moodscanner: 04/06/14

Wildfire - Matthew Albanese

Recently, I reflected a lot about childhood memories and things that had an influence on me in my youth.
I guess when you're in your early 30ies, many people start to look back on their lives seriously for the first time. It can be a very melancholic trip into the past, remembering what we loved or hated most in our childhood, what we managed to workout, people who always stayed with us or friends we lost sight of them.
During my studies on Scenographical Design or research for my blog, I saw the works of some artists who specifically try to create images or parallel realities that capture moments from their childhood or variations of memories. Some photographers turn into model makers who recreate environments that are dealing with real historical background and events, but with their very own tone and often surrealistic moods (for example Paolo Ventura, Alan Rolfson, or Jiang Pengyi - I wrote about them some time ago..).

I very like the idea of "recreating memories".

Instead of carrying around pleasant or unpleasant memories from your early days with you, you can visualize them, make them visible and create something new simultaneously. I think it's the same thing which is always a part of creative processes. But sometimes photographers, painters or writers as well are bold enough to focus on the pure mood of these specific moments in their work. When you look at it, you may be fascinated, confused or touched by very subtle feelings.

Similar to a typical David Lynch movie - you can feel the presence of strange ghosts and moods which seem to come directly from a stranger's mind, and at the same time the story and basic elements are set in our reality and physicality as we (seem to) know it.

Strangely, the very first artist who catched my eye when I started this blog, was Matthew Albanese indeed.

For some reason, I never managed to write a post about him and his phenomenal work until today. I admire his work because it's quiet exactly this kind of model and photography work I always wanted to experiment with. During my studies of Scenographical Design, I had the opportunity to create some small scaled "alternative realities" which I partly based on childhood memories and moods I wanted to express. I was very fascinated by it and Albanese's work is the perfect advancement of this experimental work.
Of course, his work is epic and far more sophisticated than mine. You can clearly notice his professional background as a photographer and the enormous efforts he put into this studio work.

I don't want to say or explain too much about this selection of images, just look for yourself.. ;-)