A performance of space

Portuguese photographer Edgar Martins, a Macau resident, was recently among the prizewinning competitors at the New York Photo Awards. Here, to Macau Closer readers, he explains the concept behind “The Accidental Theorist” and the meaning of success.

At a glance, one could argue that my work deals with both the impact of Modernism on the environment (Modernity is very much alive in my work) and with issues pertinent to photographic representation, with photography as a process. I’d like to think that my work communicates ideas about how difficult it is to communicate.

But I also hope it goes much further than this.

I am interested in theatre, in performance.

But not in the traditional sense of the word. I am interested in recording the world’s performance of itself as a set of processes and facts. And the only way to do this is to slow down time.

That is why I often use long-exposures and, in some ways, why I use my photographic camera like a video camera.

Working in this way also allows me to capture, what I call, the kinetic energy of things, this is the energy and movement inherent to all things, even static, immobile objects.

Borg’s uncertainty principle states that one has the power to change things just by mere observation.

Though I am not equipped to comment on this theory, I like the doors and possibilities that it opens up: I like the idea that any given space changes, for you and you only, and every time, when you are there observing it. And if you slow down time for long enough you may just be able to capture this.

I interpret this change as a performance of space, as the manifestation of its kinetic energy.

Though my work has an apparent formalism and rigor, the process by which the images were created is everything but precise.

For so long photography has been about control: I like to relinquish some of this control.

I have always found photography to be a highly inadequate medium for communicating ideas, a subject and object of lack, if you like.

However, it is this anxiety with the medium that spurs me on to find a new visual language to work with and, I

suppose, a new vocabulary from which to derive my glossary of life.

‘The Accidental Theorist’, the series which was awarded the inaugural New York photography Award (Fine Art series Category) deals with many of these issues.

I am extremely honoured to have received this award, not only because if is one of the most sought awards in the industry but also because it is a recognition of all the hard work which I have invested into my practice over the last few years.

It is not easy to get a foothold in today’s artworld establishment, so it gives me great satisfaction to have been adopted by it.

I have come a long way since my first ever exhibition at Macau’s Tourist Centre exhibition Hall, in Leal Senado, in 1996.

I have come to develop a completely different relationship with the medium and have also redefined my relationship with the world (as it is expected from someone who is growing up - I was only 17 when I organised this exhibition and published my first book).

Saying this, Macau has played an instrumental part in the person I am today. Having split my existence between 2/3 countries, I no longer feel rooted anywhere. And this provides me with enough critical distancing to interiorize the spaces I live in, in an objective and pragmatic way, and to study my ever-changing surroundings. Urbanism has always played a part in my work.

In many of my projects I have developed I have portrayed urbanism as a movement of isolation, emphasising this idea that we are no longer able to understand the de-centred city, its signs or the language that it yields.

Take Macau, for example, it is changing at a fast pace.

I once came across a small book by Salmon Rushdie about the movie the Wizard of Oz, which finished with these words, and I quote: ‘it is not that there is no place like home, there is no longer any such thing as home’. This really resonated with me.

This is present in my artistic practice and in my overall attitude towards the world.

New York (and this is why the The New York Photography Awards were so important to me) represents another phase of my life, another country which I hope to get to know better, produce a great deal more work in and who knows perhaps settle in one day. But not indefinitely.

At this point in time I am not seeking decisive encounters. All is flux and all is flow. Actually, to paraphrase Carlo Mccormick: ‘In a world where everything has validity it is the indecisive encounters, which have become the decisive act.’

New York Photo Award 2008 Winners

Student Personal Fine Art Series
- Anna Skladman
Student Personal Fine Art Single Image
- Alana Celii
Student Book
- Tiana Markova-Gold
Student Editorial Series
- Tobias Kruse
Student Editorial Single Image
- Gratiane de Moustier
Multimedia - Photo/Audio
- Two Winners...”The Ninth Floor” by
Jessica Dimmock & MediaStorm/”Curse of the Black Gold” by
Ed Kashi & MediaStorm
Multimedia - Photo/Video
- “Bearing Witness” a Reuters/
MediaStorm Collaboration
Personal/Fine Art Series
- Edgar Martins
Personal/Fine Art Single Image
- Jessica Todd Harper
Editorial Series
- Paula Bronstein
Editorial Single Image
- Two Winners...Ibraheem Abu Mustafa &
Adem Hadei
Photography Book
- Amy Stein
Advertising Series
- John Offenbach
Advertising Single Image
- Jason Bell