Arbores Nobilitatis No.13

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Arbores Nobilitatis No.13, tree lovers.

Arbores Nobilitatis No.12

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Arbores Nobilitatis No.12, stability looks over the shadows of nobility.

Arbores Nobilitatis No.11

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Arbores Nobilitatis No.11, a trunk of stability, roots firmly fixed, well grounded, punch the tree trunk as hard you can, you will lose.

Oppressio Civitatis No.31

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Oppressio Civitatis No.31, underground perspective for the unknown bystander.

Oppressio Civitatis No.30

Oppressio Civitatis No.30, underground meeting places. [NOTE: make sure you click on the image to see full size]

Oppressio Civitatis No.29

Oppressio Civitatis No.29, three ways out.

Oppressio Civitatis No.28

Oppressio Civitatis No.28, building out the light.

Oppressio Civitatis No.27

Oppressio Civitatis No.27, two ways out.

Oppressio Civitatis No.26

Oppressio Civitatis No.26, more trying to get in than get out.

Oppressio Civitatis No.25

Oppressio Civitatis No.25, some diving in some bailing out.

Oppressio Civitatis No.24

Oppressio Civitatis No.24, sunrise over the road of false light.

Oppressio Civitatis No.23

Oppressio Civitatis No.23, sunrise over the highway to darkness.

Oppressio Civitatis No.22

Oppressio Civitatis No.22, the road from lesser corruption to greater corruption, and back again.

Oppressio Civitatis No.21

Oppressio Civitatis No.21, concrete blocks overlooking a grassy plane.

Oppressio Civitatis No.20

Oppressio Civitatis No.20, in the shadow of the concrete jungle.

Oppressio Civitatis No.19

Oppressio Civitatis No.19, sloping down between stillness and animation.

Oppressio Civitatis No.18

Oppressio Civitatis No.18, caged path above a highway towards a forest, escaping from the false waters.

Arbores Nobilitatis No.10

Arbores Nobilitatis No.10, the firm foundation reaching to the heavens.

Arbores Nobilitatis No.9

Arbores Nobilitatis No.9, the noble ones standing guard on the path to the unknown.

Arbores Nobilitatis No.8

Arbores Nobilitatis No.8, gathering of the noble.

Arbores Nobilitatis No.7

Arbores Nobilitatis No.7, isolated death reaching up and out.

Arbores Nobilitatis No.6

Arbores Nobilitatis No.6, in death reaching out.

Arbores Nobilitatis No.5

Arbores Nobilitatis No.5, the remnants of life.

Arbores Nobilitatis No.4

Arbores Nobilitatis No.4, diffused light in seclusion.

Abores Nobilitatis No.3

Abores Nobilitatis No.3, shaded tranquility.

Abores Nobilitatis No.2

Abores Nobilitatis No.2, gradual and subtle changes.

Arbores Nobilitatis No.1

Arbores Nobilitatis No.1, past the upright to the sheltered gathering. My first of the Arbores Nobilitatis series. Trees are a metaphor for many things, they are beautiful, strong and beneficial on many levels. I don't like it when people chop trees down for the flimsiest of excuses or shallowest of reasons.

Oppressio Civitatis No.17

Oppressio Civitatis No.17, further down the caged path while standing still.

Oppressio Civitatis No.16

Oppressio Civitatis No.16, cage walk society.

Oppressio Civitatis No.15

Oppressio Civitatis No.15, its not all the same, even though we look the same way.

Oppressio Civitatis No.14

Oppressio Civitatis No.14, cross the highway in search of water.

Oppressio Civitatis No.13

Oppressio Civitatis No.13, stepping back, reaching over, no need to jump the gate.

Oppressio Civitatis No.12

Oppressio Civitatis No.12, the A-frame gate stands guard like the troll, pass through at your own risk.

Oppressio Civitatis No.11

Oppressio Civitatis No.11, looking onwards and under, no train to run us down yet.

