Category Archives: Akin

Sacha Mlynek – Akin Collective


Sacha is different from the other Akin artists I have photographed because she is in a state of limbo. Still, she was brave enough to share this part of life as an artist that is rarely talked about: I haven’t produced anything formal in years. I’m basically on an artist-on-pause.” No one really warns you for it or talks about it; this deafening part of the artist life-cycle where you’re not quite an artist and even quite possibly, ugh, a hobbyist. What happens when you aren’t the art-star and you aren’t the super ambitious self-promoter? Making images has always worked the […]

Conor Rooney – Akin Collective [Part 2]


  In these pictures, Conor is applying a second layer of paint on the three-dimensional painting he started in the first part of my portrait. It will be fascinating to see the final artwork slowly emerge out of the layering process. The patience that he musters in order to do this continues to amaze me. I’ve been interested in these kind of shapes that appear when there is data missing in video, in normal context they are errors but when searched for they become something else. I partially download movies through pirate torrents, searching the files for instances of these effects. […]

Claire Louise Correia – Akin Collective [Part 2]


It is easy to become mesmerized by the flames and molten glass when photographing Claire Correia, but that is only what is visible at the surface as she transforms her ideas into physical reality. This is why the second time I met her, I focused on the artist behind the flames. Claire is a visual artist who works with a wide range of materials and techniques. She explains the motivation behind her current project as follows: I believe that the Earth is an organism afloat in an ocean of energy, which flows into things as they become alive, out of things as they […]

Conor Rooney


Conor Rooney uses a unique technique to capture something that to most people means nothing more than a momentary nuisance: errors in digital video playback. Instead of skipping forward, Conor conserves the ephemeral fragments of creation that emerge as the playback software tries to interpret the corrupted data in layered paintings covered with epoxy resin.  The results are like windows into a digital dream world. These photos show him starting a new painting from scratch and I will follow his process as the painting develops in three dimensions with each added layer. I’ve been interested in these kind of shapes that appear when there […]

Claire Louise Correia – Akin Collective


  I had a great time photographing Claire Correia at work on one individual glass elements for one of her beautiful, intricate sculptures reflecting the ocean of energy in which she is convinced we are immersed: I believe that the Earth is an organism afloat in an ocean of energy, which flows into things as they become alive, out of things as they die, and moves in tides with the moon just like water.  As part of the larger planetary ecosystem, this body must be teeming with a huge variety of creatures, living their lives entirely unaffected by the three-dimensional world even […]

Bogdan Luca – Akin Collective [Part 2]


The second time I met the painter Bogdan Luca [this is Part one] I was in much better shape than the first time, yet the intriguing effect of his paintings was almost the same. These photos capture him putting the finishing touches one his latest painting. I think we understand the world in a fragmentary way: little revelatory moments, physical or psychological experiences, knowledge in the form of images. It’s chaos really but we each have to put these bits together into some kind of overall picture that works for us on an individual level. Then we can have arguments when […]

Bogdan Luca – Akin Collective


I photographed Bogdan on Sunday, somewhat hungover, and he explained to me how his paintings are meant to reflect the fragmented way in which we perceive and recreate a subjective version of reality in our minds, aiming to unsettle the viewer–the way in which this impacted on my hazy mind is probably a great testament to his talent. Suffice to say, documenting his work process was fascinating. This is how he describes the motivation: I think we understand the world in a fragmentary way: little revelatory moments, physical or psychological experiences, knowledge in the form of images. It’s chaos really but we each […]

Chris Harms – Akin Collective [Part 2]


This is the second part of my portrait of Chris Harms of the Akin Collective, working on and finishing one of his larger-scale plexiglass sculptures. The previous post has more details about his work and his intentions. Chris has just been invited to show his work in a solo show at Project Gallery this November. His website: http://chris-harms.com/          

Chris Harms – Akin Collective


Today I had the chance to photograph Chris Harms and his intriguing sculptures as the start of a new project about the Akin Collective in Toronto. The idea is to follow its members through the artistic process as they create their work and capture a snapshot of the community that has formed in its shared studios. Chris currently works on plexiglass sculptures with a lot of jagged lines and geometric patterns that are full of dynamism and color. In his own words, this is what they represent: “I was inspired to make this series of representational excavator buckets from the constant construction boom […]