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Padra Knorr of London UK
-- The Absolute Art of Photography --
What is photography for Padra Knorr? -- Here are some outlines
of her critical perspectives in none other than the very words of the photographer herself, a
young, new, and emerging talent in the absolute art of photography, about to blossom on the soil of the United Kingdom
and beyond, poised to rise into the skies to fly on the wings of her magical imagination --
People ask me questions about my photographic works. I wish they didn't. I am neither interested in nor good
at describing my own works. I wish people simply looked at my works and let their senses guide them, wherever that may
take them (somewhere spiritual, I hope). My job is simply to translate the real world into imagined worlds through images.
A photographer, however, of course, needs to be inspired in order to produce inspiring works of art, and here is a little
secret of mine - about a secret source of inspiration for me, one might like to say. I love flowers but not all flowers
inspire me. There are ordinary flowers and special flowers, and, among the latter, there are orchids. Orchids
are special to me because they are somewhat rare, fragile, and (this is most important) quite difficult to grow. In
my enhanced perception of my own self, I sometimes identify myself with this very special flower, the orchid, which is always
glorious in its solitude and yet so vulnerable. The combination of these two qualities is precisely the photographic
sorcery the magical wand of which I would like to think I was born holding in my hand.... Lately I have been inspired
by young talents such as Rustam Ogly, Mudra Shah, Katya Evdokimova, and Josephine Popka, to whom my utmost regards are hereby
sent.--Padra Knorr, London, UK, March 2007
Photography is a way of sublimation of all things that have happened and are happening in the photographer's life, e.g.,
books that she has read or is reading, loves that she has had or is having, or perhaps even foods that she has eaten or is
eating. All those things are interwoven in the mysterious texture of the photographer's spiritual mind and imagination so
that, being inseparable from one another, they constitute a living and lived whole experience that is the artist herself.
In the eye of a casual passer-by, she may be just a girl like any other walking down that filthy materialistic London
thoroughfare called Junction Road that it is my mishap to have been due to circumstances beyond my power to change acquainted
with--, but words fail when she attempts at expressing just how much has been and is going on in her inspired imagination.
Take, for a very good example, books that the artist has read. In my own case, there is a book that I have always
and for years now kept and is even at this very moment alluringly sitting on the top surface of my desk--Mikhail
Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Why this particular book, you may very well ask--, indeed, why?
Though, in my youthful days, I used to immerse myself in the joy of literature--Korean, Burmese, Zimbabwean, Russian, Uruguayan,
Moroccan, and ancient Dravidian, in particular, if I must confess--, I have by some mysterious force operative in my fate come
to form a curious bond with Mr Bulgakov's masterpiece. It is rivalled in its importance in contributing to the development
of my creative imagination only by another book, an anthology of the greatest poet of Azerbaijan, Nizami Ganjavi, which is
sitting next to Bulgakov's book, as a matter of fact. Or would it be a moral crime if I didn't mention the great ancient
Chinese thinker Mao Ding Wu? How these great literary forbears have helped me be inspired as photographer is a mystery,
to others as well as to my own self. It feels as though the whole imagination of the most imaginative and visionary
of the humankind was coming home in my camera eye. "There is nothing outside the text," so wisely remarked
the Algerian/French philosopher Jacques Derrida, and I'm not quite so sure if he didn't have in mind when he said that someone
like me - I am a text, a world, a universe the outside of which simply doesn't exist. I should also acknowledge
artistic debts I have recently owed to my great fellow artists of the photographic: Wo Wen Wan, Novko Skok, Katya Evdokimova,
Munghus Tyrdyk, and Lepnina Potolock. For those who are already acquainted with the great works of Novko Skok and KatyaEvdokimova,
the influence they have exercised on my creative imagination must be all too visible in my recent works posted here courtesy
of Begemot Studio Intrernational--"The Face" and "The Return of the Furious Teddy," which you will find in my "Techno Abstract
Gallery." Let me express here my heartfelt gratitude to Novko Skok and Katya Evdokimova for the priceless gift they
have so very spiritually endowed me with in the creation of these two works of mine.--Padra Knorr, London UK, August 2006
Without meaning to sound vain at all, I do strongly feel nowadays that the famous proverbial photographer who purportedly
cannot not photograph could possibly be me.--Padra Knorr, London UK, February 2006
But then, of course, there are techniques to be learned in photography. I
have learned some in the course of my relatively short (and, some might say, rather hapless) career, I hope. I
would not set too much store by techniques in and for themselves, as that would be a way of desecrating the spiritual art
of photography. For what would you be doing if you take such a mechanical view on something that is in all its essence
the opposite of the mechaincal? Having said that, however, I have to point out one good reason why I need some techniques
