Seba Kurtis

A few months ago, I visited the Cornerhouse for a show and tell workshop. This involved various artists from around the world coming in and having a brief chat, telling the audience about their current projects ideas. I went along mainly for something interesting to do on a Saturday afternoon and to get out of the rain, but was filled with surprise and knowledge and brilliant references for the future and my work.

One of the artists was named Seba Kurtis. He is a photographer from Argentina. He chooses to focus his work on immigration and particularly illegal immigration and what length people will go to to find a better life for themselves and family. 

The images that he showed to us interested me from how abstract they were. He explained his reasons for not showing figurative images is because, he can shoot a roll of film, and every image can be seen and shown to the world. However, most the subjects of his photographs don't make it to the next country, they don't find salvage and therefore his whole roll of film misrepresents the subjects. He chooses to damage the roll of film after he has shot it, and in that way few or little images will be seen reflecting upon the hardship of many people in the world finding refuge. 

Here is a link to a video which shows the ways in which film was distressed.

Drowned from seba kurtis on Vimeo.

Here are two images that came were produced from the project, both enhanced in photoshop after.

I feel like these images are similar to the ones I am trying to create. I love how the subject is distorted, and merely suggested to. I also love the thought process and the artists research to get to this stage. I want to experiment with this idea of distortion and loss, within my work. I want to use this type of distortion and mark making within my visual research.