THE ETHEREAL GENIUS OF CONRAD
OLIVIER Selected by the London's
Monthly Herald: "International Photographer of the Year"
By Maximillien de Lafayette, Syndicated
Columnist, London.
Olivier: "Endeavoring to explore and depict instances in time is the
challenge. Different places and people serve as powerful subjects... The
next challenge rests with you to make these photographs come alive."
If you manage
to freeze time and bring it back to life in your camera, you become a
magician- photographer. If you succeed in conversing with nature and unfold
its secrets through lights, shadows and forbidden thoughts, using a camera
and its eloquent silence, you walk through immortality and cross the bridge
of human banality. For photography is a divine art, and the photographer who
captures the hidden and the secret, the holy and the damned, the fragile
whispers of time and the unseen is the parallel definition of an immortal
artist. Conrad Olivier is that kind of photographer. Unquestionably, one of
the world's best photographers. But who in heavens is Conrad Olivier? I
asked him this question. And this most talented magician photographer
replied with modesty, humility and utmost simplicity...he replied: " I
am Conrad Olivier, 33 yrs old,
web
developer, photographer, landscaper / hardscaper.
I was born
in
Louisiana. I grew up in
Northern Texas and got a degree
in Fine Art from the
University of Texas at Austin (Studio Art). I lived and
worked
in
Denver CO for the last 7 years." And, at
the very end of his statement, he added: "Yes, Max, I studied French for 5
years. But, Spanish overtook that language in my brain."
Once a year, the Monthly Herald in London
selects the world's best photographer. The folks there go through tons of
photos, thousands and thousands of bios, resumes, exhibitions pamphlets,
brochures, catalogues, they also attend zillions of photography shows and
exhibitions. And each one of the Selection Committee goes home, sink his or
her head in more piles and piles of photos, to come up with one single
nomination: THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR. Fortunately or
unfortunately, I am one of those who sits on the Nomination and Selection
Committee Board. My colleagues, I meant some of my colleagues are pompous
and difficult. Others are more permissive and fun to work with.
Unquestionably or perhaps, my learned colleagues could and would think the
same thing about me. And I don't mind for the time being, for I am sitting
here before the majestic and mesmerizing work of a young American
Photographer who is a complete enigmatic question mark for me. Conrad
Olivier? Conrad who? I have never heard of him! And for this alarming and
banal reason, I deserve to be shot. For this man walks tall and with pride
among the world's best photographers. To call him a genius, would be an
insult. For the qualitative and quantitative values and measurements of the
word or the adjective "GENIUS" become irrelevant and purely materialistic,
if we have to ascend to the throne of cosmic beauty, reach for the
firmament, fly far away from the absurdity of intellectualism and human
parables...and touch the face of God.
TĘTE-Ŕ-TĘTE WITH CONRAD OLIVIER
Olivier: "I am
constantly driven by the unknown, knowing that it will often be
spectacular."
Photo:
Antelope Canyon.
The
art of Conrad Olivier adds more feather to my wings and makes me feel that I
am in the presence of a magus photographer, a divine messenger who gently
touched my shoulders, invited me to look at the universe from a new angle
and observe the majesty of the universe, the beauty of the divinity and the
universal soul which metamorphosed into noble stones, unreachable horizons,
forgotten doors in lost villages, rocks and caves in Arizona, botanic
gardens in Denver, temples, columns and stupas in Cambodia...and sunsets
melting with shivering beauty between our hands and the infinity of the
universe. This is exactly what the camera and the secret art of Olivier in
his camera do to me, to my confused soul and absurd intellectualism. Conrad
Olivier photography art is as brilliant as the sun of Arizona, and as noble
as the the columns and faces of the Buddha in Cambodia... I had to interview
this man...
TĘTE-Ŕ-TĘTE WITH CONRAD
OLIVIER
Q: Tell me, Conrad,
what light means to you?
CONRAD:
Light is everything… however, I prefer less
light when shooting. Photography is a challenge in itself, however, light
makes the process of photography much more challenging as one must discern
the proper moment or be able to imagine when the proper moment of light will
occur on any given subject matter.
Q: And shadows?
