Misha Gordin

Shout #30 - 1985

Misha Gordin

If you get the chance, be sure to spend some time browsing through Czech photographer Misha Gordin's web portfolio. I am sure my fascination with his photography has to do with the fact that I am an architect, the seriality and repetition of his artwork appeals to the structural rhythm I've been trained to like. And his incorporation of architecture into his photographs along with the surreality of his topics definitely appeal to my long time obsession with Salvador Dali and his dreamscapes.

Sheptun #5 - 2005
Misha Gordin

"For the last 30 years I have been involved in conceptual photography, where the idea or vision is transformed by the camera to an image connected to reality only by my imagination."

"The initial process is similar to writing poetry. I believe that my work is a visual statement of my life and my dreams. From there it becomes more technical. I prefer not to describe the technical aspects of the process. I believe it diminishes the power of an image."

Crowd #43 - 1998
Misha Gordin

Crowd #44 - 1998
Misha Gordin

"A big rock lays on the southern border of the land I live.
I like to visit him on a Sunny winter day and walk around in a circle, absorbing his silent energy.
I like to stand on top of him with my eyes shot toward the bright sun.
I like to fill my chest with a crisp air and reach towards the sky.
I feel secluded, but not alone. It's where I belong.
The lonely owl is watching me from his nest across the ravine."

Very similar to Dali, Gordin also relies on his dreams to create art. Drawing and redrawing his composition according to the memory of his subconscious. He simply uses the camera to translate with the bits and pieces that he needs the onyrical instant from his perceptual memory, instead of paint on a canvas. He points the camera inwards, toward his soul, instead of outwards to the world, creating a real non-existent world of his own.

This is one of the concepts, perceptual memory, that my idea of architecture, surrealism, and Gordin's photography share, the phenomenological aspect of space, time, and perception embedded in memory.

Doubt #14 - 1995
Misha Gordin

He never uses photoshop to put together his photographs, always doing it by hand, like the old masters used to do. Proving that in a world dominated by technological advances, a handmade photograph still can make you wonder about its truthfulness. Does it really matter? or is the end result what really matters?