WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT OLIVIER'S MASTERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY?

 

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.

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