Jürgen Novontny
‘CameraSelfies’ uses the ‘selfiemania,’ trend to remind the viewer if the origins of photography, and also keeps in mind that expressive photography is more than noise reduction, smile detection and technical specifications.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
SOHO Arthouse New York City, May 2014 | VERNISSAGE Fotokunst Germany 2013 | “Unternehmer als Kunstschaffende”, IHK Bonn, Germany 2008 | “v for vivia” Germany 2008 | “Fotos aus dem Alltag – keine alltäglichen Fotos” – Germany 2005
EDUCATION:
University of Colone 1990
Jürgen Novontny lives and works in Hennef, Germany.
Trying to preserve these sensations, Novotny takes very intimate self-portraits of those unique personalities. “These cameras are not only tools reduced to their technical data but also still an inspiration for artists and a source of creativity.”
“ As an engineer I was always fascinated by everything technical … especially cameras since my father presented me my first camera when I was 6 years old. First shooting film (of course) I also made the transition to digital photography a few years ago, but without losing the connection to my “analog fundament” completely.
Looking again for my analog “heroes” – which I never could afford when I was shooting film – on auction sites like eBay and elsewhere around 2014 I learned that nondigital cameras seemed in fact to be forgotten … beautiful and still great equipment is now available for a few bucks. I told myself: good for me, but somehow sad (reminding me a little bit of the toys’ fate in the Toy Story movies). So what if those abandoned and forgotten cameras would try to depict themselves and their somehow sad situation? Without users anymore, looking back upon their glorious times? In the following I began to collect historic cameras and the idea for my CameraSelfies was born. I tried to capture them in their “natural” and chronologically correct environment, on backgrounds of contemporary wallpapers.”
Interview:
