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Consumed with exploring our world as they uniquely see it, the artists in Agora Gallery’s “Altered States of Reality: an Exhibition of Analog and Digital Photography” use a myriad of visual vocabularies and technologies. Differing in method, these artists share in the passionate quest to articulate the moments often ignored in everyday life. Influenced by Surrealism and Abstractionism alike, these artists boldly investigate their psyches and natural surroundings. The results, at once harmonious, perplexing and alluring, take us on an inspirational visual journey.
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Tiziana Borghese
 
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I create images with a camera which emerge from a creative process where painting, found objects and installations are juxtaposed to create a new contextual meaning; a hybrid of these. My work references the past, but is anchored in contemporary concerns, such as globalization, the thrust of cyberspace reality on everyday experiences, the individual v the universal, and the depth of consciousness arrived at through an altered state of reality. My aim is to make viewers question the rational world, in favor of the subconscious, the hidden, so that the world of the imagination can be captured, in the same way that traditional photography claims to represent phenomenal reality. In “Altered States of Reality”, I am interested in depicting an inner spiritual/psychological world, where hope, resilience and strength dominate over the darker challenges of life, by finding the inner light that empower us to overcome our darkest fears and threats.
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"The Light at the End of the Tunnel, edition no. 5-20"
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"Life and Birth, edition no. 5-20"
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Luca Bracali
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The great Masters of Renaissance, especially Caravaggio, have had great influence in my artistic career as a photographer. At six I shot my first black & white image, at fourteen years old I experienced the darkroom and infrared photography. For over ten years, as a special correspondent, I was committed to sport photography, developing a strong “carpe diem” feeling, sharpening a panning shooting technique and the usage of super telephoto lenses. From color slides I turned into digital photography, and from Formula 1 races I jumped into the most extreme and uncontaminated places of our Planet throughout 120 countries. I love shooting the Earth’s beauties and people in the most natural way, without the addition of filters or photo-retouch, trying to emphasize shapes and profiles and handle all the power of light and colors. Traveling is my life’s duty. Transferring my emotions to someone else is my real mission.
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"Red Heart"
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"Divine Comedy"
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Betsey Chesler
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Photography has fascinated me since I was 10 years old. I began shooting with a pin-hole camera I made myself from a cardboard box, soon afterwards building a home darkroom with my father. The artistic limits were then endless. I spent hours together creating art through photography. After years raising a family I returned to my passion. I can now view my subjects with a seasoned eye, and capture images with a sense of freedom, curiosity and an element of surprise. On a shoot, I delight in challenges, going to great lengths to achieve the unexpected. I have two sides. As a Photojournalist I want to capture reality and send the appropriate message to the viewer, to increase the level of social awareness. As a Fine Art Photographer, I focus on creating beauty and delivering the subject's individual uniqueness. My artistic goal is to reveal aesthetic pleasure, creativity and emotion as reflected in my work.
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"Pathway to New Beginnings"
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"Stone Bridge"
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R John Ferguson
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My mind envisions a moment in time and I then pursue the task of creating and capturing the moment. I find trees to be fascinating studies, and snow yields numerous visions, yet a strong influence on my work comes from a completely different source; I find in Weston's images of Charis a subtle yet vibrant capture of more than an image. Weston's Charis images leave the viewer of today feeling as if you are part of the photo opportunity. With the inspiration I find in these images I attempt to capture memorable images of dancers and the female form. I want to draw attention to beauty which is too often overlooked.
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"Sam Haine's Abode"
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"Shapes and Form"
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Wilda Gerideau-Squires
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After several years of traditional landscape photography, since 2004 I have been primarily involved in creating abstract images. This allows me greater creativity, incorporating whatever piques my interest and captures my imagination by virtue of its form and color. My abstract compositions are developed around common elements such as fabric and glass, ultimately evolving into evocative images; they continually remind me that if we take time to look, there is in even the mundane or simple an extraordinary element waiting to be discovered and appreciated. Viewers appreciate my work's abstract nature which encourages them to insinuate their own “voices” into my images, allowing them to experience a more personal connection with my work. I pursue several works concurrently to keep my mind and eye fresh, and use both digital and film for my abstracts, landscapes and images of women. The variety keeps me constantly engaged and excited by my work.
