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Kris Vervaeke was rewarded a Photo Awards 2011 Juror's Pick by Stacey Clarkson. Her body of work, "Fade Away," collects images of decaying photographs found on Chinese tombstones. Kate Levy  interviewed Vervaeke about the body of work, and the elusive quality of these photo documents.

Kate Levy: Some of these images have a very graphic immediacy to them, almost counterintuitive to the softness of the gradual weathering they endured. When I look at them, I am reminded that altough the picture's positioning on a tombstone may invoke a cacophony of memories, paper is just paper. I see this project not only as a direct comment on the fading of an identity and subjectivity that once was the only thing, but an exploration of how the brutal material of photography doesn't hold the candle for nostalgia. Can you comment?

Kris Vervaeke: There were two reasons I decided to start this project. First, when exploring the pictures on the tombstones, it struck me how beautiful the individual faded images were when looking at them purely graphically. Secondly, the large quantity of images in the cemetery created a noise. That was the cacophony of memories, young, old, messy, loud, almost hearable, emphasized by the irregularities in the different stones and their various levels of decay.

I wanted to take the images out of the tombstone's frame, out of the crowd on the cemetery and away from the context of death. I wanted to avoid distraction, single the pictures out as pure graphic images. In a way, I wanted to give them tranquility, listen to the individual stories, to the life that was still audible.

The result fascinated me. The pictures invoke at first a very personal encounter, almost intimate, as meeting a family member. You look into the individual faces and you feel as if you can bring back some of the fading personality, by giving it attention and interpretation. But then, contradictory, quickly, almost unconsciously, the graphical image takes over and the personality that you thought captured your interest fades. The abstract starts to dominate, and you almost have to force yourself to keep seeing the individual person. You lose interest in the story of the person on the photo and you wallow in the beauty of graphical image.

Your point is absolutely correct, paper is brutal. It cools down one-dimensionally and very quickly. It does not carry memories well.

I have worked - and still am working - on further challenging this duel between the graphic image and the personality. I have worked on large individual prints, reunited the cemetery crowd in a large collage of pictures to invoke the noise I captured in the cemetery. I have let the pictures decay and crumble to invoke the multidimensional feel of the stones, and I have placed the photos back in vibrant living environments. 

Copyright Kris Vervaeke

KL: Have you traced any of the individuals marked by the tombstones and images back to their families? Are there any specific familial lineages that you have hooked onto throughout the project? Do you have any particular criteria for selecting images to photograph? 

KV: No. In this approach I did not trace any lineages. Selection was made on the type of person shown on the pictures and on the graphic.

At first, I made up stories; I was interested, but only for a short period. The image as an image fascinates me more than the history or family of the individual. Now, I kind of like the fact that the lineage remains unknown. It strengthens the idea of the fading of the individual as such.

Copyright Kris Vervaeke

KL: Have you extended this project in any way? Can you talk about what you are working on since you received Stacy Clarkson's juror pick in 2011?

KV: I am still working with these images. As I described above, I'm challenging myself on pushing the individual back in front of the graphical image.

I'm also currently working on photogrphing ignored, neglected or abandoned places in Singapore.

One space is a small social-cultural theme park built in the 1930's around Chinese mythology and daily life situations. It was a big attraction in the 1960s and '70s, but now it is rarely visited and considered boring. I find it absolutely beautiful in its ambition and in its decay. IT is pregnant with messages and good intentions, and with memories that nobody gives a damn about anymore. 

Another place I am focusing on is an old cemetery: neglected for decades, sitting in the jungle. A burial ground of the pioneers of Singapore. Unfortunately, it is situated on prime land. So this unique piece of nature and history will make way for urban development. It will simply get erased. 

I'm fascinated by people's sense of importance and their unpreventable futility. I'm fascinated by the power of color and abstract images that last so much longer and prove to be so much stronger. It's funny how we lose interest so quickly in individual stories but remain attached to color and shape. Even if we emphasize the individual, shape and color will continue to dominate our memory This duality and our own misconception on what we want to be important and what we really remember is inspiring.

Another project I have been working on for a while is on fortune tellers and people's need for prediction and religion. This series has a strong emphasis on color. Although you think you are looking into people's wants and non-wants, crawling through their desires when looking at the photos, you will remember mainly color when you reflect back.

Copyright Kris Vervaeke

To see more of Kris Vervaeke's work, visit http://www.cdsporch.org/archives/8982 or

http://www.chileverde.com.hk/.

To enter the 2012 Daylight Photo Awards, visit http://www.daylightmagazine.org/content/daylight-photo-awards by May 15th!

The 2012 Krakow Photomonth Festival is nearing fast and there are a lot of things to be excited about. There will be many exhibitions with artists like Alexander Rodchenko, Jerzy Lewczynski, Rene Magritte, Sergey Bratkov, and many more, that will explore how photogaphy has evolved up to our modern times. Something new for this year is the Experimental Section presenting 'Photography in Everyday Life', which investigates the role of photography in our own individual lives as well as the relationship between photogaphy and the social and historical phenomena. There will also be the VII Portfolio Review for participants to bring their work and have it reviewed by professionals in the photo world. The 2012 Krakow Festival will also host a myriad of meetings, screenings, lectures, workshops, and slideshows to further enrich the viewers experience.

