'Windows provide not only natural light, but a myriad of metaphors about reflection and reflecting. Looking not only out, but in. Seeing all we have, and all we long for. Looking in on others, and in the reflection, looking in on ourselves.'
If you search 'window' or 'windows' on FH, dozens of features come up. Photographers, especially when shooting inside, love the natural light windows can provide. I love the use of windows within photography but know they provide much more than just light and location. Windows are are not just a one way portal to see what is on the other side, they also bring that other side in. I knew when spending time with the work, and the windows, of Brookhaven photographer Indulis, that I had found a kindred spirit.
'For my photography, I work with natural light, so indoors it's an innate compulsion to be near the source, the better to illuminate my subject. Added to that is the fact that my windows give out on a unique landscape, which provides an intriguing view and perspective and enhances the dynamic between foreground and background. I find those poses most telling and reflective when the model distracts himself from my gaze by looking away, and the window affords another opportunity for the viewer, to look at different dimensions in the same square.'
In all of the features I have done featuring windows, no artist had before mentioned windows as a distraction for the model. Usually, the word distraction is used as a negative, something that keeps you from thinking, or looking at what your supposed to be focusing on. Distraction however, is one of life's most wonderful gifts. It has the power to enable us, especially in times of stress, boredom or pain, to look beyond the moment or our current circumstances, to a time or place much more palatable.
There is a beautiful duality to distraction within photography. Although some artists may not want the viewers focus to wander off the model, with the images of Indulis, we are encouraged to. The viewer not only has a focus on the model, but then follow his gaze outward, to enjoys a second view, the view the model is visually experiencing on the other side of the glass.
'I've been a voracious reader all my life and from an early age I was encouraged to preserve my sight and relieve the strain on my eyes by focusing on distant objects every once in a while. I've always been entranced by nature, wildlife and the sea and my home embodies that, with unobstructed windows on every side and even all exterior doors made of glass. My work with figure models not only complements but elevates this primal instinct.'
Indulis
'For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue.'
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue.'
William Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey
For Indulis, Wordsworth's poem has acted as sort of a guiding principle in both his art and within his life. It is a gift really, to look at something, anything really, and imagine it unobstructed by time, beyond the moment in which you are viewing it in. When I follow the gaze of the models to the outside, it is not hard to imagine, that the stretches of land and water they are viewing, have existed for thousands of years beyond the moment the images was captured. Beyond and before the construction of the pieces of wood and glass of the home near by.
It is the past, the history of the land and location, that adds depth and emotion to the images and not just as a location. The window, the room, are all apart of the artists home and homes as well all know, have their own innate form of history and intimacy. These images were shot thoughout the house, in the upstairs living area and several bedrooms on the ground floor.
Indulis tailors each shoot to the individual model's character, presence and style. 'The most successful shoots result from the vibe created by collaboration and inspiration'. Indulis says that many of his models are entranced by the view outside and it always resonates with him when they extend a stay or return on their own, if only as an escape from the ordinary...
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