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"Abstract XXI"
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"Romance"
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Offer Goldfarb
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I regard photography as a mirror, reflecting my inner world. I am interested in the visual language shared by all visual artists. I search for abstract and minimalism. Abstract, for me, is getting further from the thing itself, but always leaving a hint of life. As for my idea of minimalism, less is impossible and more is redundant. Similar to Japanese tradition, my work says a lot in a few words. My photographs are often mistaken for paintings. My inspiration is derived and influenced by painters (Morandi) and photographers (Sugimoto).
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"C-29 Untitled"
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"The Human Condition"
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Goodash
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I was first exposed to the world of visual arts during my time as a student at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. My first artistic creations were black and white drawings; I began working in photography ten years ago. More recently I've found myself combining the two mediums. I’ve named the combination, “photodrawing”. In my series 'Views From Afar' I display objects and moments that speak to a viewer through an illusory lens of painting and photography. Naked, empty walls of deserted houses, which told nostalgic tales, inspired my 'Memories' series. As an artist, I filled these empty spaces through collage techniques. I have dealt with various other subjects in my series 'Wabi Sabi', 'West Meets East', and others. I hope that people who view my work take more than one quick glance. I’d like them to find deeper, perhaps several meanings in a single scenario, as I do.
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"Trapped 2"
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"Memories"
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Iglessias
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My work doesn’t involve any retouching whatsoever. What you see is what was portrayed at the time of releasing the shutter. I like working in digital photography for its sense of immediacy and dynamic feel, which helps create a meditative feel when I am shooting the pictures. While I am drawn to the physicality of each subject, I find that subconsciously I also portray signs given to us by the universe, highlighting its sense of mysticism. I immerse myself in my surroundings, letting instinct guide me. When I revisit the pictures I have taken, looking for the hidden messages and the thread which links them... this process brings surprising results, unimaginable prior to taking the pictures... While the pictures portray beauty, sometimes in its subtlest form, they also represent my deepest fears as though reflected in a large holographic mirror representing the duality present in our lives.
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"Incandescent"
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"Thanks to Hope"
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Ethel Jimenez
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I agree with Ruth Bernhard who said, "Light is my inspiration; my paint and brush."
I often hurry by scenes that I encounter on a daily basis without giving them a second thought. But, when I do stop and look at the interplay of shadow and light along with texture and color, the objects become wonderful abstractions. I shoot scenes that appeal to me and I hope they will resonate with the viewer. I hope my work will draw the viewer in and make him see in a different way.
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"Angles"
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"Abstract #19"
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Seo Jo
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The theme of my work is that we are always with nature even when we have forgotten it or attempted to leave it behind. I went to create self-portraits in various landscapes. The more I tried to photograph there, the more I learned that nature and humanity are inseparable. I'd like to remind people that we come from nature, are part of nature, and are going back there, no matter what we think nature is. In my work, natural objects such as trees and rocks refer to nature itself as well as the laws of nature (which we often take for granted), such as gravity, the circulatory system, and cause and effect. These self-portraits are not just about my private world but about someone who came to realize they were inseparable from nature.
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"Inseparables #115, Woodstock, NY"
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"Inseparables #132, Salt Point, NY"
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Gabriel Leitner
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My art is a science. For years, I have been searching to find a way to sharpen my queries, without expecting to find answers. Answers are only temporary. Although science seems highly complex, in my view in order to function it has to be simple. My outlook on photography is similar to science. Each frame has to be minimal and in balance. Each frame needs to raise different questions for each viewer and be stimulating enough that the viewer wants to search inside it over and over again. For me, color masks the essence, whereas black and white, or monochrome, presents the maximum stimulation to the viewer, challenging him/her to find relevance and meaning. My goal is to enable the viewer to understand the meaning of each picture through simple lines.
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"Fishermen in a Net"
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"Holy"
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Uri Mahlev
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My artistic work is expressive and abstractive in nature. I try to do something that reacts with one's inner self. My work is about exposing something different and new. My work is more about intuition and interaction. Interaction between the viewer and the piece; between different perspectives such as subject, space, time, motion and beyond. In my work, as in life, change happens within interaction. I do not ask the viewer to understand my work or to figure out what I was trying to catch. My work is about exposing and composing the unexpected "happening" which is dynamic in nature, challenging and lends insight and inspiration.