The 2012 Krakow Photomonth Festival will start on May 17 and end on June 17. For more information and a full list of events check out the website.

Information:

http://photomonth.com/index.php/en/page/1/aktualnosci.html

Photo by Jason Evans

Imagine your camera was stripped away from you, and all you had was language to describe the experience between your eye, the camera, and the subject.

This Sunday (April 22) Artbook at Moma PS1 will host a panel discussion based on the book 'Photographs Not Taken'. The event will start at 2pm and end at 4pm. Come out to hear from some of the contributors Nina Berman, Gegory Halpern, Amy Stein, and editor Will Stacey. The event will be moderated by Daylight cofounders Taj Forer and Michael Itkoff.

Information:

http://momaps1.org/calendar/view/348/

James Dodd is a photographer based in Sheffield, UK, and 2011 Photo Awards' Juror, Anthony Bannon's pick for the Works in Process Prize. Check out more of his work at http://jamesdodd.net/

Be sure to enter the 2012 Daylight Photo Awards!

Kate Levy: Thus far, your Olympic Dreams series depicts bodies contorted by a lack of gravity, abstracted by the mass of aquatic space. We see squeamish and excited figures hurling through skillfully employed negative space. This seems to invoke struggle, untamed success, uncertainty and fear. Can you offer any insight into the lives of your subjects as related to your compositions?

James Dodd: Through the work I was never trying to specifically depict a single individual or one's personal experiences. Whilst each image may show an individual, what it presents relates more to their overall progress as a competitor, emotions that may be more familiar to each and every member of the team at some point throughout their careers.

For example, the image where the girl is wrapped up in bubbles--whilst I'm aiming to depict a struggle, I'm not saying that this struggle represents her specific life, but it does represent a certain point in all of their lives and careers. They all go through the same processes. They all train hard and push their young bodies to the limits and do come up against the metaphoric wall. The outcomes for some differ from others. Some have gone on to experience great success at international competitions, whilst others developed injuries, which ultimately led to them leaving the program.

copyright James Dodd

KL: Through your use of space, your images are successful in invoking feelings similar to that which the youth are feeling. Have you started working outside of the pool setting, more closely documenting the lives of your subjects? How has the series progressed since you were awarded a Juror's Pick in last year's Photo Awards?

JD: I briefly started working out of the pool with my subjects in the past. Back then I don't think it was the direction I wanted the project to head in. I felt I wanted to try and concentrate on somewhat of a mythical dream world, where I could convey divers' emotions through their bodies rather than showing the literal joy and despair they go through, as well as the repetition of their every day life.

As the Olympics has been approaching, I've been concentrating on other bodies of work, as I have gained a clear idea where I would like to take the project. I failed to gain Olympic accreditation, which at the time I was rather down about, but now I can see that being in that press pack, working poolside wouldn't have resulted in the story I wanted to tell. That particular area will be well documented, and perhaps oversaturated. We'll see way too many images of joy and despair of those who are lucky enough to place or unfortunate to fail.

So I thought hard about it and have decided to take the route of documenting the lives of those who fail to make that mark this time round. Maybe they’re the youth who I've photographed before who just aren't developed yet, or maybe they’re the older generations who have been replaced by their prodigies. Only time will tell. But I think it’s these untold stories which really interest me, these stories which unfold away from the TV cameras and millions of viewers at home.

KL: What is your connection to your subjects? How did you meet them? How closely do you know them?

JD: Whilst I was in college, I was searching for long-term projects to pursue; I felt I needed a contrast to the press type assignments I was being dealt through the course.
As it came around to covering a sports assignment I decided to head to the local pool (which happens to be one of only a few international sized ones in the country, Sheffield’s Ponds Forge). A few other course members came with me the first time; at the time we were bunching together to make it easier to arrange shoots, one person would sort out one venue, another a different one and so on.

I enjoyed it there, and continued my visits as I started to engage with the coaches and find out more about their program. It wasn't a story I set out to tell, there was no information about what they were doing out there in the real world as far as I knew, so being there and talking to them is what shaped the project.

Over time I'd get to know a few of the kids fairly well, they'd visit exhibitions of the work, some would buy my book and one would come and visit me with her parents when she was injured.

KL: You have a few bodies of work involving swimming. Why swim teams?

JD: Swimming is just something I've always been drawn to, from being a toddler, when my Dad and my Uncle would take me swimming almost daily at Sheaf baths, which would later become Ponds Forge. This pool turned out to be the very same one I'd be photographing in 20 something years later. Also, being in university and having a cheap gym membership enabled me to go as frequently as I wanted without it breaking the bank!

I suppose photographing in the environment was a natural for me or at least there was always something very familiar about it. Being in Sheffield made everything much easier. We have so many international events right here on my doorstep it was almost rude not to get involved and photograph something I actually cared about and had a genuine intrigue for.

copyright James Dodd

KL: Can you describe the process of making the underwater portraits?

