The Innocence of Moment

In chaos patterns form, ordo ab chao.

While thinking about the string of moments that define us, I thought about the human lifespan, and how if you look at it all at once it is a blur of experiences, emotions and actions but ultimately fleeting. I thought about how we are more the same than different.

I thought about how everything started from a bang so incomprehensible immense we simply call it Big. I thought about Chaos.

Chaos is the normal state of the universe. Order however briefly it flutters is fleeting. The periods of chaos and order are subjective, as the observers view is limited by time and vantage point, but a reality nonetheless.

The images in this series were captured in my Alimos studio. Smoke was used as my chaotic universe, my camera as observer and order created forms in time. It is my interpretation of the simple truth that in chaotic systems patterns emerge.

Anatomy of pain

Woman 20htz

Wizard

Transexual & butler

They walk amongst us

Traveler

Rose & watcher

Reaper

Sacrifice to the beast

Penalty

Mother & daughter

Three generations

Lady in red

Kitchen dancing

Gaurdian

Girl at cafe

Gautier’s puppet

Woman

Embryo

Elegance

Dancer

Cthulu

Cabaret

Burden of gossip

Angel

Angerman

Angel at Armageddon

I saw myself as nothing but a shape that formed in chaos, bound by all the same laws that govern the universe, destined to disintegrate in to chaos with none but time to witness the relative chaos that order instigated.

I observed my condition. Our condition.

Brief overview of techniques

The Innocence of Moment was captured digitally as it would have been cost prohibitive to attempt this on film. Over eight thousand pictures were taken but discernable forms appeared in but a few. The forms that appear in these images are not manipulated, merely inverted so as to make the smoke black. I chose to use smoke because of its delicate, chaotic and impermanent qualities. When reflecting on the human condition I saw these very same qualities. A series of test were carried out to find the ideal lighting set up and post production techniques to create the finished print. I chose a 14mm rectilinear lens and set my smoke source inches from the front element. I felt that lens/subject distance combination captured more three dimensionality in the forms. I discovered early on that I could not use colored lights on my background neither my key light and knew that I would have to add global color and manipulate local color in Photoshop. The colors that appear in the smoke are the result of white light penetrating the smoke; different wavelengths become visible at various depth/densities. I felt that due to the ethereal nature of the forms captured in the images I could push them outside of the photographic norm. In order to create a consistency of look for the series I set my parameters for color, saturation, contrast, hue, etc, using as a starting point numerological values from my name, my birthday, height and weight. I chose to print the images at one meter in length knowing full well that the images would begin to degrade. I did this because I wish to include a digital fingerprint in the final picture, one from my camera’s sensor and the other from the printer. I also felt that within the context of the project it reinforced the theme of disintegration. I chose to make inkjet print instead of Lambda prints, because of the inkjets ability to do multiple color passes, thereby maintaining a high level of color saturation.

Alex bouris holds the copy writes to all images displayed on this page.

All images are 100cm x 67cm

Limited edition of 10 prints per image.

All images are for sale while available.

Contact for details.