Creative - NOMINEE: Heikki Leis

There is a widely known saying that we are living in the post-truth era right now. Nobody seems to know wherein lies the truth and what appears to be a lie. Everyone can bring up hundreds of contradicting evidences and claim nearly anything they want. There are heaps of information and it is difficult to get a grip of it, to dig deeper for some background information and so people just make claims. It is not much different in photography. We all know of cases where photos have been faked just to be later presented as documentary photography. It has become quite common that items will be added or deleted to and from photos, just to give the photograph the right “air”. Sometimes other artists’ photos are stolen, given a few changes and then presented as a new piece of art. Photoshop seems to be almighty and happily blurs the lines of photography and photo manipulation. This series of photos, however, is taken onto glass negatives, there is no manipulation, everything is presented exactly the way things were. There has been a cover-up of years, even centuries, but the proof is now right in front of you: Turns out that, for instance, smart phones and laptops existed already at the beginning of last century. Not to even mention earphones which monks have been using for a long time in the monasteries. Art can be the source of truth as reality as well.

About author:
Heikki Leis (b. 1973) was born in Tartu, Estonia.
He graduated from Tartu Art Grammar School and later masonry and sculpture faculty in Tartu Art School in 1991.
He works as a freelance artist since 2000. Heikki does mostly hyper realistic pen and pencil drawings and also sculpture.
Since 2004 he is also an avid photographer and takes part in exhibitions.
His biggest passion is analogue photography, he uses both mid- and large format cameras.