CONRAD:
Shadows
nourish the soul of the viewer with the part they may often want to see.
In other words, shadows often allow the imagination to soar.
Q: Is there
anything between? Anything between light and shadows? Maybe a world we never
knew? A dimension we never explored? A state of mind?
CONRAD:
Light and
shadows may be what we see, however, if the viewer is overcome by a sense of
awe or admiration, suddenly, the inconvenience of
going out of one’s way to photograph isolated instances in time becomes all
worthwhile.
Q: Why did you go
to the end and the beginning of the world to take these photos? What was on
your mind?
CONRAD:
Aside from
what I mentioned in the question before, I simply want to share what I’ve
seen and photographed with those who have not. I am constantly driven by
the unknown, knowing that it will often be spectacular… even if it is not,
I’ll come away with the thought that it was satisfying nonetheless.
THE WORLD AND THE CAMERA OF CONRAD
OLIVIER...
"BEST PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR"
Dawn Near Machu Picchu.
TĘTE-Ŕ-TĘTE WITH CONRAD OLIVIER
Q: Any advice for
struggling talented artistes?
CONRAD:
Put
yourself in strange and uncomfortable locations, and your creativity will
simply occur. Just as one can’t force a fit a square peg into a round hole,
you can’t force creativity either.
Q: What's next on
your agenda?
CONRAD:
I make split second decisions on where, when,
and how long to go… sure I research a bit, however, I like to keep the whole
pursuit as spontaneous as possible. I may take a bus into central
Mexico
from Denver, Colorado… perhaps for 10 days. I wish to return to SE Asia,
namely, Burma (Myanmar) & Laos as they are generally speaking they contain
some interesting destinations such as the Plains of
Bagan in Burma.
Q: How about
politics? Do you like politics? Do you watch the news?
CONRAD:
Yes, I watch the news… I dislike politics
because there is always a looser, a double standard, something to unsettle
the onlooker. Visiting poor countries around the globe, I feel guilty more
often than not b/c of the actions of the
First
World.
Q: Final question.
It could be a funny and silly one, but I am going to go ahead and shoot it.
Which part of the human body interests you most?
CONRAD:
The eye is the single most telling part of the
human body. Have you ever stared at a person without eyes, do you not find
it more than a challenge?
CONRAD OLIVIER: THE
PROPHET-PHOTOGRAPHER OF LIGHT AND DIVINE SHADOWS...
Koh Samet.
Purple lotus
blossom Doi Sukotep - Chiang Mai
Reclining Buddha.
Bangkok.
Sunset on El Peten.
After dusk...Lago Peten.
Dugouts on El Peten.
A masterpiece
in any endeavor, discipline, art form, even expression comes to life and
stands before us with majesty and beauty, sometimes with dignity, fear and an
imposing authority like the Guardian Angel of the Lost Eden, WHEN AND ONLY
WHEN, the masterpiece captures hundred per cent our senses, our attention and
we begin to feel that words become unnecessary, and narrative description is
meaningless. We enter Chapel Sistine at The Vatican and we lose touch with
human reality. We look at Michelangelo's Statue of Moses and the rich
vocabulary we learned at school and from encyclopedias betrays us. We touch
the first terra cotta of a Phoenician Alphabet and our fingers are set on
fire, for by touching the first alphabetically arranged letters in the history
of mankind, time and space, past and future are re-synchronized and
re-invented in deep silence through all the events of our civilization and
human existence. The majesty and severity of this brief moment render it
mightier and bigger than all the events and times in recorded history.
Ironically, a small plastic or metallic box called camera can achieve and
produce similar results. But the prerequisites are tough. And the criteria are
sometimes beyond the reach and comprehension of ordinary minds.
And this
leads me to wonder and to ask myself: WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT OLIVIER'S
MASTERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY?
So many things.
