BORUT PETERLIN in a rabbit hole of photography

In this issue of Mladina weekly there are four pages devoted to my Flower Power project that was exhibited at U3 – 6th Triennial of Contemporary Art in Slovenia written by Marcel Štefančič. It’s a really great text and I recommend. Leave some comment if you read it.

In the past I exhibited my work also in Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Museum Doland in Shanghai, Host Gallery in London, but this exhibition is surely the peak of my artistic career. This is the most I can do at the moment and I’m damn happy with the result. I’m receiving great critics from various people. Yesterday Majda Širca, Minister of Culture introduce me to Samuel Žbogar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and he was delighted with my picture of him (HERE).

What’s next step? The Flower power exhibition in Slovenian parliament at the end of this year and a book…

Here are few more souvenir pictures from the U3 opening night.

Jaša Mrevlje is in spite his age (b.1978) a well established artist. I will not repeat all the acknowledgments that he received, only a remark, that the other day I noticed his piece hanging also in Prime Minister’s office

Last week there was an opening of U3 Triennal of Slovenia Contemporary Art and I enjoyed his work a lot. Also my daughters were checking out his installation, almost stealing a piglet toy from his installation. For his installations Jaša is recreating gallery space, building new doors, passages, corridors, doors, etc. I love the piece that is exhibited at U3 where there’s a long corridor with brighting light at the end of it and I immediately thought, this is an amazing light for a my Striptiz portrait.

So the concept for this portrait is to interpret Jaša as a rocket being launched with sensational thrust.

From the first moment I knew I’ll have to use photoshop quite a bit, but it’s no problem, if you shoot the picture with that in mind. Because the end result is quite different from what my camera recorded, here is a contact sheet from the shoot (click 2 enlarge). I used available light from the installation and a Nikon SB-800 flash with a softbox.

PS: Thx to Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, Miha Colnar, Mladina and of course Jaša

Tomorrow is an exhibition opening of U3 – Triennial of Contemporary Art in Slovenia and I’m honored that my Flower Power series was chosen by curator Charles Esche! See you tomorrow Tuesday 15th of May at 20:00 in Museum of Modern Art (Moderna Galerija), Ljubljana, Slovenia. LINK to their blog. The video above is a sneak peak of the setting up the exhibition from Friday. I have way too much work, so I didn’t finish the editing with sound and text, only sequence of 600 photos taken by Nikon D3.

Bellow are few pictures from Gypsy Traveler exhibition in The Arts Pavillion in London, curated by Eva Sajovic where I’m exhibiting pictures of Strojan Roma family.

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Uroš Abram is a student of Famu academy and he’s exhibiting his work in Simulaker gallery in Novo mesto. He’s exhibiting pictures that were taken by camera obscura. His camera obscura is actually his mouth. He out a piece of photographic paper in his mouth, holding a lens cap with a hole between his lips and then exposing the paper about a minute or so, then he’s reproducing paper on film and then exposing prints. Prints are not ordinary, but are handmade with liquid light emulsion on canvas and old fashionably developed in darkroom. It looks really cool.

About the picture.
It’s a straight shot. No digital manipulation. Inspired by Joe McNally’s cover picture of a book The Moment it Clicks. We went to a glass cutter (or how do you call them) company Steklarstvo Andreja Solkan s.p. (they are great) and in their junkyard I took few broken mirrors. Uroš put a mirror in his mouth and he was holding a large mirror in front of his face, while I was observing how reflection of his face reflects in a second mirror. I was not expecting much, but suddenly I saw a point of view that was working, so we went to Mladina editorial office were we took the final picture. No special lightning techniques. Just a SB900 with a softbox above right and some light from SB800 bouncing from a wall on the left side. Nevertheless I had some problems with a composition. You can imagine that it’s hard to get everything correctly mirrored, but the hardest was how to include the eye in the frame, so composition would work. I took more then fifty images, trying with different apertures (depth of field), different angles of the face, viewpoints, etc… It just didn’t felt right. I knew I’m missing something, but I didn’t know what. Then I rotated the camera and suddenly everything was on it’s place. A true magic
PS: Uroš Abram is also a mentor at Fotopub festival.

PS: Uroš Abram is also a mentor at Fotopub festival.

Here are few images from yesterday’s referendum. I’ve covered an opposition camp of SDS party, but president of SDS party Janez Janša arrived late in the evening and since they lost on referendum, there were not much going on, just people sitting. Nevertheless I got this image of Zvonko Černač, a vice president of SDS party with a logo Slovenia’s Got Talent and few other worthy moments.

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I’m proud many of my pictures are used for a campaign for an arbitration agreement between Slovenia and Croatia on border dispute. I’m also proud to helped European Stability Initiative institute in their coverage of Eu enlargement. Here is a great article what this referendum means in larger EU context. The perspective that was forgotten in Slovenian daily news. Every photographer (person) wants that his/hers work would change the world for the better and I’m proud to support the arbitration with my means!

Here is a masterpiece of Tomo Lavrič, today’s issue of Mladina weekly. It should be on billboards!

As we all know Fotopub 2010 is happening between 26.Jully – 31.Jully 2010 in Novo mesto, Slovenia.

HERE is an interview with Chris de Bode about Fotopub 2010 (13min).

Mentors for this year:
MASTER CLASS with Philip Blenkinsop / NOOR
Espen Rasmusen / Panos Pictures
Pieter ten Hoopen / VU Agence
Joclyn Bain Hogg / VII Network
Ana Stevens / Panos Pictures
Ervin Hladnik Milharčič / Dnevnik
Uroš Abram

Alenka Sottler, an illustrator is next in a series of portraits for Mladina’s Striptiz rubric. She is amazing illustrator. Check what kind of technique she’s using! I took a macro shot of one of her illustrations, so here you go and figure it out. Very impressive. She won numerous awards throughout the world. Her illustrations of Cinderella are exhibited in Mestna Galerija until 25.6.2010.

Lately I’m over flooded with work and from editorial I usually get a contact of a person a day or two before the shoot, so as many times also this time I arrived to her studio without a concept. Further more in that week it was the second portrait of illustrator in a row, so that doesn’t make it easier to think about a concept.

I arrived to her studio under a time pressure, but nowadays I got used to it, so I’m not very stressed about it, and I didn’t had a clear concept, I just wanted to make a picture where two dimensional world would merge with three dimensional (in a 2D photography .
It’s amazing how mind works, but looking around the studio, observing illustrations, books, staircase, furniture, every sight it just doesn’t feels right, but then there it is a table “shining” in the middle of the room. That sight felt good! I got a concept. The result is above. I used mainly an ambient light and added a bit flash light through a soft-box on her face. Then she took a picture also from her perspective ha, ha…