| Heartsurge: |
Hi Benny! Congratulations on being the featured artist for Heartsurge's fourth exhibition: Awakening! How about we start of by telling the readers a bit about yourself. |
| Benny Brand |
I was born in 1989 here in Germany. My childhood was great, I went to kindergarten and always played in nature with my friends. When i was 6 years old I started school („Grundschule“, that’s the german name for elementary school).
I finished school in 2009. That’s also the year where i registered myself at some gfx-boards (like Planetrenders) and started making tags. I also started my „civilian service“ in 2009 (every male in Germany at the age of 18 or after school had to enlist in the army or do the civilian service for 9 months, but I never was fond of the army, so I chose to do civilian service). I did this in a school for disabled children. It was very interesting and i learned so much about these kids. In 2010 I started an academic study in „Business Informatics“, but before this, I made a USA-trip with my family for 4 weeks (from San Francisco, through some great cities like Santa Barbara and San Diego, to Las Vegas and finally one week in Florida). Why am I telling you this? Because this is the time where I started making photos. In this case I had support from my mum (she is a great analogue photographer). Since this holiday I practice very often with the camera and try to get some interesting captures. This year I applied for some artgroups and get accepted by „Revuh“ and this wonderful collective „Heartsurge“. |
| Heartsurge |
That's one hell of a life story to tell, not mentioning the fact how much you've attained in only one year. Have you inherited your mothers analogue technique or are you purely digital based? |
| Benny Brand |
Analogue photography is (in my opinion) much more interesting. You have this vintage touch and you really work hard on your photos. You just have a few photos on just one film, whereas digital cameras can produce about 100-1000 photos. It’s a bigger challenge to produce a really good photo with a analogue camera, but these photos have this „special“ touch and I love that. But analogue photography has also a big negative aspect. It’s very expensive if you want to do photos with a great analogue camera, like „Hasselblad“ (not the new digital ones). I wouldn’t say I’m purely digital based, but I think this will be my main direction. I already did some polaroids (like my photo „Stairway to Heaven“), but never really a photo with a Hasselblad (my mother has one) or something else. But I’ll try to make some in the future to learn a bit about this field of photography. |
| Heartsurge |
It's very nice to emphasize on analogue photography in a digital age. Personally I feel that there is indeed a charm to analogue photos. Now, for Heartsurge's Exhibit D: Awakening you have made a nice amount of photos. Including a series containing 3 photos called The Madness Within. This picture really captures me with its strong expression. What was your inspiration in making these photos? |
| Benny Brand |
Well, this was my first shooting with my sister. I started to make this shooting without any real ideas. So we did everything spontaneously. We went through the garden and did some shots, but after more than one hour we found this axe in the grass and thought it would be cool to do some crazy photos of her holding the axe, screaming and looking creepy. Reminded me a bit of Jack Nicholson in Shining :-). The reason I did this shooting, was to make something for our exhibition „Awakening“. So we thought it would be a great idea to connect our exhibition theme with „madness“, like a growing evil.
The idea for the last photo (where she has the axe in her own head) came from my mum. It’s my personal favourite out of this bunch of three, cause I like the way her hair is hanging over the axe.
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| Heartsurge |
It truly frightened me, to say the least. Is the Madness Within your personal favourite from yourself this pack? Or do you prefer another picture? |
| Benny Brand |
It's my personal favourite from myself, but I also love the other two. I think these are different photos with different styles and colors. For example „A foreign power“ looks like a „a great 60's ufo/horror movie“ (quote from Romain Clervoy) whereas „Silhouettes“ looks like a beautiful sunset photo (like in a romantic movie).. „The Madness Within“ is more like „Shining“ (from Stanley Kubrick) or something similiar. But my photo is not my favourite from the whole pack.
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| Heartsurge |
A Foreign Power reminds me of Independence Day. It's great. What is your favourite artwork of the whole exhibition and why? |
| Benny Brand |
There are many great entries I really liked, like „Transcendence“ from John Hayes or the pieces from Juan Carlos Barquet and Sahir Khan (I really love his style). But my favourite artwork of the whole exhibition is „Sovereign“ from Amanda Deming and Finnian MacManus. It’s a great collaborative effort between two great artists. You can see so many details on this piece it and it won’t get boring while looking at it a few minutes and i think this makes it a outstanding piece.
I’m also a fan of space art and i really love the different colors.
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| Heartsurge |
Excellent choice I'd say. Sovereign is full of madness. It's great indeed. Now how do you think this Exhibition will influence the future of Heartsurge as an art collective? If at all? |
| Benny Brand |
Heartsurge is growing. Not only in the number of members, also with the artworks which are produced for every new exhibition. This is the first time Heartsurge is using a theme for an exhibition and there were so many great ideas and drafts from artists. The group always supported each other and everyone tried to give feedback to others. It’s a great collective and I think this exhibition encourages the cooperation between all artists. I think there are more artists coming to Heartsurge and we will grow.
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| Heartsurge |
I can only wholeheartedly agree with such a statement. What are YOUR plans for the future? Where do you see yourself in a year or 5?
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| Benny Brand |
Uhh..that’s a really hard question!
I will try to improve my photography skills and learn new techniques like analogue photography (as I said before). I’ll also finish my academic studies and generally have a great time with my girlfriend, family and friends. But I don’t really know what the future will bring me.
In one year I will have a new camera hopefully and I'll keep practicing in the field of photography. By then I will be be in the fourth semester of my Business Informatics study and there will be only one year left until I am finished
But I don’t know where I will be in five years… |
| Heartsurge |
A future full of mysteries. But as I read I realize full time photography isn't among those ideas. Did I just overlook it or are you just not pursuing such a career? |
| Benny Brand |
No you didn’t overlook it. Photography will only be a hobby in my freetime. I like the idea of making photos when I want to do some, but it shouldn’t be necessary to take photos to gain money. Photography should be fun, without being forced to do it. |
| Heartsurge |
That is one hell of an argument right there! But, I do have to ask it; is Heartsurge a part of your future? How near and far it may be? |
| Benny Brand |
Of course! Heartsurge will be a part of my future and I hope I can make some good contributions for the next exhibitions. I hope Heartsurge will exist for a long time and if it does I'll stay there until the end (if I can bring up the time in future ). |
| Heartsurge |
Good to hear that you'll be staying and as far as I know, we won't be going anywhere. Any last words for the readers, fellow artists or anyone noteworthy? |
| Benny Brand |
I want to say thanks to all the members of Heartsurge for their support and also thank you very much for making me the featured artist of this exhibition! |
