Art: The Recruited Outtakes from Plastic People Series by Seigar, @jseigar
EVERY WINDOW LEADS TO EDWARD HOPPER
About the author:
Rochelle Jewel Shapiro’s novel, Miriam the Medium (Simon & Schuster, 2004), was nominated for the Harold U. Ribelow Award. Her short story collection What I Wish You’d Told Me was published by Shebooks in 2014. She has published essays in NYT (Lives) and Newsweek. She teaches writing at UCLA Extension.
Art: The Recruited Outtakes from Plastic People Series by Seigar, @jseigar
In the artist’s words:
Seigar is an English philologist, a highschool teacher, and a curious photographer. He is a fetishist for reflections, saturated colors, details and religious icons. He feels passion for pop culture that shows in his series. He considers himself a traveler and an urban street photographer. His aim as an artist is to tell tales with his camera, to capture moments but trying to give them a new frame and perspective. Travelling is his inspiration. However, he tries to show more than mere postcards from his visits, creating a continuous conceptual line story from his trips. The details and subject matters come to his camera once and once again, almost becoming an obsession. His three most ambitious projects so far are his “Plastic People”, a study on anthropology and sociology that focuses on the humanization of the mannequins he finds in the shop windows all over the world, “Response to Ceal Floyer for the Summer
Exhibition” a conceptual work that understands art as a form of communication, and his “Tales of a city”, an ongoing series taken in London. He usually covers public events with his camera showing his interest for social documentary photography. He has participated in several exhibitions, and his works have also been featured in international publications. These are the links to my social networks:
https://www.facebook.com/jseigar/
https://www.instagram.com/jseigar/
This set belongs to my most personal, serious and ambitious project so far. I try to give dignity and humanity to the plastic people around the world. As a street and travel photographer, I have had the chance to take photos of shop windows in many cities, and there I have found the inspiration for these images. They tell me tales and stories about life. They always show me their human substance. Every photo creates a fantasy. Their faces, looks, eyes, clothes, shadows, and reflections portray them as the modern society. In this selection, we find these beautiful women surrounded by reflections of their cities.
Reflections always help me to make complex photographs. I’m not afraid of complexity. I like getting richness. I don’t try to follow conventional compositions. I just keep loyal to my eye. If I need to break rules to show an image, I just do it. I feel my plastic people are free. There is even some chaos in the worlds I portray.
These ladies seem all to be feeling different emotions or sensations, such as confidence, arrogance, sadness, dreaming stare or challenging poses. Viewers can realize there is a human touch inside them. My intention is the humanization of mannequins found in shops. I feel the need to make them talk to the world. They all have a message to say. My visions are just the way they have to speak, working as a channel.
My visions have been influenced by pop culture. I have been attracted to the works of unique and strong artists. I guess they have deeply inspired me, even though you cannot see directly their prints in my photographs. What you can see is that I conceive art as a passion. I refer to artists such as the cinema makers like Pedro Almodóvar, Alfred Hitchcock, Tarantino or Lars Von Trier. In the music and performance category, I feel devotion for the threesome Madonna, Michael Jackson and Prince. Then, Frida Kahlo, Dalí, Picasso and Warhol are the painters that obsess me. The best photographer in the world right now is Mister Martin Parr; I must confess “he is the one”. All these artists share something in common; I will call it strong views. I have been participating in exhibitions and been featured in international magazines with this project. My Plastic People have become an essential part of my street photography. I owe them the world. I would like to keep on travelling to find more characters for these tales. It’s so inspiring when I get to a new city, town or a village; and I go around walking, looking for them, the reflections, the saturated colors, the buildings and architecture behind them, the lights and shadows…It’s exciting!
There is also a cultural aspect in them. They sort of represent the people from the country they were taken. Their mood, clothes and make up show the traditions, beliefs and even values from the places. However, I would like to end this short essay about them, stating the universal human quality of this project, because as I said before, they have become portraits of our modern society. There is an analogy with the human nature.
10 Unknown Facts about My plastic people:
1. Most of them are women.
2. Most of the photos are spontaneous, without previous planning.
3. Shop assistants are usually curious about what I am doing. It is nice to interact with them.
4. My favorite plastic people live in UK.
5. My first plastic people photo was probably taken in Venice, Italy.
6. Recently, I miss faces in plastic people; there is a new tendency to show headless or faceless. I think it is sad and terrible.
7. In my plastic people you can see traditions, beliefs and values from the towns they were taken.
8. I really enjoy finding the reflections of the buildings behind me, especially when the architecture is interesting. I don’t work with double exposure.
9. People normally stare at me when I take photos of shop windows. Some can stand behind me until I finish the shooting.
10. I hate the tag with the price on clothes, though sometimes they can enrich the composition.
Link with the project:
My webpage: www.seigar.wordpress.com
(It includes list of exhibitions, publications and main photo narrative projects)
Links to recent interviews:
http://www.semizine.co.uk/semi-zine-interviews/semi-zine-seigar-photography-interview