I have always been moved by how gay people develop a sense of creating an illusory projection onto reality, how desperately they try to create a shield to protect their dreams, and how fragile this state of mind really is. This unbearable discrepancy between one’s idea of life and reality is one of the greatest sources of creativity. Skinscapes is a quite to-the-letter portrayal of this facade of a lifestyle. It’s made of glorified youth, beauty, overhyped sex, a fanatic obsession for pop, kitsch, hysteric clubbing and body worship.

Bálint Rádóczy is a prolific artist from Hungary playing with modes of photography, light, and changing the face of how we perceive the conundrum of creative process. In an exclusive interview with PhotoSynth Magazine he discusses the problems with Graphic Design, the hurdles and leaps he faces within photography, and why separation, estrangement, and solitude are some of the most important aesthetics in his work. 

What inspired you to create this series?

I have always been moved by how gay people develop a sense of creating an illusory projection onto reality, how desperately they try to create a shield to protect their dreams,and how fragile this state of mind really is. This unbearable discrepancy between one’s idea of life and reality is one of the greatest sources of creativity. Skinscapes is a quite to-the-letter portrayal of this facade of a lifestyle. It’s made of glorified youth, beauty, overhyped sex, a fanatic obsession for pop, kitsch, hysteric clubbing and body worship.

On your website you state “this series is meant to provide an almost purely aesthetic approach to visuality whilst dealing with a subject that outlines the true nature of “photography itself”. What do you feel is the “true nature” of photography? Is it more about the immediacy of the final image?

“A photograph is recorded light and nothing else. A photograph is impartial. I have been dealing with photography for a long time and it transformed the way I perceive the world: now I understand everything as an aesthetic notion. I cannot think of anything that has no aesthetic value on some level. Content is form. I’m not really involved, i’m only watching. It’s the Zeitgeist.”

How did working as a graphic designer influence your photography or your
conceptual process? Do you feel like being a graphic designer was an advantage, a handicap, or both?

The problem with graphic design is that it always tries to sell something very explicitly, thats why it will never really work as art. Art likes to leave things open, to have lots of layers, meanings. I like the apparent aimlessness of the photo. Taking pictures is my real love, although I never wanted to be integrated to society as a photographer. I wanted to keep this a safe place, and apart from a few early cases I filtered out commercial and applied photographic work from my practice. Graphic design is something that I can do, and it served to keep photography free from obligations.

The slick quality and graphicness of these photos remind me of Bladerunner, or even the newest Tron. Were you at all interested or influenced by sci-fi notions?

“The original 1982 Tron was of course a huge influence visually, also David Bowie’s Ziggy Startdust… Pink Narcissus by James Bidgood, a milestone in gay visual fantasy. And the disco movement of the sixties, of course.”

On that note, it’s interesting to me that these photos are possible because of new technologies that were not available to our photographic forefathers. The idea that you could create tailor made- projections is pretty amazing. What are you most excited about with regards to technology and photography in the future?

“A camera has one most important assignment in my opinion and that is to imitate human sight as perfectly as it gets, and there is still a lot of room for improvement there.”

You state in your bio, “I have adopted an approach to visual arts based on the principles of nature.” How does that approach manifest itself in your photos?

“Evidences of the obscure” or metaphors of life, that’s how I like to think of my pictures, suggesting that every unit refers to the whole, every segment represents the full circle. Any given part can be considered as a metaphor of a bigger entity, which means it carries knowledge regarding that bigger entity - therefore knowledge of the whole can be distilled from any given detail.”

In one of your statements, you write, “I consider solitude, separation, estrangement as important aesthetic notions” I love that in some of these photos, the body becomes an abstracted, graphic element, totally separate from its personhood. Why do you think that separation/estrangement is important in aesthetics? Do you feel that photography itself is inherently a process of separation or removal from the subject one is shooting?

“Yes. The idea that photography is somehow stealing is an ancient story, and it still comes to my mind every single time I take a picture. Am I allowed to do this or am I getting away with crime? Of course society has a kind of a scale on what you are allowed, what you should, must, mustn’t take pictures of, and the scale is constantly shifting as the public changes. Robert Mapplethorpe’s once banned pictures of cocks are now canonized, the ones he took of playing children are being censored regarding to the grown fear of pedophilia.”

Who are the photographers/designers/movements who have most influenced your worldview or your view of art?

The single most significant work of art in my life was Nam June Paik’s TV Buddha. That one piece sums everything up that you need to understand the world. Wolfgang Tillmans is an obvious choice for a personal hero, he liberated and abducted photography, lifted it on a higher ground, right when it seemed to be over. He has great pictures, but what he says is the important stuff.

Interview by Andrea Diaz, Posted by Ana Roman for PhotoSynth Magazine