myself, even though I am far more of a spiritual or, to be more precise, spiritually creative person rather than
of anything resembling what one might call a mere graphical engineer. What can that one good reason be? For want
of a better term, let me call it material salvation of my creative soul. What I mean is that, without the "buffer"
of techiniques, which in themselves are, as I may have already said before, nothing but a bore--, without the mediation
of those predictably manual technicalities, I might not even be able to exist, for the
very simple reason that I might get totally consumed by and burned down to ashes in the red-hot fire of
my own creative imagination. In vindication of the necessity of techniques, we could also argue that there is an added
benefit of communal participation and enhancement made only possible by recognition of the materiality of the photographic
art. Techniques, whatever they are worth in themselves, have the important function of helping me transform the internal
mystery of my spiritual creativity, invisible to those who are not me, into the external, concrete form of photographs, which
can be shared by all those who love this art. One could call that, I suppose, an instance of communal enhancement
of the ever-mysterious convergence of spirituality and photography. So, a few words on the subject of other photographers
who have exercised powerful influence on me, not just spiritually but also technically, would perhaps not be in poor
order here. I would rather conceitedly like to consider myself as a self-taught photographer, but fairness dictates
I acknowledge that I have learned a great deal in the skills of the profession as well as in the "tao" of spiritual and creative
enlightenment from lots of great artists whose works I have either seen at exhibitions or on websites. My
heartfelt gratitude goes to, just to mention a few: Erdenebayar Erdenesuren, Borislav Kaikov, Nick Chaldakov,
Olga Makina, Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, Quentin Shih, Yosi Nozaki, Silvia Ganora, Ricardo Báez-Duarte, Jef Maion, Zbigniew
Kosc, Rohitz Tickoo, Wu Kwo Chion, Katya Evdokimova, Ugoban Mwandubal, Ayhan M Duman, Tatiana Palnitska, and Meike Deakin.
They are all, in their own different ways, great masters in the true art of creative photography whom I, without any reservations
whatsoever, really admire. --Padra Knorr, London UK, August 2005
One of the things that I find superb about the art of photography is that it is a very democratic art, open to everyone,
in the sense that all you need to start your career as a photogapher is basic equipment and minimal knowledge of how to use
it. You need to be a creatively inspired person, of course, but that is something only you yourself are the judge of
whether you are or not. Since early childhood, I have never doubted my gifted creativity. Naturally, therefore,
I have been interested in other forms of art, such as music, painting, sculpture. It did not take me long, however, to
realise that photography was the art form I would want to pursue. Why? Because I could instantly give
form to my creativity. In other art forms, a long process of learning skills, technically speaking, is a requirement
that demands lots of effort from you. You can call me impatient, and I do admire great works in other fields of art,
but they are not really my kind of art. I suppose I am far more of an artist than a craftsperson.
Moments of inspiration come to me unbidden, and I need a means by which I can capture them without a moment's delay:
a camera (which I carry with me all the time wherever I go). Photography is an art of "here and now," of how not to
let go of and consign to oblivion those precious moments that mysteriously visit me when I am in the right kind of mood.
I don't need a grand piano, for instance, to express my creative imagination. I only have to be feeling myself to be
as light as air, unencumbered with gadgets, uncluttered, and pure.... Practice for the sake of practice, effort-making
for the sake of effort-making, for me, gets in the way of spontaneous expression of creative imagination. So, instead,
I choose to click away on my camera, as if I was possessed, as if I was a spiritual medium, as if I was
creating the world through the lens there and then. Sometimes, I even feel irritated by my camera--, meaning,
why do I need this silly gadget, when my mind's eys has already captured the beauty of the world? I am a radical puritan
in this respect.... --Padra Knorr, London UK, August 2005
Photography is an art that captures those moments in life that subliminally feed our imagination with inspiration.
The "depths in surfaces" that they reveal can so easily be missed by the ordinary eye. That is why we need cameras,
and inspired and inspiring photographers. Photography can reveal wonders in ordinary scenes in ordinary lives.
The captured images may at first seem just familiar, nothing out of the ordinary, or even banal, and often stay so for ever,
but there are some images that, when you close your eyes, come back as "visions" with such lucidity that you think they cannot
but be spiritually inspired. Such is the revelatory power of photography that we stand in awe when shown great,
inspiring works. I believe that a great photographer is a "visionary." I am not vain enough to say that I am talented,
but I hope you will see in my works posted here something you will never forget. In the meantime, I close my eyes and
I see a red red rose, mysteriously recalled from a faraway time and place perhaps, and all of a sudden it flares up in flames...and I
feel so...creative.... -- Padra Knorr, London UK, June 2005
The photographer is currently based in London UK.
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