ON THE COURAGE TO PLAY TANGO WITH PHOTONS, AMIDST THE FERNS
You stand
between the ferns.
With mouthful
Of flowers.
between the ferns.
With mouthful
Of flowers.
...frozen thoughts
under the
moonlight
under the
moonlight
My mind is a greenhouse.
I reach for the sky.
But still...
can't fly.
But still...
can't fly.
... I might stay a bit longer.
I stopped the time
and you...
Felt it...
and you...
Felt it...
Sometimes
it's enough
a stare.
it's enough
a stare.
Or gentle touch...
But there is none
left for me.
left for me.
In the middle of the meadow
where the divine is born
and stand alone.
and stand alone.
It's my own perfect meadow.
It was
a living fantasy.
a living fantasy.
...and disappeared in magenta air.
Two pink lines appeared
it can begin.
it can begin.
But, who cares now?
I choose
my daily flower meal
my daily flower meal
Silence is still ringing
wind is turning the leafs.
wind is turning the leafs.
I rub my eyes
i need not to look for a way
i need not to look for a way
Just hold the breath
and break it.
and break it.
It's thin air
but look...
It's blooming again.
It's blooming again.
Photon (from the Greek word for “light”, φωτός) is an elementary particle,
a quantum of electromagnetic radiation (or, in a narrower sense - of
light). It is a particle with a rest mass equal to zero. Its electric charge
also equals zero...
The photon belongs to the class of bosons. They engage in electromag-
netic and gravitational interactions. Photons have no electric charge,
and they do not mysteriously decompose when in a vacuum. They are
stable. A photon has one of two possible polarization orientations, des-
cribed in three parameters...
If the above text puzzles you, then that's okay because it should. I would
ask you now to read it again, and this time reflect on your awareness
while lying on a beach, sunbathing, or looking at a photograph – what is
the nature of light? What does it take to have the perfect complexion or
a simple photograph?
Each photograph is, more or less, the perfect tango with light. It is a con-
scious, or rather unconscious dance, depending on the dancers' skills.
There should not be too much, or too little of it. The passion flares up
quickly but if the required respect is missing, and if the dancer let go of
passion alone, like with Icarus, the dance will swiftly turn into a desperate
fall into the unknown and stormy sea...
For decades, Macedonian photography (in general and with occasional
exceptions) deteriorates into a vicious circle of the same, retrograde,
and chewed a thousand times, let's call it – aesthetics. To a large extent,
it is due to the Photo Union and the Methuselahs that run it (in a shadow)
and dictate almost the entire aesthetic discourse through their (poorly)
organized exhibitions. In these few decades, our photography has been
trapped in a few disastrous repetitive clichés. Unlike our national efforts,
world photography has been flourishing in an unprecedented revolution
and for decades continues to reinvent itself, go beyond its frames, get
into various forms, shapes, and ways of expression. The last decade is
saturated with “perfect” digital images, available to all and reproduced
in thousands of copies. And so there have been some particularly stri-
king returns to the elementary photographic expressions, return to the
basic principles, old techniques, analogue experiments, unique works of
art that cannot be reproduced, and creating photographs without the
use of a camera.
Thirty years ago, today's world-class photographs would have been un-
thinkable and unacceptable. Naturally, don't you think?
Keti Talevska-Bakrevska's expression in such a setting, with the so-called
lumen prints – photographs taken without a camera (yes, to explain to all
skeptics that they, too, are photographs – and in its purest form! The word
photography is coined of the words writing/painting with light, and Keti
does that!) – and I find it very brave and humble. Brave because it leaps
from all the clichés and without a springboard, without an allusion to which
it refers. I do not know anyone here that has dealt with lumens before Keti
did.
This exhibition is a pearl for Macedonian photography. Brave, because with
almost no encouragement, she dived into this dance to explore opportuni-
ties of expression and find one's voice relatively quickly. What also makes it
bold is the delicacy of the photographs that communicate very subtly, as
if a whisper. At first glance, they seem appealing – attractive, the exact fre-
quency on which they communicate with the public. They also point us to
a level in which we wonder, what is the value and meaning of such works
of art? They are just too simple, random, created without the author's con-
trol, they look like the paper, the sun, the plant, the fixer wants them to... But
those of you who dare to see them as a whole, with or without knowing how
they came to be, will figure that their art and narrative are precisely mis-
leading yet free, in a way that offers visitors a story easy to tell, and free for
personal interpretations difficult to put into words. These photographs offer
an enchanting dream with open eyes, a bluish journey. And yet, do not for-
get, when you listen to the stories that these photos tell you, it is a personal,
intimate story that Keti has hidden and discovered on these walls, soaked
amidst the ferns. It is also courageous, beyond the well-known clichés, for
the author to give up control and revel in the process, to try and serve the
process so they see where it will finally take them, and only then put it all
together in a meaningful wholeness. That is close to the advanced modern
understandings of aesthetics. And for that, I consider this move as noble
and I expect it to reveal and encourage new daring adventures in the nati-
onal photography scene.
I am so glad to be able to follow this process from the very beginning, and
it is unfair to hide that now. And it is important to emphasize that the photo
equipment by Vlado Dimoski, which is a separate author's work in itself,
added the exact necessary taste that encircled this exhibition.
