Michael Chia

Brussels, Belgium

Website CreatifImage

Going through everyday life, our days frequently are accompanied by little dreams in between. Figuring out possibilities, recalling past events, imagining the future, constructing new imagery. Although they most of the times don’t have the spontaneous character of dreams one might see when sleeping, they still are similar to them in that they transcend time and space. Seemingly making it possible to do away with omnipresent categories and causalities of everyday life, they enable the reconstruction of new horizons of possibilities. And meeting Michael Chia I found out that it can be possible to mould imagined possibilities into actual images and photographs. I met Michael in a surprisingly quiet café on a busy afternoon near Porte de Namur in Brussels to talk about his work as a full-time photographer. Word on the street was that he taught some of the best photography courses in Brussels, so I was eager to learn some tips and tricks in between myself.

Michael seems to enjoy the process of learning greatly. Thinking back of the first photography courses he had offered over 10 years ago, he remembers how they helped him to grow as a photographer over time. Especially his very first workshop had been an “eye opener”, he admits. He found himself trying to answer unexpected questions, to explain techniques as comprehensively as possible and to “level up” with the participants’ anticipation: all of this had been both work and fun at the same time, he says. What does he advice photographers? “Think analogue, shoot digital” is one of the fundamental rules for him when it comes to photographing efficiently. Michael says that he likes to use all the possibilities modern technology brings and that he enjoys shooting with digital cameras. However, he argues, these means for engaging in photography should stay being instruments for achieving one’s goals. For him,  it is the conceptual idea behind his projects, which determines the technology that he will use to create the images he envisions in his head. It becomes evident that he highly values creative thought processes prior and parallel to the active “shooting” of photographs. But what is it that he seeks to create in the first place?

His artistic work offers clues for the answer to this question. When looking at his two projects “Happy Rain” and “Dreams in Dreamland” the viewer is presented with two series of colourful and blurry images that leave a lot to the imagination. Both projects were predominantly produced during his travels to Southeast Asian cities, but a lot of the pictures could be set in any city of the world. “I have deliberately shot everything devoid of elements one could associate with stereotypes about Asian cities,” he notes, believing that “I can make you see, what I want you to see.” So his idea here was to leave subjective views and familiar imagery behind as far as possible, he continues. The goal was to “subtract the obvious” in order to leave space for imagination. His vision then was to create space for possibility as opposed to determining a set image. Thus space plays a big role in the conception behind both projects. “Instead of using the subject to determine the space, space was used to frame the subject,” he argues and refers to the blurred human movements in the images. Abstract spatial settings aside, why did he choose shoot primarily hazy images, I wonder?

Michael concentrated on haziness in order to create a notion of “fuzziness” and a feeling of expectation, he says. As if one has just woken up and remembers fleeting images from a dream. Also, the blurriness would serve to avoid static and stiff compositions, bring movement into the picture and ideally activate the imagination of the viewer, he hopes. By presenting human motion in correlation with processes around them, by connecting both in blurred compositions of colour and movement Michael follows his goal of portraying social action and moments of city dwellers. This is also why he chose rain to be the decisive element for the series “Happy Rain”: for him, rain becomes a social element when viewed as something connecting people on the streets.

Thinking about this idea and looking once more at the series, the notion of individual pedestrians trying to shield themselves from the raindrops with their umbrellas and therein forming a composition of colourful movements has something reassuring - and maybe even soothing and hopeful – to it. The haziness enhanced by the rain not only avoids the reminiscence of familiar categories; it also takes away spatial boundaries and opens up new rooms of possibilities. With the blurriness and colourfulness of the images offering new dimensions for imagination, the viewer can get carried away enough to enter the space of the image created. What might ensue could be an active participation of the viewer in the creative process of the photographer, forming own interpretations, imagining possibilities and rethinking categories while doing so. More and more I get the feeling that Michael Chia’s major goal might be to offer spaces of indefinite time and location for imagining new realities. And seen from this perspective, it seems that Michael has achieved his goal. Because if you allow yourself to let go just a little bit, looking at the images of these two series is indeed a bit like entering different “dreamlands” of possibilities.

The pictures shown here are from his projects "Happy Rain" and "Dreams in Dreamland". Take a look at his work! Also, you can catch a free e-book by Michael via facebook, featuring tips about how to improve your photography.

