HELIOS

It all started with a little cinematic experiment I’ve conducted in order to test a vintage Soviet lens Helios-44M-4 2/58 mm next to a very popular modern Sigma 18-35 ART lens with my Blackmagic camera. Actually it was not only about technology. It was also a visceral experience of re-discovering emotions and memories buried under the decades of life experience. It reminded me that photography and cinema as artforms are not about technology, but about evoking emotions and memories. Since our memories are just emotions preserved in time. Technology and art help us to create and recreate this visceral experience, something that we feel deep in our guts but often don’t dare to express and suppress for years. The ancient Greeks, who invented drama and theater, called this process – catharsis – which can be translated as cleansing and was associated with the effect drama produced on the soul or psyche of the audience.

My Helios lens brought about this cathartic experience. It was a part of our family history, the lens my Dad used back in the 80’s in the days of the USSR together with his Zenit photo camera.

As a child I helped Dad with developing film negatives and  printing photos. We would turn the bathroom of our apartment into a makeshift photo lab suitable for darkroom printing. I was always waiting in eager anticipation to be immersed into this mystical atmosphere, thankful that Dad had initiated me into this obscure world, where only two of us could co-exist. My younger brother and mom were never allowed to participate in this secret rite, to a great frustration of my younger brother, who would wait behind the closed door of the ‘photo-temple’, snivelling and listening to what we were doing in there.