ideas » Art

Music and Photography

IDEAS — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:37:54 +0000

Photography is music for the eye. Music is the photography of our soul.

Self experiment: Picture yourself listening to the songs you used to listen to with your first love. Now, imagine looking at the pictures you took during that same time in your life. How do you feel? Are the two sentiments-the one from the music and the other from the photos-similar?

Brothers capturing the intangible

There is a reason why they are. Photography and music share common ground. Both transcend language; they touch the spectator/listener in ways that words could never succeed in doing. Aldous Houxley said “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” The power of photography is similar. It is the kind of power that makes Dirk Bogard say, ”The camera can photograph thought”. We also hear Ryan Lobo, the great photojournalist, explain: “Photography transcended culture, including my own. And it is, for me, a language which expressed the intangible, and gives voice to people and stories without”.

Yes, both Photography and Music assist us in capturing the intangible. A good picture freezes reality and therefore gives us the opportunity to explore a situation thoroughly and deeply. Likewise, a song, a melody is the detailed exploration of a mood, feeling or emotion. Both music and photography touch us and change us. In its best moments a great picture inspires us to act in the same way music entices us to dance.

Soul Photography and Decisive Music

But what qualifies a picture or song to be good? When do both have the power to move us?

Musicians and Photographers have one thing in common: they must master the technique of their arts virtuously in order to understand the art of composition. Art is unique and intuitive: these artists could be dedicated students of their genre or even masters of their field of art, but if their art misses a hidden detail, all the proficiency becomes paltry. There is always one minuscule yet essential detail at the basis of every good picture or song that cannot be taught in schools or read about in handbooks.

This tiny detail is what transforms a mediocre picture to a paramount picture. This detail is what brings the mojo to music. This detail is the emotion that is caught in between celluloid. It is this intangible detail that catches the eye of the beholder and allows him to be overwhelmed with emotions of joy, sorrow, or compassion.The big step from the mediocre to the paramount picture is not to be found in the actual picture but in the spark of emotion the picture evokes at the moment it is viewed.

What the “soul” is in music is the “decisive” in photography. Duke Ellington says” It don’t” mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” In other words a picture without soul is a dead picture, a song without the vital sparkle that jumps from instrument to the ear of the listener is worthless.

What people are made of: the power of the arts

Martha Graham once said: “There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost.” If the musicians’ art becomes channeled through this vitality, and if this expression is honest and genuine, it will transcend the existent. A stunning picture is a keyhole to a hidden story, it is the small hole in the wall through which we see our reality more profoundly and wholesomely. A good picture therefore surpasses words: it expresses what cannot be written or said.

Photography and Music in their best moments allows us to sees what people are made of. On their most glorious days they enlighten man on the subject of man. Borges describes this moment of clarity and truth as follows: ”Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.” Music is a snapshot of our emotions. Just like Photography, it freezes a single moment; its atmosphere and sentiment reveal to us the hidden story.

Capture Emotions

What can we take from this insight? If you want your expressions to be unique, reach out for the intangible and bring it into existence with your art. If you want to shoot a great picture, master the instrument; master the composition. And then forget the rules and play. Jamming, free styling-whatever you call it, lose yourself in the details.

Be daring enough, be curious enough to embark on a quest for what moves you because composing mesmerizing music or taking a stirring photo is impossible without heart and soul. In the end, it is not the music we play but the harmony that reaches our listener’s mind. It is not the pictures we think we captured, but the emotions that they evoke in our viewers. The harmony of a picture touches us in the way a euphonic melody speaks to us. Music and Photography are brothers in capturing the inexpressible, revealing their powers when words simply are not enough.

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Comparison by Nikolas Konstantin

www.nikolaskonstantin.com

Featured: Japon Undercover

IDEAS Magazine — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:40:51 +0000

EVENTS: Exhibition 10 countries

IDEAS Magazine — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:56:14 +0000

10 Countries – 1 Generation

From December 15^th on, Nikolas Konstantin will inaugurate his unique exhibition “10 Countries”, which shows the notion of “Diversity” in an extraordinary light. The pictures display the manifoldness of the young generation and may be found on the 4^th floor of the Oval in The Hague University.

Our modern society is characterized by its inherent multiplicity and still – there are only a few places on this planet where this precious attribute is joyously celebrated.

The inspirational exhibition that features pictures of students from various countries located all over the world has been created to emphasize this unique attribute. The young faces are shown in distinctive settings, expressing different emotions. The techniques of the pictures accentuate the many facets of today’s generation and the immanent disparities that diversity inevitably entails. The portraits could not be more distinctive and yet, the young people share one crucial characteristic – They are all students of The Hague University.

With this extraordinary exhibition, the students of The Hague University want to make the statement that diversity is an irreplaceable and wonderful attribute of our world today, which accompanies the process of blurring borders and differences among people, cultures, religions and every other part of society.

Enjoy the opening of the exhibition on Tuesday, 15th 16:30 in the HEBOS Canteen in the HHS.

10countrieschina

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China

Gallery: Nafasi @ Paard

IDEAS Magazine — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:55:10 +0000

Nafasi called for an Benefit concert in the prestigious Paard van Troje and over 10 Bands followed the invitation. Enjoy the highlights of the evening with pictures by Nikolas Konstantin.

