EDGAR MARTINS: PHOTOGRAPHER OF TOPOLOGIC PERFECTION,
WITHOUT POST-PRODUCTION TRICKERY. Photo-Illustration J.Galligan, 07-08-09, Albany
EDGAR MARTINS - SNITRAM RAGDE
Controversial Portugese fine-art and editorial photographer
Edgar Martins, currently charged with providing the New York
Times a set of digitially manipulated photographs, mis-identified as being
"made without any post-production trickery" has created
a considerable body of work based on absolute and relative symmetry. Discussing his work, Martins has said, "Since I started working with
photography I know that I can engage people more if I strip down my
visual language. When you strip down your language you are working with
vary basic mathematical issues - symmetry plays a part, some geometry
plays a part, but however, though the work is apparently precise, the
process by which it is produced is completely imprecise. So, this
paradox really interests me..."
"Part of my work deals with the process of producing and reading images.
They are images about images, so to speak (meta-images)...If the images
are deceptive and illusionary, it is because photography has these
qualities." "When I photograph, I don't do any post-production to the images, either in
the darkroom or digially, because it erodes the process." EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH RUBEN NATAL SAN
MIGUEL, REGARDING THE APERTURE PUBLICATION OF MARTINS'
PHOTOGRAPHS "TOPOLOGIES"
In another interview, Martins made these comments regarding his photographs: "I photograph in often "unphotographable" conditions... I make use of long
exposures. For so long photography has been about control. I like to
relinquish some of that control... What seem like highly controlled and manipulated
photographs are but a product of illusion. The illusion of the photographic process." EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH ROSECRANS BALDWIN
REGARDING THE APERTURE PUBLICATION OF MARTINS'
PHOTOGRAPHS "TOPOLOGIES"