Luxembourg: Urban Abstractions/Arboreal Impressions
The technique of intentionally moving the camera while taking a photograph allows us to imagine and create a very different view of what surrounds us every day. That which may appear boring and mundane as we encounter it, day in and day out, can transform into something ethereal, unpredictable, and at times—just maybe—magical.
While I had always been aware of this technique, it was the intersection of a number of circumstances that led me to seriously apply it myself, to my own surroundings. Firstly, the COVID pandemic hit and we were forced to change our lives; many things we took for granted previously were off limits due to lockdown restrictions. I spent the first year of the pandemic walking a lot and taking a lot of photographs: along the rivers and on the forest paths close to my home in Hesperange; around the local neighbourhoods within easy walking distance; the occasional "sortie" further afield. Landscapes, observations of light and shade, details of the environment.
After a year, though, inspiration definitely was waning. Retracing the same steps over and over, everything started to look the same. Fortuitously, the photo club I belong to decided that the next exhibition we would prepare would be on the theme of "movement". Around the same time I came across a review of a book by Roberto Polillo, whose work on Venice I quite vividly remembered coming across previously. "Visions of Venice" is a wonderful study of a city I know well by a masterful practitioner of ICM (intentional camera movement) photography. The city I know was recognisable, yet, to me, it was transformed in extraordinary ways by the intentional act of movement while capturing the images.
A new way of seeing and capturing my environment opened up before me. I continued walking, and started looking for another way of seeing my own city and its surroundings...
The photographs in this exhibition are a part of my exploration of Luxembourg through this particular photographic technique, this other way of seeing: a Luxembourg of concrete, steel and glass; trees, rivers and paths.
While I had always been aware of this technique, it was the intersection of a number of circumstances that led me to seriously apply it myself, to my own surroundings. Firstly, the COVID pandemic hit and we were forced to change our lives; many things we took for granted previously were off limits due to lockdown restrictions. I spent the first year of the pandemic walking a lot and taking a lot of photographs: along the rivers and on the forest paths close to my home in Hesperange; around the local neighbourhoods within easy walking distance; the occasional "sortie" further afield. Landscapes, observations of light and shade, details of the environment.
After a year, though, inspiration definitely was waning. Retracing the same steps over and over, everything started to look the same. Fortuitously, the photo club I belong to decided that the next exhibition we would prepare would be on the theme of "movement". Around the same time I came across a review of a book by Roberto Polillo, whose work on Venice I quite vividly remembered coming across previously. "Visions of Venice" is a wonderful study of a city I know well by a masterful practitioner of ICM (intentional camera movement) photography. The city I know was recognisable, yet, to me, it was transformed in extraordinary ways by the intentional act of movement while capturing the images.
A new way of seeing and capturing my environment opened up before me. I continued walking, and started looking for another way of seeing my own city and its surroundings...
The photographs in this exhibition are a part of my exploration of Luxembourg through this particular photographic technique, this other way of seeing: a Luxembourg of concrete, steel and glass; trees, rivers and paths.