Click on the picture to access the gallery

Atmospheres of Europe

IDEAS Magazine — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:21:31 +0000

Let us take you on a journey through the places of our continent Europe. The pictures are the outcome of our Pictures of Europe competition.

Moldova

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Nicolaescu-Musteață

Mexico: An alternative view

IDEAS Magazine — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:49:42 +0000

Mexico: "the belly button of the moon"

Mexico means in the prehispanic language náhuatl “the belly button of the moon”. This name is expressing how special this place is, center of strong energetic currents that will help you transcend your senses to discover more about yourself.
Mexico is magic, not the kind of magic that throw rabbit out of hats but a magic that makes life less obscure and helps you understand why we are all here on earth.

alternative ways of traveling

Buses leave stations when they are full. Time doesn’t define actions, actions define time.
You are free to eat whenever you feel like eating, and better to not eat alone.
Warm hugs are a much better way to say hello and bye bye.
Cities are more beautiful with walls painted in flashy red, blue, yellow, orange…and gray is not a color.
Work is not a value, just a tool that can sometimes make you live better.
Life is just beautiful and each moment, each fragment of sun, each discussion, each tequila must be appreciated. That’s what Mexico taught me.

A Mexico full of colours, compassion and culture.

Media tend to show us Mexico as a dangerous country that could contaminate the whole world. That’s one perception, I invite you strongly to make your own. For this reason we created www.mexicooo.com, a website to promote a alternative vision of Mexico. A Mexico with an alternative perception of time, food, work, life and love. A Mexico full of colours, compassion and culture.

You can make you first step into Mexico by checking www.mexicooo.com

Ben Lesage

Unconscious Kenya

IDEAS Magazine — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:31:06 +0000

: black & white

Unconscious Kenya

written by Allison Cressy photography by Nicola Zolin

In the chaos of an unstable political situation, education is the only hope that could raise up the sort of Kenya, misguided for years by leaders not interested in the destiny of their people. Kenya is a classic case where the government does not fear the people. There is a very small literate, educated, and mostly urban elite which can actually read the national newspapers and can follow the major happenings in politics in Kenya. Of those, even fewer will actually understand, analyze, and take action on the corruption, lack of transparency, theft of government money, and even the post-election violence for which top government officials are responsible. Even if the whole literate and educated population of Kenya were to come together and demand well-informed and pro-people reforms, they would represent a tiny minority of the people; not nearly enough to demand change. What Kenya needs is a better educated population: One which is better informed about the government and the laws which govern them, one which feels a solidarity among the people and realizes their strength, one which is creative with peaceful ways to show the government that they must be adequately served. Kenya is not a poor country; they have extensive resources from agriculture to tourism to minerals, and they are not unimportant politcally for the region.

colour

They have enough resources and influence to raise the standard of living for its people, but it has been too convenient for the leaders of this country to give preference to business, tribal, and personal interests to consider how to actually improve the well-being of wananchi, the citizens. Add to that the incompetency which has been inherited through family lines since independence (the Kenyattas, the Odingas, and now the Kibakis), and spread through ministries (at least 5 senior ministers of Kenya have no college degree whatsoever, never mind an education in the fields they are directing), and it’s no wonder that Kenya is as mismanaged as it is. But the most grave problem is not the corruption, tribalism, and incompetency. It’s the inability of the people to understand it, to criticize it, and to demand something better. If wananchi can find a new and peaceful way to get the people involved and make the government listen, the rest can start to be repaired. They know something is wrong. They know they deserve better. And now we need a recipe for educating and engaging them in a way that brings positive results, instead of an outburst of misguided violence like what we saw in January 2009 after the Election. New, pro-poor, and pro-African ways of citizen participation in Kenya can be the catalyst which drives all of the changes that are needed in Kenya, in Africa, and through the Global South.

Portofolio: Photography by Sebastian Schütz

niko — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:31:17 +0000

gallery one

gallery two

A brave new world

niko — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:12:59 +0000

A brave new world

The Netherlands is ambiguous. One can describe the country most trenchant with the word doublethink; the word has its origin in the book 1984 by George Orwell. Doublethink is conceived as the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, (especially as a result of political indoctrination). The Netherlands represents these contrary opinions and mindsets. If we believe Hofstede’s definition that culture is the programming of the mind than this country is inhabited of creative Mac’s, bureaucratic cumbersome PC’s, as well as people that run last centuries MS DOS in their perception of the world.

Just as it is impossible to define the modern Dutch identity, it may be impossible to depict Dutch culture. Like a patchwork of cross-correlating cultures or a pizza cuatro estagiones the wrapping in categories seems virtually not possible. My pictures shall depict this contrast. They are a blueprint of reality, random snapshots attempting to visualize the gap between high productive working cultures and slow but colorful influence winning traditions.

The Netherlands awaits us with architecture beyond imagination, playing wild games with forms and function, but is also hosts to old fashioned characters of a torn out black & white toned past, accidentally placed in a time and space that they don’t construct. Any attempt to reclaim the city is defeated; any attempt to become part of the system is postponed by the immigration department. When opening the eyes, this country often resembles a futuristic nightmare of loneliness, a boulevard of broken dreams; in contrast it is the dream of design, the heaven of creativity, a place of artistic freedom. In the end there is the realization of the fact that one knew a little bit before coming here and now knows a lot less.

Niko Papageorgiou is a European Studies student and founder of the IDEAS -webmagazine