Walking is a contemplative meditation for my ever-watchful eye when it comes to the beauty of seemingly ordinary events. I must confess that I love the plants and all their movements and contours of rare simplicity. Photography is the art that is present in my view and so I am inspired by the search for the shapes, colors and textures of the seeds, leaves, flowers, trees and fruits. Every detail matters to me, from the most common to the most exotic. The fascination this look gives me reveals itself in the fabulous images captured by the shooting of the camera. The result? Light, contrast, life.
I seek to find a way that reveals a unique style of mine and that makes my work recognized for it. I understand photography as a powerful way to reveal the particularities of plants, enhancing the beauty of their curves and colors, as well as their natural imperfections. Capturing the characteristics of each leaf or flower, showing them as unique elements, as individuals, is what drives my gaze and my camera.
In the Baroque Nature series, the twisted leaves refer to the sculptures of the Brazilian Baroque. This artistic style, which has flourished over centuries of construction in this vast country, has in its essence: the contrast, the dramatic, the excess and the dazzle. It was no coincidence that the poet Affonso Romano de Sant’Anna called the baroque “the soul of Brazil”.
Over the centuries, baroque art has been passed from generation to generation of artisans who work wood and clay to shape the figures of our imagination.
Just as these artisans shape clay or carve wood, it is fascinating to see how nature transforms these leaves into perfectly sculpted works of shapes and movements, surprising by the delicacy, grace and elegance of the contours, shadows and silhouettes.
In this collection of images, I strive to capture the majesty and beauty of nature. By carefully illuminating, composing, and arranging the scene, I transform and reveal myself along with the architecture and intrinsic exuberance of the plants. There is no reference to a sense of scale. These can be small objects or giant sculptures. The way I choose to illuminate these specimens suggests that they should be appreciated as works of art that they really are, though unnoticed by our distraction. The attraction they exert on me leads me to see the pulse and freshness in the aging and dying of these beings that when they wither, twist and leave their structures of armor, skeleton, volume, texture and color fragile and visible.
With this series, I want to provoke the viewer to find the figures of his imagination!
About Ulla von Czékus
Ulla von Czékus (Salvador, BA, Brazil). Fascinated by plants, as long as she remembers, she has inherited her mother’s passion, and developed an intrinsic relationship with photography as a child, influenced by her father – hobby photographer, who loved to record family moments. For 30 years, she worked in the intense and stressful corporate world, when in 2017, during a process of slowing down, and reconstructing the long-lost sensitivity, she turned her gaze to the appreciation of beauty. Then, she united her two passions, resulting in a macrophotographic investigation that records each phase, from resplendence to senescence, of the observed object. Explore and discover unusual textures, colors and shapes in seeds, leaves, flowers and trees that suggest a reflection, as a visual metaphor, for the temporality and impermanence of human life. With a scientific and poetic look, Ulla participated in the last two editions of August of the Arts, in 2018 and 2019, both at the Palacete das Artes – Rodin Museum, in Salvador (BA). She also received three awards through the Botanicals Art Competition and Patterns Art Competition in 2019. [Official Website]
