Endless Blue
My encounter with photographic language occurred during a trip to Siberia in ice skates on Baïkal Lake. Siberian people, frozen landscapes, and the beauty of ice textures has literally immersed me in photography as a vital and natural way to share emotions.
Before, I wasn’t practicing photography, but I asked for advice from my husband Serge. As a French Navy nurse specializing in medical radiology, he has extensive experience in photography and film development. He has been surprised and amazed by the pictures I brought back, even if unfortunately, my camera (a digital compact) has resisted quite badly to the Siberian winter. He encouraged me to continue photography... and life decided that it couldn’t be otherwise!
A few months later, health reasons brought me to a turning point in my life. I was nurse and worked in oncology, specializing in palliative care. That profession would no longer be possible for me, and I had to consider a professional retraining.
Serge offered me my first “true” camera, a Leica M8 with a Summilux-M 75mm. We both decided to train at the French National Audio-Visual Institute (I.N.A.) in Paris. Since then, Serge is always present by my side, and he accompanies me in my reflection and my practice of Photography.
My first words when I discovered the Leica M were, “It’s a Stradivarius!”. But it was obvious to me that it is not enough to have the best instrument in the world in your hands to become a musician...
I immediately fell in love with this camera. During my childhood, I have been fortunate to practice piano, violin, dance, and painting. It has probably developed my sensitivity to art. When I held the Leica M in my hands for the first time, it gave me the same, very special feeling I had with my piano and my violin. The nature of this feeling was the same as when I experimented during my childhood: musicality, rhythm and phrasing are also essential in photography!
My relationship with photography has turned into a real philosophical journey over time. I explore everyday life at its most ordinary and try to highlight what makes things and places unique and extraordinary. Shooting everyday life at its most mundane can mean facing silence, absence, and vacuity. It's looking at a frame where nothing appears to be happening. Nothing "special" anyway. Nothing sensational or exciting. Just life in all its fragility, its destitution, and its beauty.
Photography has significantly increased in popularity and become widespread over the last few decades. A myriad of events have happened in France and abroad based on image: exhibitions, festivals, conferences, etc. They are attended by several professional and amateur photographers to present work they've done all over the world. You can come back with breathtaking shots from countless places around the globe but is it because we're seeing a far-flung place that we find it beautiful, and it has a greater effect on us?
Photography is its own language with universal reach. Every shot is a vital element, just like a word has its place in a sentence. Side by side the images should come together, break each other down and mirror each other to create a specific rhythm and phrasing. I opted for a digital rangefinder camera equipment with a prime lens. I create my shots with a manual focus. The features of lenses are what define my bond with the subject. That means I have limitations, but it forces me to seek out the image and think about its composition. That said, what is it that makes you press the shutter button at that very moment? The framing, lighting, and mental construct that you see in a subject, even when you're not too sure where you're going. Things always come together beforehand, deep inside us, where the best part of photography happens - in our emotions.
My M camera with my favorite Summilux-M 75mm deeply forged my sight. I’m fully aware of my luck to have beginning and exclusively practice Photography with that equipment!
ENDLESS BLUE
"Endless Blue" is a contemplative evocation of the Normandy coastline. Balancing emotion and subjectivity, I realized that my shots consistently took me to the sea, nature and color. Over the seasons I explored the coastal paths and Cotentin beaches with no specific route. I set my sight on both the shore and horizon, the near and far. You can see man's presence everywhere here. I didn't try to force encounters, I just left things to chance and let my imagination loose. The sea has its own rhythm beaten by the tides, its own melody from the backwash. When it goes out and leaves a water mirror on the sand, it reflects the sky in all its infinite glory. At first, I didn't realize it, but I had found a central theme: it was blue. In Normandy more than anywhere, history has sculpted the landscapes. Our beaches are where Europe's fate moved to hope and freedom on the morning of June 6, 1944. What's left of that day reminds us of the cost in human sacrifice.
The sea can express turmoil and tranquility in equal measure and echoes every human passion and contradiction. Nowadays we soak up the peace, sunshine, sports or seaside holidays, simply, naturally, almost comfortably. The sea creates a sense of freedom intrinsically linked to this endless blue stretching into the horizon as far as the eye can see. This imaginary and symbolic line has a powerful and irresistible pull on the human soul.
In recent years, climate change has seen record high temperatures and sunshine in the Channel. The sea and sky were a powerful and abnormal azure blue at the time. For capturing these stunning hues of blue, I used a polarizing filter on my Summilux-M 75, and I lightly underexposed my shots with the 35mm. For me, film and digital photography are not opposite but instead are parts of a natural continuity. The memory of the Kodachrome 25 film is my reference for its vivid and saturated colors.
During more than five years, I have captured the coastal landscapes of the Normandy Landing Beaches. Behind very simple pictures of daily life seaside, there are several degrees of storytelling. The climate changes with this attractive “endless blue” weather, on the one hand, and the perception of the fragility of freedom and peace, on the other hand. These are the foundations of my work. I paid a special attention to capture the vaporous character of the mist, the sun, and the wind. The technical specificities of the Leica M in manual mode and the special signature of the Summilux lenses allowed me to play with the suspended particles.
Family and familiar scenes of activities by the sea coexists with the memory of the World War II. The sacrifice of the past generation, on June 6, 1944, allowed tomorrow to be possible. A lot of things have been done, particularly here in Normandy, to document history and war; but maybe not everything has been done to document peace. I shot joy, insouciance, the good life, uncovering the mirage of the bond between mankind and its environment.
The following equipment was used to shoot the photos:
Leica M240, M10, M10R, M11
Summilux M 1: 1,4 75mm
Summilux M 1: 1,4 35mm asph
Elmar R 1: 4 180mm (Visoflex EVF + Leica R adapter M)
ABOUT KARINE
Trained at the I.N.A. (French National Audio-Visual Institute) and member of the Professional Photographers Union, I turned to professional photography in 2007. I use a digital Leica M to produce my shots as well as the fine art printing of my photographs.
My first photographs were published in Le Monde 2 magazine. I have exhibited my work in different Museum and published a photobook with my husband Serge: Poesea - Des bateaux et des hommes (French language only).
In 2017, I have been shortlisted to exhibit at the 44ème Salon de la Marine at the Musée National de la Marine (Palais Chaillot, Paris). My work was celebrated by a congratulatory letter from the Chief- of-Staff of the French Navy.
Since then, my photographs have been exhibited in London and shortlisted by the Juries at the Leica Fotografie International-LFI Gallery and LHSA-The International Leica Society.
website: https://karine-nowak.com/
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linkedin: https://fr.linkedin.com/in/karinenowak/en