Video: Life of Simple Things: Still Life Photographs of Maria Sapego
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Maria calls her works blackies. Although, perhaps, the name "psychological still life" would suit them better? In the frame - the simplest things. Apples and pears, a slice of watermelon, a windy slice of lemon, wildflowers, dry stems and dusty cobwebs on the country window, glass glasses, glasses, bottles … In the reflector plate, a different world is vaguely guessed … Simple cellophane either swirls with a light wave, or obscures the picture … And everything is filled with a mysterious, magical, transforming light …
Simple, unpretentious compositions are eye-catching. They are not built according to science, there is no pomp and pretense in them - but you want to look at them again and again, as if absorbing the light streaming from the darkness. Involuntarily pulls to touch the chamomile petal, physalis flashlight, water droplets on the glass … stroke the convex side of the jug … inhale the scent of lilies of the valley …
Everything is real here. Everything is alive.
It would seem that what could be simpler and more ordinary - a piece of a window, a box, bubbles, a dry twig, soft diffused light …
This work - "Family" - won 2nd place in the category "still lifes" in the "Best Photographer 2011" competition.
"She's completely unpretentious, even inconvenient," says Maria, "a completely random shot." How can we not recall Leonardo da Vinci, who said - "Simplicity is the highest sophistication" … And Newton added - "Nature is content with simplicity. And nature is not stupid."
The Japanese have a concept of "wabi-sabi" - "humble simplicity." Wabi - modesty, dimness, but also inner strength; sabi - genuineness, authenticity, essence. And it seems to me that Maria's works fit well into this concept. There is no beauty in them. They have inner - that is, true - beauty. They subtly change something in the viewer - and we, following the author, begin to see the world around us differently … And this world is filled with wonderful - the simplest, most real - things. To see them, you do not need to travel to exotic countries - you just need to look around you.
There are only two ways to live life. One - as if there were no miracles. Another - as if miracles are manifested in everything.
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