Petru Bogdan – The Artist, The Photographer
Born in 1974 in Bucharest, he showed an early passion for art in general. At first he was fascinated and preoccupied with classical music, a passion to which his grandmother and pick-up contributed, which, more than likely, represented for many of the “prisoners” of the communist area a form of education, a form of resistance and a form of dream escape, a transcendental connection with the rest of the world, with a better world.
Later, in school, almost naturally, he focused exclusively on mathematics, philosophy, universal literature and was rather absent from the rest. All three, music, mathematics and philosophy have remained in his sphere of concern to this day.
At one point he discovered the “image” and the camera and on this occasion he found the first way of artistic expression.
As himself said:
“I have always been fascinated by the way the Image creates identities and feelings, the way it shapes nonverbal communication and the way it defines the link between “uniqueness” and “diversity”, appearance and essence. The Image is an essential part of the human being that defines the union between body and soul. I believe that an image is in part a reflection, a memory and a projection. It is subjective-objective or it is pure imagination and it is all together in a moment of intense communication.”
All his works and projects were born under the sign of this intense, nonverbal communication between subject and viewer, a communication that essentially defines creation and the artistic act and that translates into love, love between peers, love of beauty.
In 15 years of photographic activity he has realized almost every year a new project, most of them materializing in exhibitions and albums of photographic art, others remaining “in the drawer”, not yet published.
In 1998 he had the opportunity to participate in a photography workshop organized in Paris by Vogue magazine, participation materialized in a Photo Essay presented at the Carrousel Du Louvre. On this occasion, the opportunity expanded to stay, to study and work in Paris, an opportunity he did not embrace, and it was probably a big mistake for his artistic career.
Several projects and exhibitions followed:
Adagio (2000, Hilton Hotel, Bucharest si la Gala Uniter), “In Memoriam Verdi” (2000, Opera House, Bucharest), KULTURVEREIN GRAFING Exhibition (2002, Munchen, Germany), “AUTO SHOW 2004” Calendar (2003), “BEYOND” Exhibition (2005, AMSTERDAM CAFE, Bucharest).
ADAGIO
“In a time overwhelmed by images and fascinated by imagery, the photography has acquired in the last decades a privileged status. It makes me very happy to see that the craft discovered by Daguerre has also reached its highest level in the work of a Romanian artist.
The photographic essay originates in a work of true professional, which implies a veritable cult of the image and moreover, a perpetual curiosity doubled by a flawless technique. Such are the works of the artist Petru Bogdan – photographs created in a sober and totally innovative way, distilled from literary sources only to him known, and of which he speaks so little.
The photographic image created by Petru Bogdan, in a color in black and white, becomes almost every time journey into a mystery, which belongs, all at the same time, to the sky and to the earth, to the people and to the entire nature, abruptly fractured or graciously enveloping us.“
Razvan Theodorescu
LIVE
Over time, he collaborated with several Romanian designers from the fashion area.
Together with Doina Levintza he realized two projects: White Line (2002, unpublished) and LIVE (2004-2005) materialized in an exhibition (2004 Le Club, Bucharest), in his first photographic art album and a grandiose launch event at Cotroceni Palace under the patronage of the Romanian presidency, an event dedicated to the victims of the 2005 spring floods.
“The world ended yesterday, but tomorrow will keep, in its uncertain and mysterious light, a handful of curious shapes of spires in our plebeian and pedestrian city, the proletarian parks, the lakes of Carol II, the costumes of Doina Levintza, the photographs of Petru Bogdan and their glittering Byzantine princesses.
In this album we have a very robust and intelligent act of aesthetic and urban bravery, aimed against global indifference. To our intellectual delight, two noteworthy artists pour their reserves of ingenuity and melancholy into a new essence of life, which will become our spiritual and poetical background,
in a Romania transfigured according to her dream.”
Emil Hurezeanu
InDifference
Then he collaborated on several projects with Ersa Atelier, the most important being the album InDifference (2006) which had as launch event The InDifference Ball in December 2007 at Bragadiru Palace with the help of Arbo Events (Serban Ciusca), Maseratti / Auto Italia (Mike Costache) and REGATTA (Eduard Uzunov).
“As an artist, Petru Bogdan is an offspring of time, time split into countless fractions of a second captured by his camera with the fresh imagination and skill of the quick-witted junior wizard.
His pictures fight indifference as a state of atrophy towards beauty or suffering, towards sensitivity or platitude, towards generosity or greed.
The “InDifference” collection, an object of art in itself like any of the pictures it contains, has an outstanding quality: at a time when our culture is addicted to moving pictures, here are still pictures of propound insight. They hold back secret truths from the first viewing, ultimately discovered by foraging into the mapping of each shot. Every page challenges the viewer and commands future readings. This is what difference stands for against indifference.”
Nicolae Melinescu
He also had other collaborations: Elite Model Look (2008, Corfu, Greece), La Fleur Maison de Couture, respectively the designer Florentina Stoenescu.
From this collaboration and the meeting with a great horse enthusiast Ovidiu Vajaiala, the Equilibrium project (2010) was born, defined as Petru Bogdan says:
“Somewhere between Fragility and Force, Virility and Grace there is Innocence and Beauty, there is the Equilibrium.”
The project can be found in a presentation album, still not printed and partially in the book “Racehorse Training – The Art of Becoming Champions” by the same horse enthusiast Ovidiu Vajiala. On June 4, 2015 there was an exhibition with photos from Equilibrium Book at The National Village Museum “Dimitrie Gusti”.
The latest photography project is called Traviata, inspired by the opera of the same name by Giuseppe Verdi (as well as the novel Lady with Camellias by Alexandre Dumas – the son, which was the basis for the libretto) and it was realized in 2010 – 2011.
It is a nude album, which is not yet public but those who had the opportunity to see the presentation album consider that, on the one hand it represents the quintessence of Petru Bogdan`s artistic vision and on the other hand it is probably the most elaborate and the most expressive nude artistic photography product made in Romania so far.
Author: Catalin Predoiu