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"Flow"
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"Chain"
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Eli Matityahu
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The art of photography provides me with the opportunity to evoke emotions in my audience by using my particular perspective to influence the viewer, and, therefore, make the viewer see the object through my eyes. At times, by showing only minimal details of an object, without disclosing the object itself, I can show something in a new way, making a piece of art out of it by working on its own merits. I enjoy photographing subjects with a unique angle or unusual exposure that will later serve as splendid raw material for my digital editing. This process allows me to take something and recreate all or part of it and turn it into a new work of art. This is my true passion.
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"Dancer 546"
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"Dancer 24"
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Shoichi Matsumoto
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As I searched for a way to free myself from the feelings of doubt and uncertainty that consumed my well-being, I found the tool that would help me... a camera! I think that what brought out my artistic sense and creativity was that I wanted to be able to convey my feelings to somebody. I felt the contradiction of knowing that although occupied by my busy lifestyle, I was just letting time pass by. Watching this flow of time, I wanted to discover the importance of each and every moment. To me, black and white photography is the mirror of both my spirit as well as the spirit of my photographs. By contrast, I feel that color reflects the vague world where 'reality' and 'fabrications of reality' meet, so I choose subjects from nature. I focus on representing some other feature of the object, and then the color is naturally expressed.
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"Another Planet"
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"Chelsea 02"
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Angelina McCormick
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Art depends on contradictions. It lives in our responses, in our interpretations and in our understanding. My photographic practice captures the beauty of the world around me through my lens. Sometimes I intend to create beauty, sometimes the mere act of creation is sufficient motivation. In transferring the images from reality to film, I negotiate my inner conflicts and emotions. Although my photographs portray external subjects, they always originate within my spirit, existing as concrete representations of my interior thoughts. I am present in my work, which is in turn an integral part of my nature and my being.
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"Two Roses"
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"Daisies"
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Zvetan Mumdgiev
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My tools are the computer and the mouse. My approach is similar to the classical painters. I create a work of art with my right hand and the computer. I do not use a scanner, photographs, layers or computer generated images. I avoid previously set geometric formulas. I open myself to emotion and my hand is moved by the feeling of the moment. My fantasies contribute to the themes I work on: love, eroticism, sex, etc. I work on several artworks at the same time, and always return to a painting. There is always something to add, but also something superfluous to delete. What always remains is a sense of simplicity - I distrust ostentation - and a wink; I consider a sense of humor vital to building a bridge from me to my audience.
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"Digital Love Forever"
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"Stardust"
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Sahaj Patel
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Dynamic Paintings can be considered a generative art, one that has been generated algorithmically by a computer system. However, they require the skill of an artist. I begin by conceiving an idea, selecting basic colors, shapes and principles of their development over time. Unlike a conventional painter, I have to think in one more dimension to design the evolution of images as the painting develops. Using various techniques that have deep roots in the styles of conventional paintings, I convert the brush strokes into algorithms that can precisely convey my original design of a digital painting. Once the Dynamic Painting has been designed and programmed, it is up to a computer system to bring it to life whilst maintaining fluidity through 'mutation'. The painting is always in a state of a perpetual transformation, living its own life, with objects moving and transforming, yet still following the original concept.
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"Untitled 37"
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"Untitled 43"
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Marcio Pilot
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My work is affected by all aspects of my life, by everything I see, feel, experience. The way I see the world through my lens changes every day, influenced by both dramatic events and the small occurrences of ordinary life. I have an ongoing fascination with the female figure, and it is a recurring theme in my art. I am particularly interested in using dance and choreography in my images, a passion developed during my time as a sound technician for Chorus Line in Rio de Janeiro. I try to capture the encompassing sense of light, music and beauty that I felt then.
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"Rio Carnival 4"
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"Rio Carnival 1"
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Alexandre Plattet
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Landscape photography is particularly well suited to the rendering of abstract facets of nature. In my artistic research, I often use water as a vehicle of creation, because it offers endless ways of creating something surprisingly different from what one usually sees in reality. Each shot I take of nature is a moment of magic, a meeting of Man and his Creator. Despite appearances in some images, I never use digital cameras to produce the pictures shown in my exhibitions or sold on the Internet. I work a lot by intuition and faith; the most interesting pictures are often taken at the least expected moments.
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"Meeting II (Rencontre II)"
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"Eye (Oeil)"
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Gustavo Rasso
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Originally, all of my artistic formation was classic but, in 2005, a fundamental change occurred: I discovered the computer as a media of artistic expression. From that moment on I have dedicated myself completely to its study and experimentation. An essential part of my life was my youthful experience of being a professional actor of theater, television, film and radio. This unusual experience marked my sensibility and gave me a versatility of expression that later appeared in my paintings. I am a pop artist whose voice is characterized by a multiplicity of themes and styles. My digital paintings are the result of a classical vision of painting wrapped in an infinity of possibilities that only the digital universe can provide for me.
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"Tere (Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus)"
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"Woman"
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Carolyn Rogers
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I seek to capture the simple beauty in everyday life — scenes in both built and natural environments — in my photographic images. Some of my favorite places to photograph are close to home, on city streets and along nature trails where I run. Such places hold special appeal for me, as they are wonderful places for quiet reflection and rare moments of solitude. A photograph captures a portion of this beauty and tranquility forever. I use the platinum/palladium printing process — a time-honored process known for its rich tonal scale and permanence — to capture a softer, painterly effect and to lend a poetic quality to the images.
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"Springtime"
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"The Castle"
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Clint Saunders
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Photography has traditionally been used for its mimetic capabilities - for capturing what already exists. As an artist, I use a camera like a pencil to create new environments. Using my original photographs as elements in a montage, I distort, manipulate and reinterpret shapes, colors and, above all, light, to open up new vistas. Through this process, I visually communicate the imagery and concepts I develop in my mind.
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"Sanctuary"
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"Hope"
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Shifra
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I love the bustle and noise of the city, and in it I discovered the magic world of reflections. This multilayered revelation is sometimes a perfect mirror image of reality, and at other times distorted, with the reflected image splintered into a strange, imaginary world filled with speckled shapes reduced into astonishing abstraction. More than once as I roamed the streets with my camera, I felt lifted from the real world and suspended in a parallel reality - a reality that only exists when it is spotted by the eye, and immortalized by the camera. More than once, I have wondered if the conventional world is really the only true reality. I capture and memorize with my camera - in a fraction of a second - an episode which is unique for the moment, because the same reflection will never appear again.
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"Window Shopping"
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"Digital Solutions"
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Artyom Shulga
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Photography is more than a profession or fascination for me, it tightens my observations and experiences and immerses me in the moment. It gives me the possibility of being involved with the world, and of participating in the process of creation through a spiritual connection with my environment. The results are an expression of reality through my own experiences and attitudes. Crucial to this is the matter of color, which is vital in the presentation of moods which are so important when capturing a moment in time. I use color to convey my own emotions and to give a sense of the atmosphere of the moment to the audience.
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"The Queen of Flowers"
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"Constellation Butterflies"
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Federico Swarovski
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Photography has changed my life. Every time I grab my camera, an incredible journey begins, looking for a photograph that can show how beautiful the world is by appreciating it in a different perspective. Inspiration comes naturally, almost guiding me to see art where we normally wouldn’t. To be able to share that beauty with people fills my soul with happiness and makes me feel very proud of my work. Of course that taking the decision to include photography in my life, as a way of living, was very difficult. There was the fear that doing what I most liked as a job wouldn't be so profitable. Fortunately, that fear disappeared when I saw the reaction of people towards my work. That interest that my work generated gave me the confidence to dedicate my life to it.
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"Burnt Truck Serie (2)"
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"Burnt Truck Serie (7)"
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Eberhard Vogler
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I was interested in photography from a very young age, reflecting the fascination of my father and uncle. Since then I have only become more certain that this form of art is very important to me. I usually work in color, but have also experimented with black and white. I compose the image during the shooting, never modifying it on the computer afterwards. Concentrating during the composition is therefore vital for me. My motifs are those I have found traveling around Europe and especially my native Germany. I love the details and architectural structures and landscape views which I find there, and like to use light, perspective, colors, form and contrast to show them at their best. I try to capture the morbid charm of broken windows, doors and other settings. I'm also interested in people in their environment.
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"Gateway Arche"
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"Waterfall"
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