Sol Lang posted a photo:
So many behaviours seen daily appear completely acceptable. We as humans have developed a series of what we call "normal" beahviours just because we see them again and again. Can you site something that appears normal, perfectly acceptable and yet with a little bit of thought, realising that it is in fact totally ludicrous? War, patriotism, religion, are just some that come to mind.
Sol Lang posted a photo:
"I need to feel sexual. Sexy. I need to convey this in my eyes and body language... what shall I be thinking about to make this happen? Help me out , here, Sol. Mmmm.. help me out..."
Sol Lang posted a photo:
Just be yourself, Milena. I don't think you need to do anything else, but be yourself.
Please view the large version.
Sol Lang posted a photo:
I celebrate this new year of my life with the appearance of Camille in my stream. My artistic tribute to femininity.
I feel very privileged to have had this visit from her on this bright sunny day. I took advantage of the streaming natural rays and avoided using any artificial supplementary lighting. Not my usual style of working. The experience was challenging, elating and of course delightful. Camille made it more so. A natural beauty, she is confident in her poses and an admirable artist and collaborator.
This image is worth viewing large, of course.
At this point I would also like to extend an invitation to all my contacts. As I have exceeded 6,000, I can no longer do it through Flickr's "invite" feature. They say it is too weak to handle such numbers.
So here goes...
At first I didn't think it would be too cool or modest of me to invite people to my own fan club. How self-indulgent this would appear. So I held off for as long as I could. But then Mary Bogdan, the creator of the group, artist extraordinaire and loving wife, said to me that I owe it to all my friends on Flickr and that who better to have access to my fans than myself? I thought and thought about it. I realized that as the group grows with friends that are on her and others' lists, the friends who I have selected or who have selected me and who may want to be in the group the most, cannot be ignored and left off the invited list. So here it is. An official invitation to join my fan club by me. Welcome one and all! Unfortunately since I can’t do it through Flickr’s invite feature, you will have to request to join :( Yet another small inconvenience of failed technology.
Thank you all for the great support.
Sol Lang posted a photo:
She arrived at the shoot completely without expectation except for one. It was a promise that we would do art and it was her single-minded intention as it was mine. We were two spirits, a man and a woman in total collaboration. Like a dancer she moved with all her grace and poise. Her body created in nature for posing. My camera could not get its fill. A “pas des deux” – photographer and model. Sometimes like a dance and other times like a competitive game. A tennis match where each would challenge the other. She serves I return. She poses and I move around her like a cat, constantly looking for the right angle, the perfect vantage point. I stop and gasp with excitement. Yes! I take the shot. Hold it! I take another. Stop! Don’t move! Yet another and another. There is not a bad angle. There is not a bad pose. She is perfection. A spiritual experience of capturing the beauty that is light in a female form.
View the large version, please.
This session was not recorded in film, but you can view some of my other sessions here.
Sol Lang posted a photo:
I’ve been getting much resistance for my erotic art. It took me some time to arrive at calling it “my erotic art”. But that is what it is. Many of my friends, fellow artists, acquaintances and media, seem to differentiate between all other art forms and mine. I am speaking of people, some of which have known my previous work for years. Art connoisseurs, who have considered my work sophisticated, aesthetic and very powerful in the past, are having difficulties with what I am working with at present.
So I need to ask myself why. What is it about my present artistic investigation into nudity, erotica and the study of human sexuality, that is so repugnant to the most extreme critics and less than acceptable, artistically, to my more tame, yet still, critical friends?
I am not investigating into areas of art that are all too new historically. The nude is iconic in art and has historically always been a part of the collective artistic journey.
Is it because I am touching on ancient social taboos invoked by religion? Am I, too strongly implying that sex is ok?
As an artist I deal with light and light is also what we need to see things clearly. But something in my art appears to be unclear. I need to understand what that is. I am beginning to catch a glimpse of it when someone (female) says to me that they can imagine “some creepy guy looking at my pictures and jerking off”. Let me say that this person is amongst those most accepting of my work. Others have said that I objectify women, not concerning themselves with the fact that these works are a collaborative effort of myself and the model. I spend from three to nine hours with each model in the process of planning and discussing our shooting session. So to say that I objectify my model is hardly accurate. Can a model objectify herself? I wonder…
This is just the beginning of a much larger discourse I am in the process of developing. It will grow as I am growing. As I learn what it means to me.
Sol Lang posted a photo:
Here's the official announcement for Sol and Eric's new show, on now; and the vernissage will be on the 16 of February... that's next Saturday. 2-5pm. All are invited. Hope to see you there. There is an exhibition catalog available at the show and here. You can see a preview.
PRESS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sanctuaries, a photography exhibition
by Éric Dupuis and Sol Lang at Arts Sutton Gallery
Sutton, Friday, February 1, 2008 – Arts Sutton Gallery announces the official opening of Sanctuaries, an exhibition of recent works in photography by Montreal artists Éric Dupuis and Sol Lang on Saturday February 9th.
The vernissage will be held on Saturday, February 16 at 2 pm, with the artists in attendance.The exhibition continues until March 9, 2008.
In the figurative sense, the word sanctuary means “protected, closed, secret, sacred place” (Petit Robert, 2004). This is without a doubt what these two artists want to express.
On one side, Éric Dupuis placed his camera at the heart of places that are without question perceived as sanctuaries- the churches. Yet this vision takes us into looking anew at the interiors and to pay attention to the quality of the light that penetrated them, its subtle play on the furniture, the materials, and the set-up of religious artefacts. “When I was a kid, mass was somehow a sensual rite for me, a mix of wonder for the light and sensations collected from the burning incense, the chants, the music, and the people”, quote the artist. Éric Dupuis is observing with interest the place worship has taken in our contemporary lives. It would seem other values, other rituals, are filling the landscape of society has we can see with churches that are converted into luxurious condos.
On the other side, Sol Lang brings us to a place that seems hostile at first glance, an abandoned factory in Lachine, Quebec, now completely demolished. This building was a haven for young graffiti artists where they could express themselves through their art without interference from police or the law. “I scream out, silently as my voice falls on deaf ears in the abandoned, waste of this environmentally hostile site, where polluting by-products of this facility are slowly seeping down and penetrating the soil underneath.” With this series of photographs, Sol Lang brings a reflection on the “sanctity” of religion, as he draws a parallel between it and the secret evils of greed in our society.
Two intimate visions with radically different aesthetics that merge through their perception of place.
A 50 pages catalogue of the exhibition featuring the works by those two photographers willl be for sale at the Gallery. It includes reproductions of all the images in the exhibition, plus extra images that follow the show's theme for a total of 36 full color images. The price is $19.95. The calalogue will be available in English and in French.
The Arts Sutton Gallery is located on 7 Academy Street in Sutton and is open Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
-30-
Source: Catherine Audet, Gallery Coordinator
450.538.2563 | info@artssutton.com | www.artssutton.com
you can buy the exhibition catalog here: www.heutekunst.com.
COMMUNIQUÉ | POUR DIFFUSION IMMEDIATE
Arts Sutton présente Sanctuaires,
une exposition des photographies d’Éric Dupuis et de Sol Lang
Sutton, le vendredi 1er février 2008 – La Galerie Arts Sutton annonce l’ouverture officielle de l’exposition Sanctuaires des photographes Éric Dupuis et Sol Lang le 9 février prochain.
Le vernissage aura lieu le 16 février à 14h en présence des artistes. Ceux-ci feront une brève présentation de leur travail vers 14h30. L’exposition se poursuivra jusqu’au 9 mars.
Lieu protégé, secret, fermé, sacré, c’est le sens figuré du mot sanctuaire que nous donne Le Petit Robert. C’est sans contredit ce que ces deux artistes ont voulu exploiter dans cette série photographique. Le visiteur se retrouve devant deux visions à priori opposées, pour ne pas dire, inconciliables et qui pourtant sont porteuses d’un message profond.
D’un côté Éric Dupuis a placé sa caméra au cœur même de lieu perçus d’emblée comme sanctuaires- les églises. Sa vision cependant, nous amène à jeter un regard nouveau sur ces intérieurs, à prêter attention à la qualité de la lumière qui y pénètre, ses jeux subtils sur le mobilier, les matériaux, et à considérer la mise en scène des artéfacts religieux. «Lorsque j’étais enfant, je vivais l’expérience de la messe comme une sorte de rite sensuel, un mélange entre l’enchantement pour la lumière et la récolte de sensations multiples qui me parvenaient de la fumée d’encens, des chants, de la musique d’orgue, et des gens», mentionne l’artiste. Éric Dupuis nous propose une réflexion sur la place qu’occupe le culte dans nos vies contemporaines. D’autres valeurs, d’autres rituels semblent meubler le paysage social comme en témoignent les églises vendues et converties en condos luxueux.
