Seb janiak biography of christopher

Seb Janiak is a photographic artist whose work explores conditions in which opposites can co-exist, revealing the visual characteristics of the hidden forces that shape the physical universe. He creates images that blend science with creativity and analytics with the poetic. He lives and works in Paris, France. Janiak began his career as a graphic designer. While freelancing, he engaged with state-of-the-art technology, becoming a pioneer in the field of digital photography. His work gained him global attention, and he expanded into music video directing, fashion photography, and finally into fine art. Since 2009, he has focused on expanding the potential of contemporary analog photography and has only used basic photographic tools. Janiak says, “I only allow myself the techniques which have been used in analog photography since 1850. Namely, making adjustments to contrast and exposure, and using superimposition.” When a special effect is needed to achieve a particular shot, he finds a way to achieve it manually rather than through digital manipulation, for example by using refraction (a prism) or reflectivity (a mirror). The fantastical images Janiak produces may seem impossible, but they are in fact pictures of the physical world that surrounds us at all times. Janiak is interested in duality and the unseen forces that inhabit the space between what we perceive of as imaginative and as scientific. His work thus serves as a photographic bridge between data and creativity. Janiak believes there is no separation between science and art. The apparent dichotomy is only a way of conceptualizing the multiple simultaneous states of being at work in the visible universe. Whether his inspiration comes from a philosophical inquiry, a spiritual question, or a revelation about the nature of physics, in the end, he circles back to all three areas of thought, using one as a departure point, but in the process capturing what is beautiful about

About the artwork

Imagine it at home

Mimesis is an ongoing photomontage project by Paris-based photographer Seb Janiak that depicts the wings of insects as the petals of flowers. Janiak is deeply interested in the mechanisms behind mimicry in nature, where an organism develops appendages, textures, and colors that directly mirror its surroundings. This process involves a strange interaction between different organisms he describes as “a complex co-evolutionary mechanism involving three species: the model, the imitator, and the dupe.”

To create each artwork Janiak scours antique stores and taxidermist shops to find examples of wings which he then photographs at extremely high resolution. The pieces are digitally edited and pieced together into flower-like forms (a sort of meta mimic of a mimic) which are then output as chromogenic prints measuring nearly 6 feet square.

The Mimesis series, which now comprises 22 pieces, was shown for the first time at the Photo Shanghai art fair last September. The series also won an IPA Lucy award earlier this year.

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