I believe that most of you are not fully aware of what you are looking at in
this exhibition, but I wish you all enjoy these unique drawings with light. In
front of you are the only traces left by particular photons at that one, dis-
tinct moment, which can never be repeated, that has travelled through the
earth's atmosphere and got onto the author's photographic paper, soaked
amidst the ferns. You may try but I assure you – these photographs can
never be copied. Surely, they can become “more beautiful”, more big, more
yellow, more... but as they are now – NO! Feel honored to be able to witness
such an act. And may there always follow you bright light!
a quantum of electromagnetic radiation (or, in a narrower sense - of
light). It is a particle with a rest mass equal to zero. Its electric charge
also equals zero...
The photon belongs to the class of bosons. They engage in electromag-
netic and gravitational interactions. Photons have no electric charge,
and they do not mysteriously decompose when in a vacuum. They are
stable. A photon has one of two possible polarization orientations, des-
cribed in three parameters...
If the above text puzzles you, then that's okay because it should. I would
ask you now to read it again, and this time reflect on your awareness
while lying on a beach, sunbathing, or looking at a photograph – what is
the nature of light? What does it take to have the perfect complexion or
a simple photograph?
Each photograph is, more or less, the perfect tango with light. It is a con-
scious, or rather unconscious dance, depending on the dancers' skills.
There should not be too much, or too little of it. The passion flares up
quickly but if the required respect is missing, and if the dancer let go of
passion alone, like with Icarus, the dance will swiftly turn into a desperate
fall into the unknown and stormy sea...
For decades, Macedonian photography (in general and with occasional
exceptions) deteriorates into a vicious circle of the same, retrograde,
and chewed a thousand times, let's call it – aesthetics. To a large extent,
it is due to the Photo Union and the Methuselahs that run it (in a shadow)
and dictate almost the entire aesthetic discourse through their (poorly)
organized exhibitions. In these few decades, our photography has been
trapped in a few disastrous repetitive clichés. Unlike our national efforts,
world photography has been flourishing in an unprecedented revolution
and for decades continues to reinvent itself, go beyond its frames, get
into various forms, shapes, and ways of expression. The last decade is
saturated with “perfect” digital images, available to all and reproduced
in thousands of copies. And so there have been some particularly stri-
king returns to the elementary photographic expressions, return to the
basic principles, old techniques, analogue experiments, unique works of
art that cannot be reproduced, and creating photographs without the
use of a camera.
Thirty years ago, today's world-class photographs would have been un-
thinkable and unacceptable. Naturally, don't you think?
Keti Talevska-Bakrevska's expression in such a setting, with the so-called
lumen prints – photographs taken without a camera (yes, to explain to all
skeptics that they, too, are photographs – and in its purest form! The word
photography is coined of the words writing/painting with light, and Keti
does that!) – and I find it very brave and humble. Brave because it leaps
from all the clichés and without a springboard, without an allusion to which
it refers. I do not know anyone here that has dealt with lumens before Keti
did.
This exhibition is a pearl for Macedonian photography. Brave, because with
almost no encouragement, she dived into this dance to explore opportuni-
ties of expression and find one's voice relatively quickly. What also makes it
bold is the delicacy of the photographs that communicate very subtly, as
if a whisper. At first glance, they seem appealing – attractive, the exact fre-
quency on which they communicate with the public. They also point us to
a level in which we wonder, what is the value and meaning of such works
of art? They are just too simple, random, created without the author's con-
trol, they look like the paper, the sun, the plant, the fixer wants them to... But
those of you who dare to see them as a whole, with or without knowing how
they came to be, will figure that their art and narrative are precisely mis-
leading yet free, in a way that offers visitors a story easy to tell, and free for
personal interpretations difficult to put into words. These photographs offer
an enchanting dream with open eyes, a bluish journey. And yet, do not for-
get, when you listen to the stories that these photos tell you, it is a personal,
intimate story that Keti has hidden and discovered on these walls, soaked
amidst the ferns. It is also courageous, beyond the well-known clichés, for
the author to give up control and revel in the process, to try and serve the
process so they see where it will finally take them, and only then put it all
together in a meaningful wholeness. That is close to the advanced modern
understandings of aesthetics. And for that, I consider this move as noble
and I expect it to reveal and encourage new daring adventures in the nati-
onal photography scene.
I am so glad to be able to follow this process from the very beginning, and
it is unfair to hide that now. And it is important to emphasize that the photo
equipment by Vlado Dimoski, which is a separate author's work in itself,
added the exact necessary taste that encircled this exhibition.
I believe that most of you are not fully aware of what you are looking at in
this exhibition, but I wish you all enjoy these unique drawings with light. In
front of you are the only traces left by particular photons at that one, dis-
tinct moment, which can never be repeated, that has travelled through the
earth's atmosphere and got onto the author's photographic paper, soaked
amidst the ferns. You may try but I assure you – these photographs can
never be copied. Surely, they can become “more beautiful”, more big, more
yellow, more... but as they are now – NO! Feel honored to be able to witness
such an act. And may there always follow you bright light!
Sašo Aluševski
Skopje, September 2021
Skopje, September 2021
