Archives – August 18, 2021
The Light Gallery of Moscow presents until January 16 the first Russian exhibition in Melvin Sokolsky.
Here it is with the quotes that Melvin himself added.
Bubbles
The emblematic series Bubbles brought a world renown to Sokolsky, then 30 years old. In 1963, young Melvin Sokolsky made a series of unprecedented photographs with models hovering over the streets of Paris in transparent giant spheres. Inspired by the Jardin des Délices by Hieronymus Bosch, the series of Sokolsky combines surrealism with the world of haute couture, but also street photography in the fashion industry, which became more and more popular at the time. The main image of the series, Bubble on the Seine, 1963 captured the French model Simone d’Aillencourt in a haute couture costume frozen in a plexiglass sphere above the smooth Seine. It is this photograph that has become one of the most influential and emblematic fashion images in history. “The artistic director of Harper’s Bazaar, Henry Wolf, left me a total conceptual freedom at the time. He was only interested in my personal and artistic vision. The essential was that people look at my work and say – it’s a Sokolsky”he recalls.
Surrealism
Overviews of surrealism in Sokolsky’s work is also found in his 1963 series with giant furniture. To photograph the models, an ordinary chair and table in Melvin’s mother’s cuisine have been enlarged several times: “It was really magical to see the graceful silhouettes of the models on this huge chair”he said.
Two years after the legendary Bubbles series, in 1965, in Paris, Sokolsky photographs American model and actress Dorothy McGowan in levitation in an urban setting dressed in Dior and Balmain dresses. In filming, McGowan, which was a muse of Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and William Klein, was suspended in a special corset with rings through which thin steel cables had passed, allowing assistants to maneuver their position in the air. “There is nothing impossible for Melvin when he has an idea”said McGowan.
Light
I have always been fascinated by the way in which light can change the atmosphere and the meaning of a situation. As a child, I remember my mother lighting a candle after sunset and the excitement that I felt when the atmosphere of the room suddenly changed, bathed in the warm and soft light. I would dare to say that the success of an image is based on harmony between the idea and the light. There is a good light for everything. I illuminate the semi-obscurity more than when I take photos. A freshly observed rose will certainly change the face of photography. Ideas are not digital. – Melvin Sokolsky
Worlds
Besides my bed, I keep a notebook in which I sometimes write while I am half awake, early in the morning, when a dream has entered a place where I have never visited or seen. With my eyes closed, I scribble in the notebook then I go back to. – Melvin Sokolsky
Chemistry
I have always been attracted to everything that nature has to offer. I cannot think of a plant, an animal or a creature that inhabits this planet that did not fascinate me. I never thought that a being in the universe is superior to another. There is no living being on earth that I have seen that is more or less beautiful than another, even if it is true that I am more attracted by certain inhabitants of the earth than others. As a photographer, I give in to my affinities until I am ready to move on and to explore new challenges because I visually exhausted my vision on a given subject. I believe that personal affinities are genetic idiosyncrasia specific to each individual. In my life, to please my vision brought many surprises to which I would never have consciously thought. It is this chemistry which, I believe, is the creative force in each of us. – Melvin Sokolsky
Palette
When we look at an image that has a unique presence, the usual question is “how was it made?” I am less interested in how and much more by what inspired the image. Many masters of the beginning of the century entered the dark room and coated their own glass plates to create a personal palette. Today, most photographers are limited to various manufactured films that I describe as emulsion of the day. When the photographers have given up making their own film emulsions and adopted commercial manufacturing films, the palette of some of the biggest image creators has become somewhat standardized. Even Steichen no longer looked like Steichen. I have always been interested in the palette of my images and I experienced many dandruff and techniques to create a personal palette. I recently adopted many production tools that have evolved with the computer and in the engraving arts. I have no doubt that these new tools will help photographers in creating personal images. Now, I no longer have to accept the emulsions of the day like Velvia or Provia, when I can create Melvia on a computer. – Melvin Sokolsky
Portraits
I believe that taking the portrait of someone is a tacit conversation in a shared space where the model and the creator reveal their being in a sort of silent dance of increasing expectations. When the fascination of the creator and the model inspires empathy or antipathy, the portrait can be enlightening. It is the spectator’s mission to decide whether the resulting image is transcendent. We look at each other and dream of each other, and these dreams never meet in the photo. – Melvin Sokolsky
Narrative
I always liked to tell stories. At the start of my career, I found myself forced to tell stories with my photos. Stories about people who breathe, feel, suffer and dream. Stories that explore and create different worlds in the world in which we all live. – Melvin Sokolsky
Paris 1965: gesture
By thinking about the past five years at the bazaar, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to spend more time exploring simple themes. I wanted to break with the complex collaboration necessary to photograph ideas that required complicated communication with many team members. I wanted to explore how the gesture influenced the psychological being of a model on a simple background and could be interpreted as a personal signature just as interesting as any of my more elaborate ideas. I have never been able to escape the appeal of a new tool or a new idea that could improve or change the appearance of an image. I had an idea that I called the slowdown stroboscope. I developed a condenser unit which connected between the light and the stroboscopic pack and slowed down the lights 1/15 of a second. The result was that the gestures and the movements of the hand were vague, leaving the rest of the rather clear image. The look was quite different from the shooting at a slow shutter speed in daylight. I was happy with the result; The gesture revealed the mind both interpreters and fashion designers. The first half of 1965 Paris Collections was shot in the studio and the second part outdoors with Dorothea flying over the roofs of Paris. – Melvin Sokolsky
Melvin Sokolsky’s High Flight
September 18, 2021 – January 16, 2022
Lumière Brothers Center for Photography
Bolshaya Polyanka St.
61 Building 1, Moscou, Russia, 119017
https://lumiere.ru/