“Beyond Lolita”

Artist: Suzanne Banning – The Netherlands

For this series I allowed the famous and controversial Vladimir Nabokov book “Lolita” to inspire me. One can indulge oneself in Nabokov’s complex tale of sexual obsession and immorality; it has an incredibly rich poetic style pregnant with puns, aesthetic alliterations, and features the most original sexual metaphors.

That, in addition to the innumerable list of literary allusions aroused many interesting subjects, made this Masterpiece an extremely stimulating muse for me.

I tried to show the little girl in all her facets. The way I see her is dualistic; on the one hand as a seductress and on the other hand as a victim. She has no choice but to submit to her surrogate Daddy but, on the other hand, she possesses a power over him that is too strong for him to resist.

Detroit Decay Project

Artist: Timothy Fadek – United States

I found a way to use photography to make statements about social issues that I cared about.! Without making a conscious decision Detroit.! Long a city in decline, as it’s fortunes are intertwined with that of GM, Chrysler and Ford, it is a good example of American urban decay! There are several ways to photograph to tell a story about a declining automobile industry! I chose to look at the allegory that is Detroit.

Decay has long been a fascination for photographers, and I am no exception ! I find urban decay mesmerizing. There is something haunting and mystical about the spaces, structures and monuments that we create, but abandon once we are done with them and have outlived their usefulness! Without an active human presence, these places take on a new purpose! they become vessels of human souls, not ghosts or souls of the dead, rather, these places become new monuments of a vanished humanity.

About Timothy Fadek Photographer Timothy Fadek has worked in more than 25 countries and has faced personal risk in order to bring attention to major world events such as the wars in Iraq, Lebanon, Kosovo, Macedonia, Israel and the PalestinianTerritories, His photographic reporting has been published in hundreds of magazines worldwide and have been exhibited in major galleries!

Daily Pilgrims

Artist: Virgilo Ferreira – Portugal

This project was developed in 2006 in some Asian cities: Bangkok, Macao, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo. In all of them, territory and behavior are changing fast. Cities seem to mirror our state of mind and reveal secrets that can be decoded when minute details are looked at: It is between the lines that I seek ambiguities and contradictions.

As focus and lack of it creates tension, the unfocused faces turning into fleeting masks. This information deficit catches the eye of the observer and makes the portraits stand out, also adding enigma; anonymity is always intriguing.

The images without people contextualize and engage in dialogue with the portraits; they are emotional atmospheres and decoding games.