Mikhail Porollo

Brussels, Belgium

website

 

Artists ask questions. As simple or natural as this might sound, a conversation with Brussels based photographer Mikhail Porollo made me feel the joy of discovering this little detail in artistic creativity anew. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Porollo over a coffee on a very grey, thus - forgive me for saying so - very Belgian, and somewhat rainy Saturday morning in Brussels to talk about his recent projects, about art and culture, and life in general.

Born and raised in Russia, Mikhail got in touch with photography at an early age. But it was during his time in South Africa - he studied at the South African College of Photography - when he started to engage in photography “professionally”. He thereafter would take on various courses and projects all over the world, travelling between the continents, going the distances between South Africa and Namibia, from Belgium to Russia and back. Listening to his travels, I wondered if people from different places also looked at art from different perspectives. And if yes, how so?

This question seems to have interested Mikhail during his time in South Africa, too. He argues that ways of looking at art would be strongly connected to cultural differences. Appreciation of art in for instance the UK, Belgium and also Russia, he says, would be very similar: the concept of looking at art and objects in museum or gallery settings would be a common cultural practice in these three countries. In South Africa, however, this way of observing art would be a rarity. There, art would be lived and experienced mostly outdoors, Mikhail remembers: it had been a part of “active social life”. This difference in dealing with art, he feels, eventually had appeared as a great inspiration for himself as a modern artist, as it had opened up new ways of approaching art and photography for him.

It seems that this notion of changing perspectives continued to live on in his later projects as well. Take for instance his collection “Goddesses”, from which the images featured here are taken. One of the major objectives of this project is to present the gaze of the viewer with an altered image and to challenge his or her dealing with portraits by establishing a normally non-existent symmetry in the models’ faces. Mikhail Porollo experiments in this project by taking the left side of the models’ faces and mirroring it onto the right side, taking away the naturally uneven division of the human face. And it is here where Mikhail implemented the conceptual idea behind the series. Dealing with the idea of visual symmetry and balance, he started the project out of curiosity about what might happen if the portrait viewers were confronted with completely symmetrical faces. “What happens when it [the face] is balanced? How do we accept it? How do we see it?”, he asks. He goes on to theorize about the different facial halves, about the left side being the spiritual and the right side being the rational “and brutal” part of the human face. He tells me about how, with continuing age, the right side would become more and more similar to the left side of the face, and how he therefore thinks of the left side as an outlook on future and maybe even as a portrayal of eternity. What happens if through an artificial symmetry between the facial halves, an eternal balance is established?, one might ask. I can almost see question marks hanging in the air of the busy café. But I feel that not all questions can or have to be answered definitively. And for Mikhail, asking seems to be the starting point and goal of the project at the same time.

Getting back to the idea of cultural diversity and differences, it is then interesting to see how the series portrays women wearing clothing and headgears from different cultural backgrounds. Here it becomes clear that the representation of various cultural identities is another interest of Mikhail’s in this project. But they all are based in Brussels, he says, and seems to be keen to display a part of the diverse cultures existing in the Belgian capital. For such goals he notes how “it is best to photograph “real persons”” and adds that all of the models are friends of his as well.

Talking about “Goddesses” I find that - almost paradoxically - symmetry and difference seem to be fascinating Mikhail the most. In this sense, in his most recent project “Harmony of Form” he succeeds to combine balance, symmetry and difference in one project again. Setting out to photograph round ceilings, Mikhail once more searched for continuity and balance. He found these in ceilings and parts of ceiling decorations of different cultural and political architectures throughout Belgium and Europe, ranging from cathedrals to mosques, from theatres to law courts. As for his “Goddesses” project, this latest series also displays a strong interest to portray balance “dressed” in different artistic and cultural representations.

Moving further, leaving portrayals of individuals and their cultural identities behind, the new project depicts how notions of harmony reveal themselves in different cultural architectural constructions. Here, Mikhail once again seems to ask a question, this time it is the question of harmony its architectural dress. 

Take a look at his work! And if you're in Brussels, be sure to visit the PÔZE IV TERMINUS exhibition at Bozar, the Centre for Fine Arts; you can see selected work of Mikhail there until 16th September 2012.