MADE IN CYLAND

2021

Simple Pleasures

2024

Stories of Light

It is in the automated kineographs by Anna Frants that the dynamic between light and time is traced historically. These “stories of light” provide contemporary reanimations of one of humanity’s oldest aspirations: capturing movement, and thus time, in light. Through moving images, Frants evokes a tradition which has evolved over millennia from the age of cave paintings and shadow puppets to the modern era of film, camera, and digital animation.

2024

To Make a Long Story Short

30 years ago, when I just came to the United States, one of my first jobs was at a photographic store. Among the services offered, there were development of B/W films copying and retouching of old photographs. During several years of work, hundreds of images passed through my hands and, whether you like it or not, what you saw becomes a part of you.

I came upon images from various times: 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Mainly, those were individual, family and group photographs, portraits of the military and pictures from the Victorian Age when photographs were done with the deceased family members in them.

There were some curious incidents: once I was handed an envelope with photographs that contained a note: “Be careful. The photos are really old; they date back to 1715.” (Daguerreotype, by the way, was invented in 1839).

Those images stuck in my memory. What astounded me was the fact that practically all the images were alike. It is interesting that, despite the geographic origins of those who were depicted on a photograph, it was impossible to determine where they were from (unless the architecture got captured in a frame). It was impossible to figure out whether they were immigrants from Armenia, Russia, Sweden, Italy or Ireland. It was also impossible to determine on the photographs from different countries where they were taken at the time.

Scientists claim that if the brain saw something, it would stay with it for the rest of one's life. However, the fore-conscious* plays its role as well…

* Fore-Conscious is a term that indicates the perceptions, thoughts and memories that, while not being part of our current conscious experience, are still remain available for comprehension.