For, in Olivier's small camera, I found an immense continent, multiple
continents larger than the ones we live in or read about. When you look at
Conrad Olivier's photo (I call it estampe, a human-nature chronicle, even a
fingerprint of destiny), I realize and discover what it took to produce and
obtain such marvelous pictures. I will try -in a very simple and accessible
language- to explain what I saw and what I discovered to be the ingredients
and techniques used to create such masterpieces. It would take me weeks to
elaborate on the science and art of Olivier. Among the most characteristic and
illustrative elements of his genius are:
1-THE
PERFECT HARMONY AND BALANCE BETWEEN SHOTS' ANGLES AND EXTRA-DIMENSIONS, 2-THE
SYMBOLISM AND CONSTRUCTIONAL COMPOSITION OF HIS PHOTOS IN RELATION TO THE
PLACE FROM WHICH PHOTOS WERE TAKEN, 3-THE MESSAGE CONVEYED THROUGH MULTITUDES
OF LIGHTS AND SHADES TONES, 4-THE THEME WHICH TRANSCENDS THE GEOGRAPHY AND
ECOLOGICAL FRONTIER OF THE OBJECT, 5-THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LOCATION: THE
PLACE IN RELATION TO HUMAN VALUE VERSUS ESTHETIC VALUE. And most of
all:
1- BEING
THERE AND FROM WITHIN: You got to be there. As simple as that. In other
words, you have to find your theme, the subject, the object, the "thing" you
are looking for. You want to photograph animals, you go to the zoo. You want
to photograph football players, you go to the football stadium. This is "La
Verite de la Palice"? Correct? No. Wrong! Photography is not looking at an
object, a pier, a bridge, a sunset and boom, kaboom shoot very differently.
The sensitive and creative photographer can even sense the weight of light and
shadows over an object. We don't. Being there means being part of each part
and element, space and time, border and beyond, light and shadow, color and
nothingness of the "thing" we are looking at and trying to capture on film.
"Being There" and "From Within" mean being and becoming part of the all
dimensions or lack of them, forms, inner and external existence of the object.
You have to infiltrate and penetrate "the thing" you are looking at to explore
its nature, mysteries, hidden secrets, language, history and what you can not
hear on the outside. And Conrad Olivier does it magnificently.
2- THE LIGHT
AND THE SHADOWS: We cannot take photos without light, unless we are on the
set of MGM. The delicate ability to sense and see subtle changes in the
light on a object, still life, a face, a subject, a site is part of what makes
a photograph a "photograph" and not a snap shot. The film must receive
the correct amount of light to capture and record an image. Meager light, and
the image becomes weak and lacks the needed contrast. Too much light, and the
image becomes dark and a full contrast. The art and science is to control
the light. But even controlling the light will not necessarily makes you a
good photographer. For, still, you have to have the ability to subdue,
emphasize and alter the feelings and the moods of "what you are shooting". And
even if you perfectly succeed in dealing with the light's intensity or
brightness, light meter measurements and converting its sequences and
snaps into f-stops and shutter speeds, YOU STILL NEED to sense the inner
elements and nature of the object you are shooting. I knew mystic
photographers who excelled in photography and contemporary ultra-modern
installations who believed that "even dead objects, obscure moments, heavy
rocks, solid piece of metal, a piece of wood have an inner light we can not
see with the naked eyes." Some photographers do. How? I do not dare to
elaborate on the subject.
They simply do.
They see the light. Perhaps the light emanates in directions and through
visionary frequencies emanating from within the object and or the inner world
of the photographer. Thus photography becomes a philosophical-metaphysical
experience. Even an intellectual-mental exercise. This reality is evident upon
looking at the Buddha photos and Cambodian/Buddhist/ Asian temples, Conrad
Olivier captured on his films. There is a sense, a definition, a flair of
philosophical lyricism and intellectual-religious serenity in the work of
Olivier. And Olivier's perfect mastery of and quasi-balance between the
seen and unseen lights, shadows and beyond shadows produce this formidable
effects and impact on us. But there is more than metrical measurements and
technical adjustments of light and shadows, per se. Olivier explained
perfectly: "One must discern
the proper moment or be able to imagine when the proper moment of light will
occur on any given subject matter.
Shadows nourish the
soul of the viewer with the part they may often want to see. In other words,
shadows often allow the imagination to soar. " So, here we are, embarking on a
journey of lights, shadows, soul, imagination, timing, etc...This is the
journey, Olivier's camera took.
