Ted Adams

Blind Date

2003

Amodaj created the Hoop and Ball series of photographs in June 2010 with dancer and author Shawnrey Notto. The photographs were based on an earlie...

Amodaj created the Hoop and Ball series of photographs in June 2010 with dancer and author Shawnrey Notto. The photographs were based on an earlier series of drawings Nenad made of Notto wearing parts of the deconstructed wedding dress during his figure drawing study in Michael Markowitz’s 23rd Street studio in San Francisco. The hoop skirt serves as an augmentation device, a skeletal extension meant to alter the visual perception of the human form. To realize the full associative power of the hoop, Amodaj created a counter-shape to the hoop, a white sphere (the Ball) made from plaster strips, to match the cloth texture and placed it in a dynamic relationship with his model. Notto improvised the poses from Nenad’s drawings in constant slow motion. The whole project was done in two 3-hour sessions with no rehearsals and no replays. The minimalistic setting, uniform lighting, and central vantage point shift perception from a trivial reality to a metaphysical one. The intent was to induce the spectator to spontaneously alternate between the three aspects: the human form, the symbolic function of the skirt, and the geometry of the cone and sphere. The spontaneity of dynamic poses and the imperfections of a handheld camera balance this sparse imagery. The exhibition presents a selection of 15 photographs from a project collection of over a hundred. Most of the series are gelatin-silver prints from a 35 mm film, with a few exceptions for large-scale digital color prints. Amodaj was influenced by the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher's typologies of industrial buildings and František Drtikol’s nudes. In the spirit of Becher’s “typologies,” Amodaj’s Hoop and Ball series of photographs explores endless mutations of the hoop skirt architecture, a clothing item with a curios geometric form that can be classified as a “flexible cone.” It is a form that appears both in nature and in artifice: flowers, bells, horns, nuclear power plants...

This iconic 1989 photograph features actress Gina Bellman posing on top of a column, accompanied by two monkeys. It was shot by celebrity and fashion phot...

Artist: Jacko Vassilev, Bulgarian ( born 1951 - ) Title: The Dance of Zlatio Zlatev, Ex Pilot Medium: Original Silver Gelatin Print Edition: 19/50 Year: 1989 Story behind the photograph: The photograph seen above was taken of Zlatio Zlatev who had served for Bulgaria’s King Boris III as his top pilot. When the Communists took the power in Bulgaria, he was offered to work for the new government as a bomber pilot. He refused to work for the new regime and was stamped as an "anticommunist element". Due to his refusal Zlatio was sent to forced labor political camp where he spent nearly 15 years and fell victim to the totalitarian side of communism. During that time in Bulgaria there were over 50 political camps where they claimed, "The Brain of the Nation was destroyed"! When Bulgaria become free state from Communism in 1989 a National Celebration was held in the political camp honoring all the people who lost their lives there and granted the survivors as National Heroes! On that day Jacko Vassilev was privileged to witness the celebration of Zlatio and this photograph was HIS DANCE OF FREEDOM!!!! After the dance, Jacko walked to him and wanted to share his deep emotions of capturing this special moments and told him: "Zlatio, your hands are likes a wings in the air." And he answered: "My wings..... They broke them, but not the Spirit"! Artist Bio: I was born in communist Bulgaria. As a boy, I had dreamed of freedom and a simple life. In my late twenties I put my dreams to the test and attempted to escape the Bulgarian regime. I tried to pass the barbed wire fences guarded by border patrols, but I was caught, beaten and tossed into a slave labor camp. Instead of building up hate, the harsh conditions in the camp built my strength. I learned how to survive. My body suffered, but my mind became clearer. My photography was my artistic expression of the world around me however the communist dictatorship considered it anti-communist propaganda and I had to keep my treasures hidden underground. After the communist regime fell, I traveled around Europe and accomplished my dream of becoming a published photographer in Paris and later moved to the USA. The willingness to confront even the most difficult obstacle in life strongly informs my work to this day. There is a thread of optimism that connects the people I’ve portrayed, even when they are shown in the most vulnerable moments. There is no difference between myself and them, they are photographers of life, and I am the countryman...