Photodynamics

By Jean Cemeli
Edited by R. D. Kushner

All my work aspires to be based in an artistic and philosophical coordinated unit, mainly around the topic of the Movement.

I wanted to develop an activity of artistic and technical innovation in the field of the image. I depart from traditional black and white photography and engage new contemporary technologies of animated video, while continuing to engage the original process of image creation with a still camera.

My photographs capture the dynamism of movement; an energy inherent in the object within my view. My goal is to make Movement a source of aesthetics. By operating in this mode, I can animate a motionless subject such as still life or a nude. I intensify my own movements during the exposure time. I can thus infuse an image with a visible dynamic.

Parallel to traditional work, some of my film is developed with my own technique in order to give more matter and force to the image. Each image that is developed is an original; these "monotypes" resemble drawings and can be regarded as original works.

Architecture

To give movement to the motionless one.

Representation of architectural works: I propose photodynamics. I want to catch a moving object and imbue it with kinetic movement. I focus on certain zones of the building, as if to instigate other parts of the building and create a dynamic relationship between the parts. It is a choice that allows the parts to resonate with the sensitivities of the whole.

I release the building itself from the traditional photograph in two dimensions; a perspective limited to a point of view and an instantaneous moment. To capture a displacement, a temporal trace – which is also the third dimension – allows me to develop a manner that I believe richer and more representational of the “real” world. I capture the object in a representative act, to make the emotion "perennial".

I develop this new language of dematerialization in a constructive or reconstructive manner. I give up the semi-representation of objects caught in stasis, and engage the temporal and spatial thickness of the aesthetic object.

I enter the work, almost taking take part in it. I let go of my subjectivity and in this altered state I move my glance; I want to join the artist to the object – to take part in the object. I engage the topological spaces by adding a dimensional vector of animation by introducing the element of time and movement. I invest the work of architecture into a new virtual world; creating a kind of "cyber-city” in a still photograph

I also try to find and communicate contemplation, the dynamism of mental activity. That of the pedestrian with his mobile glance, letting himself invade and rebuild through observation – where the subject and the object are at once captivated and fascinated by the dynamic interplay of observer and observed.