AMY KANKA VALADARSKY | “Once there was, and once there was not”.

AMY KANKA VALADARSKY | “Once there was, and once there was not”.

“Once there was, and once there was not” is my attempt to connect with ancient myths that teach us how to break free from our perceived boundaries, release expectations, and conquer fears. Inspired by my muse and Pinkola Estes’s words, I embark on a personal quest, listening to the instincts rather than thoughts, opening myself to the visual echoes of whispers heard within. Muse and model: Michal Messika

The idea of visualizing the invisible is something I have been continuously exploring in my practice as an artist.
I am drawn to what lies beyond the physical appearance of things, trying to capture “what else is there,” as Minor White so beautifully put it. I find the natural world endlessly inspiring and a rich source of metaphors through which I can tell my story.
Making the unseen seen has prompted experimentation with multiple photographic techniques: analog, digital, camera-less, and combinations of darkroom and digital techniques. Always looking for new ways to visually express ideas, enjoying the creative process at least as much as its result.
Like dreams, photography has a way of making thoughts and feelings surface, giving them visual shape. The light that helps create the image on paper also illuminates previously hidden parts of self.

“Once there was, and once there was not” Be wild; that is how to clear the river … If we want to allow it its freedom, we have to allow our ideational lives to be let loose, to stream, letting anything come, initially censoring nothing. That is creative life … Then the river will flow, then we can stand in the stream of it raining down.”
― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves

“We see what we know until we know who we are, then we see what we feel.”
— Ernst Haas

Amy Kanka Valadarsky was born in 1964 in Romania, where she spent her first eight years before her family moved to Israel, the place she calls home. After graduating as a software engineer, she started what was to become a 25 years long career in the telecommunication industry, traveling around the globe designing and implementing software solutions.
In 2014, after leaving the hi-tech world, Amy returned to her creative roots and opened a new chapter of her life as a fine art photographer.
Amy’s work was selected as a Critical Mass 2017 Top 50, as well as featured in SHOTS, Rfotofolio, The Hand, Lens Magazine, Black&White Magazine, Lenscratch and exhibited in a variety of galleries and photo festivals such as PhotoLa 2016, Carmel Center for photographic Art, and the Griffin Museum at Lafayette City Center (Boston). She lives with her husband, the dog, and two cats in Even Yehuda, Israel.

Read the full article in Lens Magazine Issue #80