"Lots of questions and even more possible answers."

Codrin Lupei is another one of those photographers who are instantly recognizable. He is extremly consistent in his photography and his black and white imagery is as strong as it’s personal.

A unique photographer deserves a unique article, thus Codrin Lupei himself will tell you about his art in his own words. Enjoy!

 

The simple human

Sixteen years ago, when my daughter was born, I wasn't thinking that photography was something really magical. Besides a short period in my teenage years, when I've played a bit with photography and admired how an image appeared on paper in that red light from my father's 'dark room'. Of course the eternal bathroom transformed for a while into an 'image factory', I wasn't interested into photography. Maybe without any relation to what I have written up until now, but I still consider that sincerity is one of the most important things we have to learn and to respect in life.

That is why I have to say that I am not considering myself a photographer, I believe that I'll always feel this way. I am a simple human being at times expressing something with the help of a camera, that's all. The need to press the shutter is strictly related to what is happening in my life, sometime a long period I am feeling no need for touching the camera, even if it's the time when I finalize many from the ideas of my 'staged' series of images.I don't consider photography a way of self exploring, I'm seeing it more like a way of releasing, of liberation, at least this is the way I am feeling it. 

I want to say a few words about the relation with the viewers, which is a very sensible and important subject. It depends very, very much about what everyone wants to hear, to discover, to know. Maybe what I will say may sound a bit obsolete in our times, when almost everybody is spending several hours socializing online, sharing more or less everything. In our times when almost everybody is a small or big artist, in our times when investing some time on internet, we can have thousands and thousands of comments or "likes", I don't know what still remains from the sincerity I was talking about earlier. Why are some people running so desperately after recognition? Probably because it's very nice to be praised, appreciated, recognized. Probably from the need to get a confirmation that what you're doing is not wrong or in vain. Probably also from other reasons too. Certain is that, as you know, applying some very simple receipts you can relatively easy to reach the point where you wanted to be, or at least to have the sensation that you're recognized. 

This inflation of images, exhibitions, self published books, their huge majority without having anything at all to say made me and it still makes me to stay very quiet. I am happy to know that sometimes what I am doing is touching somebody, if they are many or just a few it doesn't matter very much to me. I believe that this is what really counts, at least for me. What I really wish is that some from those who will look at my images or will read my words to feel something, something real, to stay for a while there, maybe to ask themselves a question, maybe to regain in a way themselves there. Yes, I feel that the viewers can discover myself in the images, I am saying this with all the lived doubts, sooner or later. I am not saying that it's easy, I am not saying that it's always pleasant. Maybe, many times we don't want to be discovered, trying to let the curtain fall, pains and fears are very hard to be shared with anybody. Yes, I do believe that a part of me is in my images.

About my photographs, I am feeling that a certain mood is necessary for being able to express myself. My subjects? Probably the most common things which surround us, the sky, the trees, the water, the leafs, the paths and uncountable many other things which seem to be of not a big importance but which could give us so much. I am fascinated by the so many faces the skies have, by the so many forms the clouds are draw, by the continuous changing of the reflections in a lake, by the smell of the forest. I strongly believe that is no need to reach the most unusual places on earth or to photograph the most exotic models for being able to communicate something through an image. 

Inspiration! Hard to talk about this, if we would really know how and what to do for having access as often as possible to that fountain of inspiration which is hidden somewhere inside us. The music I am listening to and the books I am reading are probably the things which are influencing most what appear in my images. The emotions I've felt, mixed, decanted, filtrated and transformed in another story. Photography as a way of life, I don't know, maybe it depends from case to case, from person to person. I don't think that I am among those which are feeling this way, even if photography is a very important thing for me and even if I am not shooting daily, even if almost every day I am looking at, I am discovering images which impresses me. 

Time is a problem because the speed it's flying seems to grow all the time but I believe that basically everything is resuming to what exactly is the priority in a certain moment in our lives, what do we feel to be essential. For creating a series many times it's needed to wait pretty much till I find the moment when all conditions are more or less what I've had in my mind, the place, the light, the disposition. Maybe those photographers who are working under pressure or those who believe that there could be made hundreds of good images in an year to try to find the reasons why they didn't made them. I tend to be more and more critical with what I did and with what I am doing.

I discovered the lenses from Lensbaby somewhere in 2006, after seeing some photographs created with them. I realized that this lens could help me a lot in the creation of the images I wanted to do, some not very clear images, which more to suggest than to present something. For me, the images I am making are in a way some sketches, leaving a lot of space for viewer's interpretation, at least this is what I wish and lensbaby is perfect for this. It's happening people to say that images are interesting just because of the lensbaby effect, this is a risk that should be taken when comes about photographing with this kind of lenses, I understand that it's the personal perception of each of us and I always respect this, I know that what I am doing is far from being to everybody's taste and it's absolutely ok for me.

Fragments, pieces, images are always an invitation to new searches. What was, what will be, what could be, which is our part in the writing of the next story, in whose skin we'll find ourselves or we'll remain just an audience; lots of questions and even more possible answers.