Kamil Vojnar

Czech Photographer | Born: 1962

Kamil Vojnar was born in the former Czechoslovakia in 1962. He studied at the School of Graphic Arts in Prague and began his career as a Graphic Designer. He left the country illegally (still Communist at the time) and moved to Vienna, and then eventually became a US citizen and finished his studies at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. He continued his career in Graphic Design which later led to illustration and imagery based on photography, working mostly for book and music publishing houses in New York City. At the same time, he continued to make his own imagery. After meeting his partner and having children, going back and forth between France and New York, they finally settled in St. Remy de Provence in South France where Vojnar has concentrated on his own work since 2005. He opened up an Atelier in St. Remy and then one in Paris in 2009, both of which carry his own work.
His work consists of images digitally layered from many different photographs and textures. They are mixed-media archival prints on fine art paper or mounted on canvas. Some of his images are layered pictures printed on semitransparent Thai paper. These unique photomontages are then varnished with oil and wax, and on occasion painted with oil paints. Kamil, as a painter, points out, �In a painting, you can paint anything you want. In the photographic [medium], it must, on some level, exist first. That tension between what exists and what is made up is what interests me.� Thus, his images are often subject to very different interpretations

(Source: Verve Gallery)

About Elsewhere
Well, � why � why "e l s e w h e r e"�?
Because, � not really here, because not there or � over there, because � somewhere else, � "e l s e w h e r e"!!!

In thousand years old small town in south France, I have little studio, tiny Gallery, up on the main street.
People from all around the world come to this town. They walk it's ancient streets. Some see my place, some walk in and look around.
And they ask � why, � the sky outside is blue, � the buildings ochre yellow, the olive trees pale green, � why are those pictures musty, sepia, dark. Why is their soul heavy? What happened? What has happened to me!
And I say � I don't know, � they come to me that way. They are not really from here, they are not so much from there. They arrive from ..."elsewhere". I am just a pair of hands making them happen.
I didn't look for them, I didn't choose them. They came to me, � they choose me!
Artist? No. � Common' I am no Artist! I just make those little pictures. Just because they happen to me.
And because � I cannot do anything else. I cannot do anything else, at least, until every last of them is out, � done.
Just a pair of hands I am. Always struggling to let the image out. Always behind in my ability to execute on the paper what pours from ..."elsewhere", via my mind, my heart.
It feels like, � really I have no personal connection to those pictures. I am not guilty.
Don't ask me what they are, � what they mean. I don't know.
Like orphaned kids, I collect them, feed them to grow.
They have to be done. They have to get out there.
If not me, � then who?

Some are easy. Impatiently they bursting out into the open
Others play hide and seek. They leave a hint, they take me all over wrong paths, all around. They let me sweat, they let me freeze. They drag me through dry, dusty deserts, soak me in deepest seas. My shirt is bloody. My face is wet. Sometimes � sometimes I cry. Pure impossibility overwhelms me. Impossibility to make them happen as they appear to me. In their translucent light, through the tears, I see them, � I almost see them.
No, I am no Artist. I just � I am just trying to do, � what I � almost � see.

Yes, it's true! � I am making one picture over and over again.
The same sofa, the same dress, the same image of Jesus on the wall in the background, as I have had throughout my childhood.
Wings? � Yes, sometimes, there are wings. But those who carry them, they are no angels.
They just want to be free. Pair of wings is like a passport to get away. To get to � elsewhere.

E l s e w h e r e, � they say, it's not the destination, it's the journey, that counts.
Therefore my little pictures are the humble documentation of that journey.
They are the journey!
Journey to � e l s e w h e r e!

Galleries:

Wall space

Galerie BMG

Website:

www.saatchiart.com

Selected Work:

More Great Photographers To Discover

Stanley Greene

Nationality: American

Born: 1949 - Died: 2017

During the early years of his career, Stanley Greene (USA, 1949-2017) produced The Western Front, a unique documentation of the San Francisco�s punk scene in the 1970s and 80s. An encounter with W. Eugene Smith turned his energies to photojournalism. Stanley began photographing for magazines, and worked as temporary staff photographer for the New York Newsday.

