Try 1x for free
1x is a curated photo gallery where every image have been handpicked for their high quality. With a membership, you can take part in the curation process and also try uploading your own best photos and see if they are good enough to make it all the way.
Right now you get one month for free when signing up for a PRO account. You can cancel anytime without being charged.
Try for free   No thanks
Magazine
Martin Marcisovsky: Photographer of the Week

This week, we will put in the spotlight the Dublin-based photographer Martin Marcisovsky. His surreal and moody work captures some interesting silhouettes fixed in equally engaging landscapes.  It's always up to the viewer's own intuitive perspective to decide how they interpret his images. Thanks to Yvette Depaepe for conducting the interview.

 

 

I am an almost 37-year-old Slovakian photographer working as a sales person for a large corporate Telco company with a vast amount of interest in photography since 2008. In conjunction with that my obsessive interest for art in any form has almost become deleterious (but in a healthy way).

The diversity of experiences and the reciprocity to your art process overall are most definitely the most important principals when trying to accomplish any art form. Having said that history comes hand in hand with your life adventures not only as a single complement but as an inception of pretty much everything and anything in your life. One of the most distinguished experiences throughout my life so far was my 11 years stay in Dublin, Ireland. The mixture of the rural and pastoral life of the west coast and the metropolitan side of this country has affected my photography like an avalanche. The vaporous beauties of the early seascape mornings combined with the attraction of modern Dublin architecture have always had the biggest influence on my artworks. It's hard to tell right now which one is more dominant but I am more than convinced that the interrelation is strong enough to balance it somehow.

The start of my photography journey began as a young teenager in my little hometown library where I was absolutely mesmerized by a large amount of old Czechoslovakian photography magazines depicting various styles of images from all around the world. I still remember exactly looking at Josef Koudelka's work plus documentary pictures from plenty of other photographers. Some of the images were incomprehensible to my mind but I could still feel the inner enchanting beauty of them.

It's obligatory for me to say that is so simple to catch the beauty of anything that is so obvious to a naked human eye, but twice as hard to discover it in hidden, even in ugly and negative things. I am balancing between these two worlds everyday in a real life and also in photography. So my vision remains along these two strange lines and my images will reveal it.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I started off like many other photographers with capturing the beauty of the landscapes but I swiftly realized that there is more to it and I got drawn to Fine art and the so called conceptual, creative edit photography. Once you step into this infinite unknown world there is no way back, it is only you and these three aspects and of course your imagination.

Nowadays the differentiation has almost completely evaporated and these principles itself have a huge impact on your final image. With that in mind you can't create something rather complicated without missing one of those 3 things. My aspiration is to balance it all.

There is always a relationship with my human psyche ever since I started to create images. It naturally started to evolve no matter the subject nor the concept beyond. Sometimes there is no darker place as our own thoughts. 

 

 

 


 

I keep looking for random places, sometimes with no intention of discovering anything and sometimes with a huge promise for myself to have everything in place just as I wanted.
I shoot with Mark II and use very few lenses canon 17-40, samyang 14, canon70-200, canon 24-70 and that is pretty much it. At the beginning I used to shoot 99% of my work with sigma 10mm.I am using Photoshop since the very beginning, nothing else really.

The aggregate vision starts with either a simple or more profound concept. Sometimes the initial idea is very clear other times nebulous. From that point onwards my brain is trying to catch tiny little pieces of anything that surrounds me and the general process is mostly done all in my head. Yet I have to agree it may be a bit of an unconventional way of accomplishing it but it has proven to be the most efficient way for me to work like that.

Patience and hard work are essential when starting seriously with photography. I spent an enormous amount of time on my pc. I began with simple tutorials and was looking for all kinds of information on the Internet.

My favorite photographers are many but one of them I particularly like is Dean West. His world of fantasy, unconventional dreams and approach to parallel worlds has had a huge impact on my future photo manipulations.

My all-favorite image is taken by Magnum Photographer Josef Koudelka. It is really distinctive in the way in which it depicts freedom. It represents a seagull flying over the sea. It is a beautiful BW creation that makes me feel good and relaxed.

I will continue doing what I have been doing till now, trying to come up with extraordinary concepts that people might find interesting in some way. Although I am pretty sure creative edit cannot be for every viewer.

My own favorite image taken by me is "Let the Life Flow in".  The building in which the image was taken had a magical and mystical atmosphere with its own authenticity. The light, the abandoned place and myself being there all alone: it has all come together in that very place.

  

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Write
Like your work Martin , it surprises and that is what I like! Best,Ben
thanks Ben!
Evan Oz CREW
Enjoy your work, Martin, and appreciate your sharing your thought processes. I must say your favorite image, "Let the Life Flow In," is truly wonderful within an overall impressive body of work. Best Wishes!
Hi Evan, thanks for your comment. Martin will surely appreciate it a lot. Just one little remark: Martin's favorite photo "Let the Life Flow in" is from Magnum Photographer Josef Koudelka. To avoid any confusion I added a link to Koudelka's biography and photo's.
thank you everyone!
Thanks to you too, Martin! It was a pleasure to interview you... Cheers, Yvette
Beautiful photographs! Congratulations
thank you so much Sebastiaen
Seeing this series of photos that come to my mind the thought that we are dealing with photography fantasy world species With sensory elements which are arranged beautifully together to create a whole different,Congratulations to you Martin Marcisovsky for taking thise photos and also thomas for choosing and short description of this photographer.
Glad to hear that you liked the interview, Mohammad.
many thanks Mohammad for your kind words!