UNDRGRND - PHOTOGRAPHY WITH AN EDGE: SYMPTOMUS

PHOTOGRAPHY WITH AN EDGE: SYMPTOMUS

Wanda Oliver — April 28, 2022

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APRIL 28TH, 2022

PHOTOGRAPHY WITH AN EDGE is a periodical feature showcasing NFT artists working with photographic practices that defy or challenge the common definition of a photograph. We are here to explore and celebrate these more exotic forms of photography and the free mixture of old and new, art and science, analog and digital employed in the exploration of the limits and possibilities of light, chemistry, and bits. 

Symptomus describes himself as an analog photographer, visual artist, and filmmaker. I was drawn to his photographs, before I knew about his filmmaking career, pulled in by the strong contrasts, the color, and the geometry. He says that despite years of taking photographs every day, he has trouble labeling himself as a photographer. I have no trouble at all with that appellation. His photographs are bold, thought provoking, and powerful, turning ordinary situations into something unfamiliar that commands the eye to halt and the mind to examine.

In Headless Man, I am reminded of a compositional rule of thumb about patterns and the visual impact of breaking them. The entire photograph that forms the background of this image serves as a pattern, wonderfully broken by the bold yellow stripe that both echoes and disrupts the rectangular patterns of the industrial setting. The decapitated human figure becomes another disruption, adding an organic form to a vista of intersecting lines. I’ve taken all this in before I see the chair. Once seen, I fixate on it. So completely out of place, this artifact of lush salons adds a third level of layered visual context, another disruption to savor.

In Still Life, our expectations are confronted with a large, improbably colored, and impossibly located sun. A still life becomes a landscape. The ordinary becomes alien. Are we looking at items on a desk or structures scattered across a plain on a planet in a galaxy far away? And the wonderful bifurcating shadows - on our unknown planet they must be thrown by something massive, thrusting up into the sky. We are invited to read and reread this still life, lost in its imaginative symmetry.

Rothko’s Window hints at landscapes and architectures as it pulls me all the way into Symtomus’s world. It invites me to drink deeply of line and color, texture and contrast, and simply be here, now. The geometry is subtle and bold, the impact forceful and gentle as I ride the waves of seeing.

Can you describe your process?

In fact, I am a filmmaker who also photographs. I still cannot introduce myself as a professional photographer. Most of my photos are attempts to find a filming location or capture a character’s position to use in my filmmaking career. As a result, I’ve been photographing every day, and at the same time, I have a large archive of photographs (many of which may be personal and unpredictable). The process I have gone through so far for my photos in the NFT space has been as follows: I have tried to give another meaning to the photo by adding a digital or analog element to the photos. In most of these works I have used Photoshop.

Where do you look for inspiration?

My inspiration is through filmmaking, watching movies and, of course, real places and people - things I see during the day or on my travels, and try to somehow save for my next film. The result is photographs that may themselves have independent artistic value.

What started you on this journey?

I studied filmmaking at university and since then I have been working in various filmmaking jobs (directing, screenwriting, editing, and producing) for 7 years.

What prompted you to expand your work into the NFT realm?

What attracted me to the NFT space was the free, unmediated space to connect with artists, see the work of others, and stay up-to-date in a world that offers something new every day.

Where do you expect your work to take you in the next year?

The day I entered this space, I knew I had to spend a lot of time on it, like anything else. This made me a little skeptical. But now, after a few months, I’m sure that I will stay in this space for a long time. I have been able to show my personal style to others and now I am known for my work. I think that in another year, I will be a more famous person in the NFT space, with, of course, more mature and better works

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