ANA JOVEVA
SHAPES | STRUCTURE | HUMANITY
The Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology | MAAT in Lisbon, Portugal
Located on the riverfront of the historic district of Belém, in Lisbon, MAAT – is awe-inspiring modern architecture and form, an iconic example of industrial architecture. As an architect and photographer, I felt confused as I entered the overwhelming place because of the shapes, each glaze, and the mix between the sunlights and the lines that make the illusion of one form from the beginning point.
So strange…I felt that I couldn’t catch all these long textures with my capability in photography. I was capturing this building for hours; it looked like I am at the beginning of a process. It was a moment of inspiration. I was exploring everything in between, in a wide range, focusing on the subjects.… I could go on and on – there’s so much fantastic work in this museum!
Walking and moving through this location, I found many more interesting things and facts through my lenses. I can put a target on the building and spend most of my time capturing this beauty, but there were so many other attractions in the area.
I discover that this building is very incorporative in all ambiances between the light, shadows, the sea atmosphere, and reflections.
Clean minimal lines, roof incorporated with the view level of the street, a tiny part of the glass, building without windows, lines followed one by another. The asymmetrical building is incorporated with the outside environment. Reflections from the sun and facade materials make unique forms, colors, and shapes. Different images, different shapes, and forms were created in different periods. Simple, but very original and unique.
This series is a mix of reality and my own point of view affected by my feeling at the time. This black and white series presented a mixture of my architectural and photography experience created by shadows of light in different periods of the day, highlighted with an abstract environment with artistic movement. When I started the post-processing, to be honest, the idea was to transform energy without limitation and forms into 3D and illustrate how the place felt.
Lines, curves, flown shapes, geometric shapes have their own visual experience. These images elevate photography into art.
To be honest, one of my favorite images in this series is the artwork named ”IN THE SHAPES OF SHELL.”
The art presents connections between Shell, as a part of nature and Architecture, connectivity between people and pearls structure and lines…Life, Existence, Surviving… Lines and lights make shapes to a form of a simple geometric design.
Some of the swirls and zigzags start to form distinct shapes: a human…there are more than 1000 different lines, shapes that we cannot determine clearly, same as the approximate age of a shell.
“Forget everything; just do not forget your humanity! “
– Ana Joveva
Ana Joveva
Ana Joveva is MSc. Engineer, Architect, and Designer as well as a Professional Photographer. She has more than 23 years of experience working on different projects focused on public buildings and establishing interiors and brands of public space. In the past ten years, she is working as a consultant and expert for several public hospital building projects in the Middle East and her own country. She obtained her experience in few countries such as Israel, Switzerland, Germany, Kuwait, etc.
Her passions are digital photography and playing the piano.
Joveva started with photography as a hobby when she was in primary school. She fulfilled her passion for photography by finishing Digital Art Photography and Digital Painting training in the Middle East.
She had a chance to learn photography from different photographers when in 2017, she decided to participate in a photography contest and saloons along with exhibiting her work.
Her preferred fields are Architecture, Abstracts, and Street photography, along with travel reports. She also likes conceptual and fine art photography. In photography, she is concentrating on the impact of time, where she shapes photography in the urban area.
She is a mother of one daughter and wife of Head of State University clinic for Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery, Professor and Surgeon Dr. Sasko Jovev.
She received more than 450 acceptances and many awards in the international FIAP and PSA contests. She is an award-winning photographer in international competitions such as ND Bronze award winner, IPA nominations, 6-th and 7 FAPA nomination, Colour Awards, Black and white, Spider award, and Px3 Prix de la Photography Paris.
Currently, she has a volunteer position in the Photography Society of America as part of ESD for the Balkans Region.
The Macedonian National Theater
The new building of the Macedonian National Theatre was built in the same place where the old theater existed on the same foundations from 1927. This building is situated in part of the capital city that provides the city’s most beautiful views, next to the left riverbank. Place where the old Skopje Theatre was utterly demolished in an earthquake in 1963, after more than half a century. In addition to the lavish baroque Interior, the new theater is distinguished by the highest level and standard of technical stage equipment with high technical quality. With its own Interior, Macedonian National Theater is also a museum, presented through the art of the rich Macedonian cultural heritage as a symbol of history, tradition, and music.
An impressive moment in the theater is the central sculptural composition of the five founders of the Macedonian theater, which is placed in the central lobby of the theatre, and the theatrical performance of 9 women, represented in Ethno-folk components, and musicians are represented around them. The interior and especially the ceiling are represented by the most representative archaeological artifacts from the 6th century BC to the 6th century AD (Image named “In the time of history”), dating from the 6th century BC to the 19th century. In the other parts, the muses are presented as protectors of art and science. Significant mosaics, ceramic ornaments, iconostasis, marble slabs, etc., are the main constructive elements.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the performing arts in this building. That was my motivation to visit this place and feel the sadness, energy, and silence. Indoor… no lights, no sound, no tension, no people… It was challenging to have permission to take pictures in this iconic building and, more specifically, take images for less than 15 minutes.
Black or white… More black than white was the appropriate color of my images to present originality culminated with a limit of time and mix pressures and face mask. This was a unique moment of silence, glamorous gold and red interior colors with dark shadows and white contrast. There was no dialog, not communication, or distraction. It was all as one. An empty stage, empty auditorium…
It was not easy to capture the story of this empty glamor where each camera movement can catch details, the devotion of authentic theatric atmosphere. During this time, I captured some walls and details in the auditorium, ceiling, and one model as a sign of suffering during the pandemic.
We all deserve this small part of little more beauty. The life that we are living … and thinking how we still stay young…
