GUY GEVA
At Death’s Door
Please Tell us a little bit about yourself?
I was born in 1973, and I’m a photographer.
I have been practicing Art under the instruction of the artist “Shimon Avni”
I studied Theory of Art at the Open University of Israel.
And have a B.Sc. Physics from Tel-Aviv University.
From 1992 I started using photography as an art.
My photography works include nature and studio photography.
What type of photography do you do most? And what do you enjoy most and why?
Most of my art work is nature photography. I’m a proportional landscape photographer. And I’m interested in the time of the day that 1 hour before the is sun up.
The second part of my work is studio photography. In studio photography I’m trying to express the part of me that’s interested in the movement of time. The way we walk into death and the way I look at it. And this part you can see in my work.
Did you go to school to learn photography?
No. I study physics and I can understand optics of the lenses. And my background is painter, art. So to move into photography was easy and natural for me.
Describe your photographic style, How did you develop your style?
I look for clean format. Not a lot of objects in the frame. So it will be clear to see the main object.
What is the most challenging part about being a photographer for you?
To make the viewer the feeling that I have it the moment of the shot.
What type of cameras do you shoot with?
Nikon D610
Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G ED
Nikkor 28mm f/2.8D
Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G AF-S
Nikkor 300mm f/4D IF-ED AF-S
What is your favorite photography accessory, other than your camera?
A cap of hot tea, Diffuses for [lash and 4 extra battery’s
What was your scariest moment as a photographer?
Every winter I find myself in a snow blizzard try to move my fingers and straggle the will to go into my sleeping bag and keep on working. This is the moment that I can feel “me”
What is your best photography tip?
Don t shot. Look again for tree time and then press. Use a tripod every shot!
If you had to choose one lens which one would it be and why?
28mm f/1.8. It is an all around from landscape to street photography and macro if you turn over the lens
Which photographers influenced you, and how did they influence your thinking, photographing, and career path?
There are more than one, but I can say that one of them is: Wynn Bullock
The way he work with B&W photos from landscape to macro. All the time he is very “clean” in his work. And there is: Joel Peter Witkin, Barbara Crane, Regina Deluise… And more
In the last years I stop working full time job and most of my time is working on improvement of my way to “talk” to the viewer with the lens.
Exactly what it is you want to say with your photographs, and how do you actually get your photographs to do that?
Time is on the move to one way and is the end of life. It is a clear and clean path. In this work that you see, the fruit is in it end of life. But steel it is doing all it can to “stay” here. It is holding color, vividness until the last moment. But in the end it will go into the darkness of life. Into his death
What motivates you to continue taking pictures economically, politically, intellectually or emotionally?
A sea of emotion that make me feel like I”m a kind a snow storm. And I need to let it all out all the time. If I stay at home more than two weeks I start to be distress nature is calling me all the time so I can get it all out
What is your best post processing tip?
If you work on a shot more than 1 min it because you don’t have a good shot. Go out and do it again. If you don’t need to post processing you make a good work. Now do it better next time
Death is a dominant motif in my life, since I remember myself, Visions pass through my head, not only of death itself, but of the process that precedes it Loss of colors and energy, slow dying, withering, weakening
At a certain point both soul and body seek to accelerate the process, But just like most things in nature, I hold on to life till the last moment.
I will not describe this situation with bright light, of course, but rather using very dark colors
Which together creates an almost complete darkness.
It is the same darkness which serves as a clear motif in the photographs which stand in front of you.
Read the full article on Israeli Lens Magazine Issue #11 Still Life Photography