JD: Creating the underwater images came via one of two methods. The first was a no brainer for me. Underneath the stands and through a dimly lit corridor and down some stairs with a broken lock on a door, was the vent shaft for the pool. Down here wind swings through from the heaters of the pool and sounds echo immensely. At both sides of the pool lies a pair of viewing portholes that the teams occasionally use to observe the divers' entries. I had no idea about the existence of this vent shaft, but one of the coaches suggested it to me. As quick as one of the kids was jumping in, I was jetting off to the security desk to beg for an access key!

It's dark, wet and dingy, the glass is thick, knocks a couple of stops of light off the lens and distorts things massively at times. It was by no means ideal, but it was convenient.

The second method included a borrowed or a rented camera housing. There was no way I could ever afford one of my own. As I previously mentioned, I was still a student whilst I created much of the first part of the body of work, so I was more concerned with how I'd pay my fees than how I'd buy a £3,000 piece of plastic to protect my kit! I asked around on a few specialist forums and someone offered me their kit for the day. I had no idea what I was getting in for. I was a fairly strong swimmer; whilst at University I was swimming a mile almost daily. But this wasn't swimming. It was diving under the water and holding my breath, trying to compose for an entry I was never sure the location of and then taking the photograph.
It was dark above the water, so as these kids dropped 2-3 meters below, it'd only get darker. I'd hold the camera in front of me, set to 5600 ISO, 1/100th of a second and around f/5.6, knowing full well that the diver would enter the water anywhere in the radius of a 6-meter circle. I'd come to know my 28mm lens quite well by this point, it was basically the only lens I owned, so not having to look through a viewfinder (which would have been near impossible for me anyway) was a godsend.

They'd fire through the water, it would light up as they dragged air down with them, creating bubbles which would twinkle in the little light there was at poolside, and I'd take 3-4 shots.

To say there was an element of luck involved would be an understatement. I didn't just come away with the images I wanted straight away, I had to learn how and where they would enter the pool, and what they'd do once they were in the depth of the pool.

The image of the girl almost looking like a crucifix, floating in the dark pool, was ultimately a conceived image. I didn't ask the girl to pose, but I just knew what she was likely to do. This was a result of me monitoring what she’d do.
She was diving from the 10-meter board and she wasn't all that experienced with it, as she was quite young. She'd enter at quite a bit of force and to stop her hitting the floor, was told that once she'd hit the water she should put her arms out to slow her movements down.
And that’s it, I’d observe it once or twice and then wait for the moment to come around again.

copyright James Dodd

KL: Tell us about the bodies of work you have been developing since you received your Photo Award last year.

JD: I've recently been concentrating on a couple of other bodies of work, which are quite a venture away from my Olympic Dreams piece. I'm heading away from the side of the pool and away from sports in general. 
I am focusing on subjects I’m extremely interested in. For example, car boot sales have been something I’ve been involved in since being a young child, both as a buyer and a seller. They’ve occupied many of my Sunday mornings. “Sunday Morning Sales” marks the first time I’ve concentrated on photographing them. It’s really something to witness, each seller pulls up to their pitch with their car rammed full of remnants of their lives: the books they’ve read, the gift’s they never wanted to receive, the clothes they feel no longer defines them, and the hobbies and collections they no longer desire to pursue. Each stall is almost portrait of the seller, a piece of themselves spread out right there on decorating tables and on the floor for all to see and buy.
I’m presently working on grant proposals for the body, as I intend to continue my documentation and develop a touring exhibition from the series which will see me mount the prints in frames purchased from car boot sales, and exhibit them at the very car boot sales they were taken at.
The Walkers project is almost an offshoot to this. After visiting the car boot sales out in the middle of the peak district, we’d occasionally head out walking on the hills and through the villages. At first it wasn’t exactly something I cared for, but after time it grew on me and I slowly became more and more engrossed in the idea of walking as an exercise and almost a way of life. The community and its pleasant greetings, the fresh air and the views are such a massive contrast to life in the city and a lovely escape.
And it does contrast to the Sheffield work, where I’m trying to use photography as a tool to explore the changing face of the city, it’s identity and industry.
In January 2011, I started photographing ever piece of food I've consumed in order to uncover any potential dietary issues I may have been suffering. This process resulted in my feasted project, on which I’ve recently released a self-published zine.

As humans, we all form our preception of things by our life experiences, and our observation of action and consequence. As we grow older we start to make choices on how we perceive things and whether to embrace these perceptions or reject them. In an upcoming show at the Ampersand Gallery, Amy Elkins has curated a show that questions the viewers sense of seeing.

"We are presented with three artists who challegence standard notions of 'beauty' perception, causing a schism between what we think we see how we might read or interpret it." -Sarah Palmer

The three artists are Jen Davis, Cara Phillips, and Stacey Tyrell. Using their respective mediums, they have been brought together to encourage the viewer to adopt a deep gaze to the object that is presented in front of them. In addition, Ampersand will publish an exhibition book entitled Gazed Upon and will be printed in an edition of 100. The exhibition is open until April 24 at the Ampersand Gallery.

Information:

http://www.ampersandvintage.com/Ampersand_Vintage/Amy_Elkins_-_Gazed_Upon_-_April_2012.html