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Felix Lupa, born 1972 in Ukrain, is a photographer from the former Soviet Union. Freelance photographer since 1995, he is working with Israel's leading newspapers on long-term social projects for magazines and Television. He presents a number of local and international exhibitions and is specialized in reportage, documentary and street photography.
«Lately decided to dedicate myself to street photography in which i want to serve as a "public eye", conveying to us messages of the street's wisdom. These are multifaceted, complex messages in which the senses work powefully conveying at high velocity the feeling of decisive moments of street and human life. The ability to see and connect with human situations is like a basic instinct, , like breathing , and the public eye is the medium through which the artist expresses his particular point of view.» Felix Lupa
STREET
PHOTOGRAPHY FROM A PERSONAL ANGLE
« Seven
years have elapsed since the moment I realized that the photographs I
had been posting on the net were Street Photographs. No doubt I
would have missed this wonderful genre, had it not been for my late
exposure to the internet. So I decided to adopt it whole-heartedly.
Picture by picture it has revealed to me how amazing the street is:
full of thrilling human experiences in every corner, alleyway, and
neighborhood, all places where people are to be found.
Seven
years have elapsed and I still hurry to the street like a little boy
to his playground. The desire to pass every free moment in this
playground has not faded with the passage of time. The street is my
playground, and people in it are my playthings. The street has its
own rules and the passers-by are my unconscious partners in the game.
In my game I strive to capture the people and arrange them in various
compositions, some more or some less sophisticated that will fit in
with my ideas, with the pictures I see in my imagination. It is my
imagination that insists on a personal style, the fingerprint unique
to each photographer.
The
workspace of the street photographer consists of constantly changing
population groups. They are continuously on the move, changing day by
day, each one having its own purpose and target. Coping constantly
with this human flux, and mastery of the language of each group (at
times even of a single individual) are necessary if you want to
understand people's behavior and the rules that shape it. A lot of
time, patience, and a great deal of contact with different, strange,
people are necessary until one acquires the ability to maneuver
successfully in the street, inside people's private territory. Unique
ways of seeing, the ability to analyze a situation and react quickly
to it, are the tools the street photographer carries with him. His or
her personality, experience, intelligence and approach to life are
the main weapons in the street. The game here is not a competition
between two teams: it is you against the rest of the world, alone but
not lonely. You are equipped with that small box, containing the most
outstanding collection of playthings in the world.
It
is twenty-seven years since I got my first magic box, and it is only
now that I have come to realize that all those years have been a long
preparation for what still lays ahead, what I have not yet done. Each
kilometer I have travelled, each shoe I have worn out, each person I
have gotten to know, each picture I have taken, everything I looked
for, found, thought, understood, all these and more are the
corner-stones on which my street photographer's personality is built.
This personality is what we street photographers bring with us to the
playground of street photography. It is with this personality, and
only with it, that we confront the rest of the world, with only a
little box equipped with an eye of polished glass separating us from
the world. Through this magical eye we look at the world, trying to
understand it, analyze it, react to it with the intuition unique to
each of us, according to our particular view of the world, expressing
ourselves through and by it. And she, the camera, is doing her best
to capture for us those wonderful magical moments, brought in front
of us by our personal traits and imaginations, and that the street in
its generosity brings forward and presents to us. No matter what we
call this dream catcher, admit that you too have been captured by its
magic, and the sweet music of the shutter. » Felix Lupa
