The picture “Vibrant Venice” by Munich photographer Sebastian Krawczyk has received the FRAMOS Young Art Collection Award 2018. As part of the series “Blurred Lines” the photo seems to look more like a painting. The digital print resembles a canvas where dots dissolve into strokes, colors mix with each other, and surfaces are interspersed with fine hatchings. The camera is guided like a brush, manual presets create a photorealistic, painterly realization. The 180cm by 100cm work was hung in Ottawa, FRAMOS’ Canadian office.
As a global partner for vision solutions, FRAMOS has been supporting up-and-coming artists since 2011 with the Young Art Collection. Where engineers and vision specialists find solutions for automation and digitization every day, modern architecture and photographic works of art bridge the gap between technology and art in the office.
Sebastian, in your series “Blurred Lines”, you distort dreamlike landscapes and thus focus on today’s travel behavior. What do you do you hope to convey with the blurry shots?
We travel a lot nowadays and we easily have access to visit even the most remote places in nature. Always in play: our camera. Instead of really enjoying the view, we capture the beauty of all these breathtaking landscapes in front of us on digital devices. The photographic proof and the sharing in social networks has been degenerated as its main purpose. We hardly take the time to really process what we have seen. Instead, we collect blurry, fuzzy memories in our heads – as they can be seen in my pictures. The photographic way in which the images were taken, with movements and long exposure times, describes the way we rush through nature today without breathing deeply.
 BL Sound of Silence |
 BL Magnetic Forest |
 BL Lago Colore |
Pictures of Krawczyk’s “Blurred Lines” Series
What technique do you use for this effect and what is its purpose or meaning for you?
My paintings look as if the paint has been quickly applied in a rush, and then removed in a semi-dry state. The actual creation process is purely physical; only small movements and manual presets provide the typical Blurred Lines result. All pictures were taken as shown, they are spontaneous and are not manipulated, except for minimal color adjustments. They show local nature and landscapes, which literally appear paint-like and almost unreal. The transition from the momentary to the transient plays an important role. It is as if we are dealing with flown away fragments of memory, which almost remind us of the present and the wish of their existence in absolute beauty.
How did you come upon with this photographic art form and your way of photographing?
As a child, it was always me who handled the analog camera back then, during the family holidays. I grew up in a very visually influenced way and wanted to capture everything that was important to me. I have no talent for drawing, so I think in pictures and during my studies in communication design I mastered my technique. Photography, especially as reportage as I do it, needs a special kind of attention – a deep interest and understanding of what is deeply going on around you. You have to be able to “see” in the truest sense of the word; to perceive things that others do not even notice.
The camera’s technical settings, at some point, created effects that were not even planned and that had a very special appeal, like a flickering and tugging. I experimented with what the technology offered and how I could work with it. This is how new methods were developed not only to photograph a motif beautifully, but also to present it in a completely different way. This has made my art and my technique unique.
How was the picture “Vibrant Venice” created?
The Blurred Lines series consists mainly of sequences from the Bavarian foothills of the Alps, nature scenes from Tyrol and other European countries. In Venice, I tried for the first time to use the technique in an urban environment. It was important that the motif could still be clearly classified for the viewer despite the distortion. my shots are not planned, everything happens spontaneously, and I must intuitively regard the moment as coherent. Suddenly there was this gondolier, which poked between the two shores with the motorboat sailing behind it and the chain of lights. The contrast between past and present, slow and fast, craft and technology, light and darkness appealed to me a lot.
About the Artist:
Sebastian Krawczyk, born 1984, grew up in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. During his studies in Communication Design, he received a state scholarship for photography and design and spent a semester in Australia, which still shapes the young artist’s photographic style today. Since 2010 Krawczyk has lived and worked as a freelance photographer and art director in Munich, working for brands including Mercedes Benz, Allianz, Siemens, Rolf Benz, InStyle and many others.
With all his voyages, Sebastian Krawczyk experiences and records them with his camera which provides the material for his work. His travels have taken him to Armenia, the Arctic Circle, Spain, Israel and most recently to the volcanic island of Madeira.
On the one hand, he develops color-intensive, artistic images that are blurred encounters with nature and dreamy shadowy scenes while also capturing the many narrative snapshots that are observed attentively and created in the middle of the action, such as his series “City Of Gods” in Jerusalem. Krawczyk’s works are characterized by a cautious eye for detail and a feeling for clear compositions.
