LIGA SAKSE."DIMENSIONS AND DYNAMICS"

26.08. - 03.10.2010
From August 26 to October 3, 2010 the Latvian Museum of Photography will be hosting an exhibition of artist Līga Sakse’s photographic work. Līga Sakse (born in 1976) is a graduate of the Latvian Art Academy and has learnt photography from such Latvian professionals as Gunārs Binde, Astrīda Meirāne, and others. Asked about the reasons why she took up photography, among other inspirations, the artist mentions her grandmother Antonija Heniņa1 who worked as a photographer in the vicinity of the small towns of Skrunda and Rudbārži. During her long life (born in 1897; died in 1979) Antonija was a photographer who had her own salon, was a mother to her four sons, and, according to her granddaughter, used to play guitar as well. The exhibition will comprise of works from Līga Sakse’s Dimensijas un dinamika (Dimensions and Dynamics) series started in 2006, when the artist first begun documenting flowers and smoke. “I never imagined that the dynamics of smoke would fascinate me enough to keep me photographing it up until today,” says the artist.

Flowers in photographs are as various as us people. Some of us like pristine nature and freshly picked daisies, other would prefer luxuriant rose and peony bouquets carefully arranged in a studio. Many of us might remember the colourful flowers from Soviet Latvian postcards printed in the 1970s and 1980s. Those decorative flower arrangements were photographed by recognised professionals, e.g. Gunārs Janaitis.
Personally, I find the work by German artist and botanist Karl Blossfeldt2 created in the early 20th century surprisingly up-to-date and interesting. Blossfeldt documented fragments of plants - buds, petals, stems, accentuating their architectural or sculptural forms. His method seems simple and laconic - objects are photographed magnified frontally or from above against a mono-coloured background. In his explorations
of nature, looking for motifs that in art and especially sculpture are viewed as archetypes, the photographer takes a neutral position.

Imogene Cunningham3 also photographed plants, however her black and whites are different – we can notice creative expressions, the artist’s effort to find an aesthetic solution.

Matthias Harder, the curator of the Helmut Newton Foundation, has studied contemporary photographers whose work is devoted to depicting flowers. In 2010 Dumont published his album-collection Flower Power, comprising works by thirty two artists. Germany-based Brazilian photographer Luzia Simons4 creates her images of tulip arrangements, not by photographing them but by scanning them. Dutch artist Margriet Smulders5 makes pictorial and surreal photos using water, coloured liquids and mirrors to reflect the lush details - flowers, petals, twigs and other components. German artist Michael Wesely6 applies long exposures (lasting for days) to acquire pictures showing gradually wilting tulips. With the flower stems losing their firmness and bending downwards a rough depiction of their trajectory is obtained.

Images of wilting flowers are usually related to the vanitas genre in fine arts7. This tradition was started by 17th century Dutch painters who included in their works reminders of the brevity of human life – using skulls, candles, smoke, flowers, particularly tulips, and other objects as symbols of imminent death.

Current technologies make various effects possible in photography. For instance, in German photographer Martin Klimas’s8 works we see how glass vases are shattered to pieces but the flowers have not moved yet. Līga Sakse has also captured the moment right before smoke vanishes into the air, thus making her work close to photos created by the artists described above, and to the theme of vanitas.

Although the artist aims at creating artworks possessing aesthetic qualities our conversation was affected by the death of a tiny sparrow– several days before the little bird had just dropped to the ground right next to Līga’s shopping bag. “I realise how important it is to pass away prepared and ready to meet the Creator,” says Līga.

“I’ve been working as a graphic designer, but nevertheless I keep returning to photography. I’m attracted by the dimension impossible to capture in drawings. I can draw movement but only photography allows me to document it immediately. My work contains metaphors on people and their relationships. Confronted with the choices to tear apart human souls or to enrich them, I prefer the latter and work peacefully in the era of so much disquiet and horror. Flowers and smoke in my photos are metaphors to speak about eternity. In some people smoke may bring recollections of candles burnt at churches in prayers for the living or dead. Smoke symbolises time - a brief moment and it has vanished. I’m not simply enjoying pretty flowers and smoke! I don’t care what the viewer will see in my photos, I’m positive about anything – since it’s only the fruit of the viewers’ imagination. Like a child imagines a familiar silhouettes in shapes of clouds.”

“In some way I deeply respect my viewer. I feel that today many artworks are created to annoy and provoke, whereas I prefer quiet and peaceful relationships with my viewers. While working at the studio I’m not exactly contemplating death, I’m looking for silhouettes, compositions, and capturing the moments when everything corresponds, including light and quality. As a photographer I wish to become free and reach virtuosity. Most often I shoot callas because these flowers have a shape compatible with smoke. Small flowers are good to work with smoke. Roses can be too large and seem over impressive in photos, while snowdrops or lilies of the valley are so small and delicate. You might not even notice them growing so close to the ground, but I can highlight them - their size is perfect for smoke! To create smoke I use smoke candles. I always work with assistants; it’s a carefully organised teamwork. It sometimes happens that the best smoke rings remain outside the shot and are lost - no one can prevent that. We work intensively for half-an-hour or forty five minutes at the longest, and then we air the room and afterwards resume working. There are sessions when work goes smoothly and each tenth shot is a success, and then there may be days when we fail to produce anything.”

Asked about technicalities Līga Sakse says: “Earlier I used medium format film, but then I felt sorry for the time spent. With that method the process is extremely unpredictable – I may develop five films and see that nothing has come out of them. Digital cameras are far more convenient and economical, for I can control the outcome. Post processing is necessary but I try not to exaggerate its importance. At times I change colours or turn a positive into a negative. What I want to be there in my pictures can be obtained by simple methods, therefore intensive processing of files is not needed. I photograph smoke with studio lighting thus ensuring a clear result. I’ve worked outdoors as well, but unfortunately in open air smoke becomes unpredictable, affected by weather – wind and rain. My first flowers were chestnut buds and orchid blossoms, back then I was not so much interested in the flowers themselves than in taking pictures – how to use lights, how to capture transparency. Later I turned to smaller flowers with flexible stems and twined them together to create an association with people who have met each other. I looked for ways to make flowers look interesting, since this theme has been depicted by numerous photographers ever since the beginnings of photography.”
Blooming Time in Līga Sakse’s Photographs
Anda Boluža, an expert at the Latvian Museum of Photography
Originally published in Foto Kvartāls, No.4(24), 2010, pp.58-60. www.fotokvartals.lv

Translated into English by Lāsma Ēķe.

1 Antonija Heniņa’s file No. FzAp157, the archives of Latvian Photography Museum.
2 Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932), German photographer, artist, pedagogue. – Ed. note.
3 Imogene Cunningham (1883–1976), American photographer. – Ed. note.
4 Luzia Simons (1953), German photographer. Homepage www.luziasimons.de.– Ed. note.
5 Margriet Smulders (1955), Dutch photographer. Homepage www.margrietsmulders.nl. – Ed. note.
6 Michael Wesely (1963), German photographer. Homepage www.wesely.org.– Ed. note.
7 On the history of this genre and its manifestations in contemporary photography see: Harder, Matthias. On Growth and Decay: Joie de Vivre and Vanitas. Foto Kvartāls, No.2(22), 2010, pp.66.-70.
8 Martin Klimas (1971), German photographer. Homepage www.martin-klimas.de. – Ed. note.