Darius Kuzmickas - Camera Obscura: Modern Primitivism

New exhibition at Vilnius Photography Gallery, Stikliu g. 4, Vilnius, Lithuania

2008.05.22 - 2008.06.15

"The apparatus is deceivingly simple: a carved out pinpoint, a thin rayof filtered light, a darkened room and a blank surface upon which an image is reborn in softfocus. The light brushes itself in faint, wispy strokes across the page, the way memory might capture a scene, blurring its edges a bit in translation. Pinhole photography (or the camera obscura) is a heavily intuitive process concerned more with creating a mood than delivering an image wrapped in the trappings of reality. Simple in theory, the process, predating modern photography, is quite tricky. What isn't left to luck is owed to plenty of practice, precision and experimentation, all of which are evident in photographer Darius Kuzmickas' ethereal collections.

Viewing Kuzmickas' work is akin to entering a strange, otherworldly universe, equal parts foreign and familiar. In a series taken at Utah's Great Salt Lake, precariously upright pillars emerge from what could be construed as either dry desert lakebeds or glacial, snowcovered tundra. The ambiguity sets the viewers' imagination free to impart its own story, invent its own memory. The swirls of darkened background clouds impart a feeling of impenetrable cold, which, combined with the barren mood evoked by the crumbly salt pillars, resembles something out of T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land". Chillingly apocalyptic, and yet, at the same time, each piece exudes the lingering warmth of recent discovery and fresh, new vision, allowing the mood to linger far longer than the specific details, settling deep within the mind's landscape as memory does; reflective and misty; abstract and obscured."

Excerpts from essay by Kelle Schillaci

Also, selections from "After Glow", a new series of pinhole photographs, that capture the eerie flip-side of daylight in the Neon Homeland. In these "lensless" pictures the glitz and glam of Las Vegas Strip give way to a dream-like reality suffused with the light and emotional timbre of a solar eclipse.

 

MARKERS - public art project for the City of Las Vegas

Just completed public art project called MARKERS for City of Las Vegas Arts Commission. This installation was commissioned under the City's "Percent for the Arts" ordinance, which supports the integration of original, site specific artwork into City capital construction projects. I worked with the Department of Leisure Services, the architectural firm of Lucchesi Galati Architects, Inc. and the City of Las Vegas Department of Public Works to design and create art feature for the new Centennial Hills Community Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.

MARKERS is a series of eight, 8-foot backlit glass columns featuring photographic imagery taken of surrounding desert landscape and the Las Vegas cityscape to convey the complexity and beauty found in Las Vegas area. A pinhole camera was used for half of the abstracted images, which were then transferred onto film an laminated between two layers of glass.

These unique art pieces were created specifically for the Centennial Hills Community Center, are located down the interior arcade that spans the length of the center's main building.

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PDN Photo Annual 2008 Winner!

PDN's Photo Annual 2008 Winner - kudaphoto.com

Web development and programming - Real Color Media

Darius Kuzmickas - After Glow

Luis De Jesus Seminal Projects 

2040 India Street

San Diego, CA 92101

May 3rd - May 31st

Selections from After Glow, a new series of pinhole photographs by Lithuanian-born, photographer Darius Kuzmickas that capture the eerie flip-side of daylight in the Neon Homeland. In these "lensless" pictures the glitz and glam of The Strip give way to reveal a dream-like reality suffused with the light and emotional timbre of a solar eclipse.