Viktor Freydenberg | Waterline or Abstract Realism


Viktor Freydenberg “Waterline or Abstract Realism”



It’s always amazing to see, to discover in something ordinary and long familiar, something new, unusual, or even, perhaps, previously unnoticed. In the photo project «Waterline» I was able to capture that, which in reality, looks more like an avant-garde painting than reality itself.

Abstract images that appear at first glance painted, or «created», are in fact, nothing more than the real waterlines of ships, yachts and boats of all sizes and from all countries. Photographed in different light and from certain angles, close-up fragments of these lines on the border with the water create a complicated reflection that prevents the wandering eye from focusing on any particular image.

As a result, I am not simply taking pictures of an object in its environment and the play of light and color, but I define the environment that includes the object and reacts to its presence.

Colored lines once painted on the multi-colored sides of aging vessels with traces of salty water and their reflection in the water — it is a borderline of two elements, where you can observe paradoxical picture-signs, sending your intrigued minds, either to the avant-garde paintings of Malevich or they see a variety of flags of non-existent countries and some sort of mysterious scenic landscapes.

In fact: the top part is a minimalist, static geometry, and the bottom a smooth unpredictable moving ripple. The reflections and glimmers, sliding over the surface are re-reflected, further distorting the space and creating a sense of presence in these simple photo documents of diversity and depth. The surface of the water, which is the natural horizon, here turns it into a fantasy skyline, enticing our fascinated consciousness on a journey of imagination.»