By Editor Michel Romaggi in collaboration with the author Izis 
Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the 31st of May 2023

 'Poppy'

Izis's creative portraits are remarkable, but I was at once attracted by the wonderful light in her flower pictures.

Your portfolio is diversified, has variety?

Yes, it's true. I often jump from one style of photography to another. The reason is my neurotic personality and my aversion to monotony in my creations. When too much attention is consumed by nature photography, I start to get frustrated and feel the need to create something different, sometimes extremely different. I set it aside to devote myself to the portrait form of painting. The same is true for creative portraiture, during which I use double exposure, layers, textures, and filters in photo-montage. I mostly use this editing when I am going through a more difficult time (emotional or environmental nature). After all, our lives are not only happy moments but also a conglomeration of the hardships of everyday life, challenges that trigger various feelings. Art for me is a valve, a respite from joy, happiness, and a sense of beauty, but also sadness, fears, and tribulation.

'Windmill'

There is special light in all your photos. Can you explain how you get it?

I love natural light, found in the morning or evening. It is the most valuable, magical for me. I work with models on cloudy days, I avoid midday because such light is too flat, and not very attractive. I prefer late afternoon or dusk for shooting. I sometimes use a blender for portraits to illuminate the face. I haven't worked much with the light obtained by photographic lamps. I have soft-box lights at home, but I don't use them. This light is not appealing to me. Maybe someday, when I have more time at my disposal, then I'll experiment with other types of artificial light.  For the time being, foundational light is enough for me.

For natural, bokeh colouring, I use sunlight in the early morning or just before daybreak - in summertime around 9 pm. In wintertime, I already have a favourite light at 1-2 pm. Many issues depend on the season. 

About the image titled 'poppy', can you tell us under what circumstances you took it? When, where, what camera, what circumstances, what settings?

I took the entire series with a Pentacon 50/f1.8 fixed focal length lens, according to my preference, that is, with ambient light, in front of my kitchen window.
There are days when the wind blows hard, the motion in the images taken with the manual lens, used to be out of focus. I then take pictures from my apartment. On the poppy flower, rays of sunlight are falling on it but in the upper part, the sun was low behind the poppy.  I placed a glass sprinkled with water. This gave me a decorative background in circles. For this picture, I used a double exposure: the first shot of the flower, and the second from the background with a dewy glass. I set the exposure time to 1/1600s and the aperture to f1.8.

To finish, could you tell us about your vision for photography?

My photographic passion is not commercial. I even find it disconcerting to treat it in a businesslike manner, or more precisely, tailoring my vision to the client, shallows its form, and objectifies it. I avoid commercial shoots because there I have to meet the requirements of the people paying me for the photos. Although sometimes it still happens if someone insists. But I don't like to do it. I can't really express myself  then. I often create my works in solitude or with one person (who poses for me), so that the superfluous "crowd" does not drown out my alter-ego.

For me, photography is a form of introverted communication with the world, an attempt to abstractly depict what is in my thoughts, feelings, and subconscious, as well as a creative play with my imagination. It is a kind of meditation on the past, present, and future. My passion for creating also helps me organizing my thoughts and treat the world optimistically. It has a therapeutic effect on me.

I am grateful to God for giving me the talent and sensitivity to share with other sensitive people.

'in the hands'