Hear the Sound of the Forest

Jazz music uses natural materials to create social interaction between musicians and the audience through improvisation. The value that is greater than the sum of its parts

Ecosystems are incredibly important. They entirely determine our existence by providing oxygen, water, food, and regulating complex ecological processes. But at the same time they have a positive influence on our social and cultural life. The natural woods that are used in musical instruments are capable of creating the value, where the whole is definitely more than the sum of its parts. In order to create a jazz improvisation, the musicians need to build the social relations between them, establish the contact with each other that works on a very subtle level of intuition and musical structures. Only by establishing this social contact they can perform together, often having never played on stage before. I have been working with jazz musicians for 15 years. In this series I wanted to use antique Carl Zeiss  long F 2.8 manual focus telephoto lens and study the hands of the musicians and their instruments, which is not easy to do from the technical point of view, due to the low light availability and the rapid movements of the hands as well as the specially tinted stage lights which are sometimes present. The use of the special lenses offered me a unique visual signature and an unusual rendering of space, which helped to make grainy and shallow depth of field photos as I intended to create. All in all I shot 4183 images during 5 different concerts which took place on 15 October, 26 October, 5 November,  19 November and 26 November 2017. The contact sheets for all the sessions could be seen following the link. This portfolio of 18 has been the result of careful editing and sequencing bearing in mind the colour, the diversity of instruments, the variety of performers capturing the essence of the music itself. An important detail to note and a factor that contributes to the uniqueness of these photographs is that this venue does not exist any more. It has been sold and is currently undergoing a refurbishment, so it will not be possible to see these musicians in this setting again.