Original: February 22, 2011 Issue 11
By: Aline Barros
Staff Writer
“Slices of Life” is an exhibit of multidimensional photographs by SERLI and Singh. It is a combination of the energy of music and the audacity of being surreal which makes fun of sexuality and humanity.
SERLI is a photojournalist that lived in Armenia for several years. She returned last year to Rockville, Md to continue her studies in photography. She has had her work published in Photo District News (PDN) magazine, and has won multiple international photography competitions, including DCFoto Week two years in a row, in 2009 as a student winner, and in 2010 as a professional. Her work has also been exhibited in multiple cities across the U.S. and in many countries abroad.
The series “Energy of Music” is a documentary of the life and energy of a musician’s work. It aims to portray their inspirations and the euphoria of the moment when artists immerse themselves in their own bubble of musicality.
“This work deals with music makers making music, and the energy that comes with it. I photograph the way I hear the music. The music in that moment is the main source of inspiration. The way we often see photographs, we can assume the photographer had a strong idea of what the image would turn out to be before they pressed the shutter. In this work, I let existing elements dictate a lot of how the final image would look, leaving it more out of my control,” said SERLI. She continued to explain that the most rewarding and interesting aspect about this last work is how she has not seen anything like it.
Singh is a Biology major with intentions of going to medical school. He started a printing and photography business in January 2010, which he describes as the main focus of his life right now. Series A “The Portraits Of An Artist As Various Characters” is human society presented in a humorous manner. In his biography, written by Bushay, the artist primarily uses photography as a mode of communication by which he can connect with a larger audience and express his feeling and “speak” his mind.
Of his influences Singh said “just take a walk down the road with your eyes and ears wide open and let your mind personify the world that passes by, invisible to the crowd.” Besides being influenced by the world around him, the artist is also influenced by literature.
“The emotions I feel and the revelations I receive are interpretation of my reading and always, perhaps subconsciously, find way in my work,” confessed Singh.
This exhibition is poetry to the eyes, or an invocation of what we are not brave enough to say. It is surrealism meeting musicality, and ridicule intended to expose truth in how these artists see the world around them. However, Singh concludes “If I could say it with words, why would I take a picture?”
The works of SERLI and Singh are in exhibition from Feb. 14 to Mar. 25 at The Communication Arts Technologies (CAT) Gallery, Room 106, Montgomery College, Rockville Campus.