In 1986, he moved to Paris and began covering events across the globe. By chance, he was on hand to (…)

All About Stanley Greene

Pierre Ba�len

Nationality: French

Born: 1981

From www.pierrebaelen.com
Pierre Baëlen was born in 1981 in South of France. His interest in photography began when his best friend promised him to have good fun in jumping in devastated buldings during photography courses when he was 14 years old. Surprising by the discover of the The 6x6 camera, his first love quickly became the darkroom where he began experimenting with (…)

All About Pierre Ba�len

Piotr Zbierski

Nationality: Polish

Piotr Zbierski - Studied photography at National Film School. Author of three individual exhibitions (White Elephants, Here, Love has to be reinvented), participant in collective exhibitions and publications including Photokina and Lab East. He presented his works in many countries like Poland, Germany, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia. As well as magazines (Shots Magazine, Ninja Mag, Archivo Zine, Die Nacht, Gup Magazine). In 2012 he won the prestigious prize for young (…)

All About Piotr Zbierski

Yelena Zhavoronkova

Nationality: American

Born: 1956

Yelena Zhavoronkova is a California based Fine Art Photographer and Graphic Designer. She received a Master's degree in Industrial Design from the Saint Petersburg Art and Industry Academy, USSR, and has worked as a graphic designer for over three decades.

Over the past decade, Yelena has been intensively studying and working in photography, which helps her to express her artistic vision. Yelena's projects are simultaneously very personal and universal in nature, (…)

All About Yelena Zhavoronkova

Lucien Clergue

Nationality: French

Born: 1934 - Died: 2014

Lucien Clergue was born in Arles. From the age of 7, he learned to play the violin. Several years later, his teacher revealed to him that he had nothing more to teach him. From a family of shopkeepers, he could not pursue further studies in a conservatory. In 1949, he learned the rudiments of photography. Four years later, at a corrida in Arles, he showed his photographs to Pablo Picasso who, though subdued, demanded to see others. Within a year and a half, young (…)

All About Lucien Clergue

Ami Vitale

Nationality: American

Born: 1971

Nikon Ambassador and National Geographic magazine photographer Ami Vitale has lived in mud huts and war zones, contracted malaria, and donned a panda suit�all in keeping with her philosophy of �living the story.� She has traveled to more than 90 countries, bearing witness not only to violence and conflict, but also to surreal beauty and to the enduring power of the human spirit. Recently, she has turned her lens to compelling wildlife stories, such as returning critically (…)

All About Ami Vitale

Annie Leibovitz

Nationality: American

Born: 1949

Annie Leibovitz was born on October 2, 1949, in Waterbury, Connecticut. While studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, she took night classes in photography, and in 1970, she began doing work for Rolling Stone magazine. She became Rolling Stone�s chief photographer in 1973. By the time she left the magazine, 10 years later, she had shot 142 covers. In 1983, she joined the staff at Vanity Fair, and in 1998, she also began working for Vogue. In addition to her (…)

All About Annie Leibovitz

Stephen Wicks

Nationality: American

Stephen Wicks' attraction to photography began during his childhood. He says he was inspired by the photo essays in LIFE Magazine. Each week when a new issue arrived it seemed like the world beyond his home was in his hands and he had feelings for and wanted to meet the people who appeared in the pictures and visit the places he saw on the pages in the magazine.

Wicks has always had a deep interest in all forms of communication. He says his attraction to the (…)

All About Stephen Wicks

Julio Bittencourt

Nationality: Brazilian

Born: 1980

After living in New York for six years, Julio returned to Brazil in 2000 and started working at the newspaper Valor Economico in Sao Paulo as a photographer and assistant photo editor. In 2003 he moved to Mozambique where he worked for SOICO Communication Group. Since 2006 Julio has been working as an independent photographer. Julio's projects have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide and his work published in magazines such as GEO, Stern, TIME, Le Monde, The (…)

All About Julio Bittencourt

Ebru Sidar

Nationality: Turk

Born: 1975

Ebru Sidar was born on 13 January 1975 in Trabzon. Since her parents were bankers, she traveled to many cities in Turkey and then moved to Ankara. She is now living between France and Turkey. She graduated from Ankara University as a Geology Engineer.

She thinks that all types of art affect and are connected to each other. Capturing �the good� in thoughts and the physical world, she believes that any work on which someone focuses mentally, emotionally and physically (…)

All About Ebru Sidar