© Olga Fried

Artist/educator Bryan Whitney is this week’s guest editor on LENSCRATCH. Over the next four days, he introduces the work of four of his past students at the International Center of Photography whose practices revolve around spirituality, inner-life, and the natural world.

Concerning the Spiritual in Photography is a course I have taught for many years at the International Center of Photography. The class explores spirituality within the creative process and considers how we can consciously cultivate it in our work. Leading this class with such a dynamic group of photographers has been profoundly rewarding, and I am delighted that Lenscratch is featuring several of these talented artists.

Each of these artists, working with the medium of light and shadow, has created deeply personal and distinctly spiritual work. Juliette M. Ludeker’s painterly, storm-tossed underwater worlds are awe-inspiring scenes, captured in a humble backyard stream. Olga Fried’s large-format paper negative images evoke an otherworldly terrain, their barren beauty illuminated by vast, star-filled skies. Anne Arden McDonald’s abstract scrolls are masterworks of alchemical symbolism and chemical process, where the elements themselves become image- makers. Jonathan Silbert’s sly, haunting abstractions both surprise and unsettle, challenging our perceptions of body and soul. — Bryan Whitney

 As the third installment of this week, we’re pleased introduce an interview with Olga Fried about her ongoing project, Intangible Encounters. An interview with the artist follows.

© Olga Fried, Scincus scincus. “Traces of a sandfish (Scincus scincus) swimming in the sand.”

© Olga Fried, Crawling Rock. 

Olga Fried was born in Russia and has lived in Volgograd, Moscow, London and Dubai. She worked as a corporate lawyer before starting her photography practice as a self-taught artist.  She graduated from the ICP Documentary Program in 2020. Olga is currently based in the UAE.

© Olga Fried, Adam adama. “The Lord formed man (ADAM) from the dust of the earth (ADAMA) and He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.”

Intangible Encounters

This series is called Intangible Encounters. It is not a finished project but a continuing process of discovery. I am looking at nature and love as spiritual manifestations, but also at how we relate to spirituality, often through symbols to hold on to. The other side of this project is my personal journey through my own spirituality. The photographs are taken on large format washi paper film.

© Olga Fried

© Olga Fried

How does your work reflect themes of spirituality and inner life?

It has not been my original intention to focus on spirituality in my photographic practice. I live in Dubai, and because it is urban and commercial, I often venture into the “wilderness” of the desert and the mountains to mentally recharge. The nature here in Arabia is ‘biblical’ by default – it is ragged, mysterious, intense and meaningful. When I photograph in the mountains or in the desert here, I often feel like a thief in a temple. Then this theme started to leak into my other pictures, and it became an exploration of one’s search for meaning.

© Olga Fried, Tree

© Olga Fried

In your practice, are there any rituals, photographic or otherwise, that guide your photography?

The process of photographing became a ritual for me. Especially since I started large format, it forced me to slow down and focus both my body and my thoughts. I normally photograph very early in the morning due to lighting particularities here. My ritual starts the previous evening when I slowly check and clean the equipment and load the cassettes. I love how grounding it is and how it makes me excited about the next day. And then I wake up around 5 am, drink my cup of black coffee and drive.

© Olga Fried, Daniel

© Olga Fried, In The Garden

Have there been any mentors, thinkers or artists whose works have influenced your own photography or spirituality?

I recently discovered the works of the late Bernard Rudofsky, social historian, curator and architect. His books “Architecture without architects” and “Now I Lay me down to eat” are visual research in social history and they both made me laugh at my own conformity. I love German photographer Thomas Ruff, he does so many different things (from reconceptualizing propaganda pictures of the Chinese Communist Party to “cyanotyping” antient Greek tragedies) and he always is subverting the expected. I enjoy how beautifully Strugatsky brothers combine spirituality and physics in their novels. I admire the films of Buñuel and aspire to have a bit of his courage.

© Olga Fried, Dream Logic

© Olga Fried, Encounter

How did taking the class Concerning the Spiritual in Photography at the International Center of Photography influence your work and/or was there an assignment that particularly inspired you?

The class was brilliant – Bryan Whitney is generous and mindful in his guidance. He respects the artists and gives space while seeing deeply and providing practical suggestions. He really helped me to crystalize my ideas with more intent and less self-doubt. My favorite assignment was when I was paired with another artist to create a sequence containing both our works. It is really liberating to get out of one’s own mental bubble and see another person’s process.

© Olga Fried

What are you currently working on, and what’s in store for you?

I am currently researching religious influences and borrowings in soviet visuals, in a context of Joseph Stalin’s cult, but not yet sure about the exact shape the project will take.

Bryan Whitney is a photographer and artist in New York City whose work involves experimental imaging techniques including x-rays, lensless imaging and alternative processes such as cyanotype. Whitney holds an MFA in Photography from the Tyler School of Art and a BA in the Psychology of Art from University of Michigan. He has taught photography at Rutgers University and currently teaches at the International Center of Photography in New York City and the New York Botanical Garden. A recipient of a Fulbright Grant for lectures on American Photography he has exhibited across the United States and internationally. His work has appeared in magazines such as Harpers Bazaar, Fortune, the New York Times, as well as being featured in books, posters and billboards. His X-ray botanical images have recently been acquired as a stamp designs by the US Postal Service.

Follow Bryan Whitney on Instagram: @bryanwhitney.art