Art & Photography

A Thousand Words: Marton Perlaki

The photographer explains how he draws on his fascination with abstraction to create his striking style

This photograph tells a lot about my fascination with daily abstraction and images that are both appealing and unsettling at the same time.

I’ve always been keen on capturing everyday reality by transforming it into photographs that suggests a world beyond reality. I tend to believe that my photographs speak more about my interpretation of the subject than about the subject itself. This particular photograph is a good example of this.

I have rather mixed feelings about birds: on the one hand, they can truly inspire me. On the other, they can be pretty disturbing creatures. Their enigmatic ability to fly enables them to touch realms that are beyond human reach. But the way that some of them flutter their winds puts me ill at ease…

I took this picture whilst holidaying in the Salzkammergut mountain region of Austria. The photograph is dominated by two significant colours (the contrasting colour of the bird and the mountains), combined with the unusual proportion of the composition create the abstract atmosphere of the image. I cropped this picture in a most unconventional way, leaving the bird’s beak out of the frame whilst its eyes blend completely into the black colouring of its body. This composition disengages the bird from its known form and leaves a slightly abstract dark shape in the foreground. As a result, the viewer’s attention is driven towards the sinister darkness and threatening claws of the creature. The background however offers a comforting balance between the two ambiguous feelings.

Most of my work feature contrast in some way whilst striving for clarity and simplicity.

www.martonperlaki.com

MP_untitled_2010
Marton Perlaki, 'Untitled', 2010