Oppressio Civitatis No.10

Oppressio Civitatis No.10, are we protected or just caged in? Walking into the darkness in order to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

My expansion into Photography

Primarily, I am known as an artist and filmmaker (although in other circles I am primarily known as a researcher & writer, which has taken a back seat in recent years). My art has led me to an interest in photography as I have had to photograph my sketches & paintings and I photograph the locations of my sketches. My filmmaking has led to an interest in photography due to the tradition of submitting 'production stills' to film festivals along with entered films and due to cinematography itself being an extension of photography. Due to my artistic style of film, I have gradually developed an interest for creating artistic photography, reflective photography, symbolic photography. 

Anyone familiar with my filmmaking methods will know it is extra low budget, cheap consumer cameras etc. I am now carrying that same trend through to my artistic photography, showing that beautiful compositions & images can be captured with extra cheap equipment. 

So what do I know about photography? Well there is Wikipedia isn't there! Well I don't know much, I have a book on digitial photography and that is about it, plus all my camera manuals. Knowledge about anything in this age is seeming less relevant and appealing from an elitism point of view. I have a house which is like a library, hundreds of books on many topics I regard to be important, but then there is google, free books for download, wikipedia, youtube etc. So in this time everyone can pretend they know something while they argue on internet forums, copying and pasting and treating all expertise like fast food, on demand TV. Everyone is a scholar of every subject as you only need a net connection. Sorry, that was a diversion.

My approach to photography at the moment is, '...if I like the way it looks, its good enough...' I don't have an DSLR camera, I don't even have a bridge camera yet, but I have a decent compact and bunch of consumer camcorders that can also take stills. I am more interested in shot composition and impression of subject matter than technicalities and the science of photography, partly because I don't possess much of that. 

I will experiment with my various cameras, varying natural and artificial light, varying zoom, various subjects that interest me, angles, framing and composition and gradually I will try to understand more technically what I am doing. If I can understand how to turn the camera on and where the shutter button is then I am doing well.

If this is your first contact with Zayd Depaor, then you might like to check out some of my more familiar outpourings:-

My Art & Film blogs (where I talk to myself):-

http://depaor-art.blogspot.com

http://zayd-depaor-films.blogspot.com/

Websites containing my art (and about 100,000 other people's):-

http://www.art-3000.com/artist/zayd_depaor/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zayd_depaor/

http://www.artbreak.com/zayd_depaor

http://www.picassomio.com/zayd-depaor/exhibition.html

http://www.paintingsilove.com/artist/zayddepaor

http://zayd-depaor.deviantart.com/

http://artfellas.com/profile/depaor

My Social Network Links (where I peddle my stuff to those who pretend to be interested to be polite):-

http://www.twitter.com/Zayd_Depaor
http://facebook.com/zayd.depaor
http://www.youtube.com/user/ZaydDepaor
http://www.myspace.com/zayd_depaor

Oppressio Civitatis No.9

Oppressio Civitatis No.9

This looks a little bit like a concentration camp or a maximum security prison. Modern society is becoming like that in some ways.

Oppressio Civitatis No.8

Oppressio Civitatis No.8

Oppressio Civitatis No.7

Oppressio Civitatis No.7

Oppressio Civitatis No.6

Oppressio Civitatis No.6

Oppressio Civitatis No.4 & No.5

Oppressio Civitatis No.4

Oppressio Civitatis No.5

Oppressio Civitatis No.3

Oppression Civitatis No.3, free flowing water leading to an open sky.

Oppressio Civitatis No.2

Oppressio Civitatis No.2, a breath of liberation looking over in hope the flow free.

Oppressio Civitatis No.1

This is my first photograph in the symbolic impressionist series 'Oppressio Civitatis' This refers to the oppression of the city. It is an impression of the urban-industrialized reality now that most of us live in. There is a beauty and benefit in this material progress and a cost or many costs to pay. If we take all form, objects, colours and shades to possess both meaning in themselves and in a specific context, then every photograph can make some impression and statement about its place in a given environment and historical period.

This photograph has been composed to allude to a form of imprisonment or prevention but of course it as at the same time a protection and serves a function, it looks over both that which is built and that which runs freely, interestingly this is an artificial waterway, i.e. a man made canal.