Oven cleaner, nail polish, magic markers and household cleaners are a few of the elements Montreal-based photographer Algis Kemezys uses to create his stunning Altered States images.
His symbolic iconographical images simulate the damage of pollution and toxic erosion in our world. After discovering by accident the unusual effect fire has on Kodachrome slide film, the photographer started experimenting with common household chemicals to further enhance the eerie effects and colorful shapes that began to emerge on the film.
“In the beginning I had a lot of failures because I would over-burn the slides or they would seriously warp away from the slide housing or burn right through, making them useless. I found that I got only one chance at burning them just right or I would lose the image altogether,” Kemezys explains.
After much experiment and alchemy, with fire and various types of chemicals, Kemezys became much more confident at controlling the creative process and ultimately he was able to successfully realize the haunting images he was striving to create.
“The very act of creating these images is toxic. I breathed many poisonous vapors, and spilled many unsavory acids on my fingers. One could say that ‘I suffered for my art’, but I feel it was magnificent suffering because it left me with a body of work that I’m proud to have created, and it made me all that much more aware of the environmental disasters that are daily getting worse,” he explains. “The final result, fragile as life itself, is an impressionistic statement on the state of the planet, ironic as it may be that it employs anti-environmental chemicals and debris.”
Visit: http://algiskemezysphotography.blogspot.com/
After all, what is left to give.
written by A , January 27, 2012
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written by Ben Eggs , April 23, 2010