Somehow, it feels like Zourabichvili is describing the fluid nature of these photogrammetry portraits, in how they show us the complexity of time in the way that they are not fixed in a particular moment, but contain an elasticity in how they pull and push us through photography’s history. Each portrait acts as a quasi-document of an event, which on the one hand feels static and what we expect when looking at a photograph, a capture that is mid-sentence, but here, there is also a strong suggestion of what is about to come next, stirring a curiosity for the future frame, almost cinematic. These portraits of points dissolve around the edges resembling the dance of backlit smoke, where the ephemeral feels tangible, but not something we can grasp, just like time, love, and where these images are formed, in the virtual world.

A dichotomy is present in these works, in the way that they are futuristic portraits of points, voxels, and polygons, made with 3D modelling and mapping tools that launch us into science fiction, coupled with High Renaissance sfumato surfaces and textures and chiaroscuro dramatic lighting. A similar plurality is suggested in how the subjects are represented. A modern and casual aesthetic is contrasted with a refrained psychological gaze that is often seen in 16th century painting and early photographic portraits of the 18oos.

These portraits change our perception of time. The past, present, future, minutes, and seconds, collapse and expand right before our eyes, and also the viewers expectations around the photographic medium, what it means to be a photograph, and the future of photography.

Text by Chrystal Cherniwchan

Model Albert @ Blare Management

Music by @desideria.wav

Technic: Photogrammetry