Paola Dávila

Oaxaca, Artist Self Portraits. Black and white Photograph

2003

Santa María by Paola Dávila Photograph printed analogically on 255 gr baryta fiber photographic paper. turned to selenium. Image size: 18.3 cm H x 18.3 cm W. Paper size: 25 cm H x 20...

Santa María by Paola Dávila Photograph printed analogically on 255 gr baryta fiber photographic paper turned to selenium. Image size: 18.3 cm H x 18.3 cm W. Paper size: 25 cm H x 20 ...

This digital print is part of a limited edition set. Steve Schlackman is a lawyer by profession and a photographer by choice. Fascinated by the magical world of photography since his youth, he honed this skill over time, meticulously pouring over all things photographic, technical and creative alike, with unstoppable enthusiasm. Steve’s passion for taking photographs was ignited early on, during a study-abroad trip to Paris, where he immersed himself in all things art historical. Diligence, a strong trait Schlackman is known for, paid off, and after daily meanderings at the Louvre, a great love for art emerged along with hundreds of photographs. These pictures proved to be early tributes to the urban landscape, and although they didn’t amount to full-on series, a seed was planted. The omnipresent tension between the poor neighborhoods of the Cuban capital, as a result of political dictatorship, and the rich Afro-Cuban cultural roots of their inhabitants, whose wealth is represented by their music and feelings, is physically visible in Steve’s use of high contrast, a metaphoric touch on the subject of the light and darkness of the Afro-Cuban heritage. Although intentionally apolitical, the pictures speak volumes about the Cuban status quo and, appropriately, the eternal joy of living despite socio-political hardship. Play, in and of itself a mode to survive the harsh reality, represents another subject Steve is keen on capturing. Whether it is adults playing dominoes...

A fan of photography since her early childhood, Mizrakli graduated from Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Interior Decoration Department, and continued her higher education in London, where she started out her work as a photographer. Later on, she moved to New York to further develop her career as a photographer and enrolled in classes at the Photography Department of the New York Film Academy. She received a Master’s Degree in photography in Los Angeles, where she is currently based. Mizrakli has conducted many shooting sessions for Mica Studios and Bullet Magazine in New York and had two solo exhibitions in Los Angeles. She has recently participated in the Contemporary Istanbul Exhibition (November 2013). In some of her black and white works she uses the human body only as a pictorial sign in order to create almost abstract works. First made anonymous, the female model is then cloned and circularly multiplied. The result is a kind of wheel in which the repeated human body gives birth to a new, seemingly vegetal or mineral structure. Thus, the human element seems to be transformed into different other natural...