ideas become polar –noting of subtleties– or shades of grey... though sometimes it gets a bit more political than that. One of the last big things we worked on (with others from  boat-people.org) was a 50 minute performance piece on the tramtactic tram in Melbourne on Australia Day conducted by Mrs Bea Wight and Mrs Bea Wright of the John Howard Ladies Auxillary fun club.  (Read about it here.)
 
5. Tell us about the work you have as part of the Underbelly festival?
We were really inspired by the space in Carriageworks and wanted to do something specific to that place.  It's the old Everliegh rail yards, which used to be the central train station in Sydney - it's also right next to 'the block' in Redfern.  What's interesting is that the Block has become a place of significance for Aboriginal people because many of them migrated there to work on the rail yards in the early 1900's.  So while working to build a place of transit for the colony they also created deep roots by their own movement to this place. We're aiming to do something that looks at the interplay of this story, using language and proverbs..
 
6. How do you find working as a collaboration effects the process and outcome of the work?
We both come at a work from different directions and our ideas often spiral to somewhere completely different because we are responding to each others thoughts and sensitivities.  To be honest It's a difficult process but hopefully the work benefits from such intense scrutiny.  Our collaborations with boat-people.org are satisfying as it's very passionate work that usually involves some hi-jinks.

7. How political is your work? and how important is this to the finished piece?
We feel very strongly about human rights and reconciliation so it's been very difficult to avoid political work in Australia.  We did a residency in Berlin last year and what resulted was very different - we made work about the universe and satellites, which was cute.  Ultimately though I think we enjoy living in a complex multicultural society and want to make work that celebrates this or at least challenges those wanting to make complex ideas fit neatly into boxes.

For more info on Crossed Signals click here

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IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“I like to work in several different mediums and try to create a dialogue between them.”

1. Where are you from?
Im from Marietta, Georgia.

2. How would you describe what you do?
I have always made drawings and then started doing sculpture and photography when I went to grad school.  I have always worked in a medium that makes sense to me at the time.  It's pretty instinctive, I just do it and figure it out along the way.

3. Is there a medium you prefer?
I like to work in several different mediums and try to create a dialogue between them.  I am interested in creating a language based on a fictional world that has its roots in reality.

4. What makes a good photograph?
I like it when things are ambiguous and I feel that a good photograph operates on several different levels and can be reinterpreted in a number of different ways.

5. What do you love about what you do?
I feel pretty fortunate in that Im able to do what I want at the moment, but in a dream world it would be nice to just have someone else do everything for me.

6. What's next?
A sculpture/ drawing installation for Berlin in the spring, and a third book.

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IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“...it's hard to take photos of things that dont mean anything to me. I feel like I'm not being myself!”

1. Where are you from?
I'm from Rome.

2. How did you get into photography?
I wouldn't say I always wanted to be a photographer, although it would have been cool. I guess it kind of happened by chance. I got an old Nikon as a present from my uncle who bought it in the 70s and hardly ever used it.

From what I remember I started to take pictures more because I had this beautiful camera and wanted to know what to do with it than because I was driven by a passion. It took a while to take photos that really meant something to me, at first it was just a continuous experiment, then there was a certain way I saw things around me, suddenly it was the only thing that I could imagine myself doing. It's a strange thing now that I think about it!

3. Do you employ a different kind of thinking between fashion and portrait and personal shots?
I try not too. I like to treat all my work as a personal project and be in control of everything– even though sometimes in fashion this is hard to do because you have to show the clothes and work with different kinds of people.

4. In your commercial work, what clients have you really enjoyed working with?
I really enjoy working with people I know, friends or people I admire... I know this might sound very obvious it's just that I find it hard to take photos of things that dont mean anything to me. I feel like I'm not being myself!

5. What makes a good photo? and what makes a good photographer?
What makes a good photo? I think there's no correct answer to that. It's something really personal.

I know straight away whether I like a photo or not, the first moment I look at it. But I can't say why most of the times. For me it's something really instinctual and emotional.

6. Who would you love to shoot a portrait of?
So many people... I would love to have photographed Kurt Cobain. Also I have an obsession with certain girls. I love Susan Eldridge. Also Cat Power would be amazing.

7. What's next?
A road trip to California taking photos of whatever I find on my way...

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IMAGES courtesy and © the artist

“Shenzhen really is one of the ugliest cities I’ve ever seen. It’s extremely rich and business-oriented, still the most miserable people live in it.”

INTERVIEW by Jason Lingard

1. Where are you from? Where are you now?
I was born in Ravenna, Italy. Now I live about half year in Bologna and half year somewhere else. For the last 6 years “somewhere else” has been mainly Hong Kong and China. I don’t have a home right now, I rent a place on and off. I borrowed the fixed address on my business card from my brother.

2. You document a lot of different locations. Is travel important to you?
A feeling of displacement and a certain degree of unfamiliarity are crucial to my work. When my eye is getting too used to a place or situation, I’m not interested in taking pictures anymore; I need to move on to find new ideas. However, I don’t travel that much. I’m lazy. When I’m abroad I meet people who have traveled to dozens of places in half the time I spend in one location. I tend to go somewhere and just stay there for a while.

3. How would you describe your work?
It borrows from documentary but it’s not photojournalism. It tells stories that are not really stories. It’s anti-dramatic. It’s unbalanced and unresolved. I always
miss the “good shot” because I’ve just put down my camera for a cigarette break. To appreciate my work you have to imagine what happens outside the images, as nothing really happens in them.

4. Your work documents people– but also place seems important. How integral is the relationship between people and places to your work?
This relationship is the whole point. I’m trying to single out the psychological spaces which open up between people and their environment, usually an enclosed place or community. So photos of shopping malls, housing estates, city suburbs end up portraying people.

5. What have you learnt from your time in Asia? and how is that reflected in your photographs?
I’m not sure. Now I know how to cross the road without getting injured in Shanghai and how to flush a Japanese toilet, but I’m just as much provincial as before. Independent travelers are the new tourists; they claim to know a place and its people just because they read about it in the Lonely Planet while hanging out in backpacker hostels listening to their iPods. At my worst I am one of them,
only in denial. Sometimes taking photos is an excuse not to feel the emptiness of travel. It eases the frustration of boredom, making you feel you have a purpose. The good news is that this doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes between you and who/what you photograph some kind of magic sparkles.

6. You've spent time in Shenzhen, an ever-evolving city, and one that's considered China's "ugliest city". What fascinates you, or disturbs you about large cities?
It’ s a fascination I cannot really explain. Shenzhen really is one of the ugliest cities I’ve ever seen. It’s extremely rich and business-oriented, still the most
miserable people live in it. It’s tacky and there’s nothing to see or do, pollution covers the sky. It’s dystopia made real. Shenzhen didn’t even exist until not long ago; they “made it” from scratch with no apparent plan, filled it with replicas and quotations from other cities- like the Tour Eiffel, decorated it with giant balloons and fake palm trees. It’s like being in a science fiction film set. It’s surreal.