À l’autre extrême, Sol Lang nous convie dans un endroit aux abords hostiles, une usine abandonnée à Lachine, Québec, qui est aujourd’hui complètement rasée. Ce lieu servit de refuge aux jeunes graffitistes qui pouvaient y laisser libre cours à leur expression artistique sans interférer avec l’ordre établi et ceux chargés de le faire respecter. «Debout là au milieu des déchets et de l’abandon de cette ancienne usine, je crie silencieusement dans ce lieu à l’environnement hostile et dont les sous-produits polluants s’échappent et pénètrent le sol.» Par cette série, l’artiste apporte une réflexion sur le caractère sacro-saint de la religion et trace le parallèle entre celle-ci et les sales secrets que dissimule l’avarice de notre société.
Deux visions intimistes, aux esthétiques radicalement différentes mais qui s’unissent dans leur perception du lieu.
Un catalogue d’exposition de 50 pages comprenant les œuvres des photographes sera mis en vente à la Galerie. Incluant des reproductions de toutes les œuvres de l’exposition ainsi que de quelques œuvres complémentaires sur le même thème, ce catalogue au coût de 19,95$ sera disponible en français et en anglais.
La Galerie est située au 7 rue Academy à Sutton et elle est ouverte du jeudi au dimanche de 11h00 à 17h00.
-30-
Source : Catherine Audet, coordonnatrice Galerie Arts Sutton
450.538.2563 | info@artssutton.com | www.artssutton.com
Sol Lang posted a photo:
Art is about asking questions, not giving answers.
I guess, by now, everyone who ever took the trouble to read the texts that accompany my images, has heard my complaints/fears/worries of saying something poignant and relevant to accompany what the images already convey. As an artist I often hope that the visual communication is all that is necessary. However, I have found that the number of comments and responses are far greater when the image is accompanied by a well thought out text. It starts a dialogue that not only makes the images more interesting to the viewer, but also to me. As I create intuitively with images, the words alone can sometimes be quite limited. It is then that the comments left by viewers complete the communication of the art. I want to thank all the Flickr members that have continued to comment on my images and have added so much to their meaning and my own understanding of my art, bringing to light that which have until now only been feelings, sensations and undefined concepts or thoughts.
This image, for example, is very appealing to me. As a professional visual artist and aesthete, I recognize the success of this photograph. Technically, it is very sound. Pleasing colour and composition, lighting and drama. The model’s pose is exceptional and the look on her face (and what a face!) is precious. But what does it say to the viewer? What does it say to me? I know it elicits emotion. It certainly does for me. At the very least, a reaction of some kind from whoever sees it. But what does it all mean? I can consider writing an entire scenario about Christy, my model. I could write about her life, aspirations and dreams. Give many answers to explain her expression in both facial as well as body language. But if I do that, I might as well just be a writer rather than a photographer.
So I ask myself... writer or photographer? The answer is quite clear. I am a much better skilled photographer than I am writer.
A large version of this image is available for greater scrutiny of its quality.
Sol Lang posted a photo:
I have had many requests for a "Milena" calendar. Well, it's finally available from lulu dot com. You can get details and a link on my profile page. This is an April 2008 to March 2009 calendar. No need to have lost a month, as you would on January to December calendars. I intend to republish regularly to always have it current. By the way, you can see a preview of the inside images once you are on lulu. This is my third calendar so far. I have made one with Kimmey and another one with Caitlin. They all have previews to see the images of the inside pages as they appear for each month.
Your encouragement is most appreciated.
Sol Lang posted a photo:
I really wanted to have this calendar of images of Caitlin ready before Christmas 2007, but my work-load was too great and I had to postpone the calendar.
Well it is finally available through lulu and it looks awesome. Most of the images have never been seen before. If you decide to go look, check out the preview. I am showing all the inside images there.
So if you want your very own piece of work by Sol Lang in print, this is an opportunity to own twelve great images of gorgeous Caitlin, my leggy model. You'll be able to see a different view of her each month of the year.
If you are interested, you can get all the links to my publications and prints from my profile page.
Oh yes. The Printed calendar cover is with the breast exposed. It's just covered here for public safety :)
View this calendar cover large.
