Amalgamum: going beyond constraints

Over the past year, I have been working on an idea, how I could dissolve the boundaries, that are inherent in photography: any single photo is a frozen moment in time, in perspective, in mood, in lighting. So, is there a way to go beyond that?

It all started with me sitting at a bus station and being fascinated by an elderly lady waiting there, as well. Loving street photography, I started to take pictures of her, from different angles and perspectives, and, of course, during the whole time while we were waiting for the bus. Later, at home, I looked at the pictures and was thinking “what, if I try to combine all these pictures into one single picture”? At that very moment, the idea was born, to go beyond the constraints of a single picture and dissolve time, perspective, movement and form by turning my attention to all of these pictures concurrently.

What really struck me with this initial experiment was, that not only did I dissolve time, perspective and movement, but also had integrated the various mood-changes of that lady – from being bored with waiting to being interested in what was happening around her to being relieved, when she saw the bus approach.

In the course of the next weeks and months, I started to experiment with that technique and refine it. It’s not a plain & simple layering of pictures, there’s quite some processing involved to reach the desired effect – pardon me, if I am not giving away the details…
Some pictures will have a very abstract feel, some will be almost pure color, some will – looking closely – reveal almost unnoticeable detail found in the location, where the pictures were taken. It all depends, how I process and combine these pictures. But they all have one thing in common: they are the amalgamated essence of the scenery. That’s why I came up with the idea to call the series AMALGAMUM.

Here are a few selected photos from that series – enjoy viewing them and don’t hesitate to comment or ask questions below.