Bela Borsodi’s still life personas

16 Nov 2007 Category: Fashion, Features, Photography, Worldwide

Austrian Bela Borsodi does still life photography in a very special way. Instead of just showing us products for fashion magazines, he plays with our perception, giving each one a personality. He glues together art and fashion photography; being part of the commercial entertainment and questioning it at the same time. His recent Foot Fetish series for V Magazine #48 got a whole lot of attention. And you can still spot Bela’s pics for LeSportsac all over their Harajuku building. PingMag got curious and talked to the New York-based photographer:

Written by Verena

For you, one kind of beauty seems to lie in still life - why?

In still life photography, every thing can be investigated in so many more and different ways. There are endless possibilities and each one of them has the potential to eventually change our perspective.

So this is about playing with how many variations are possible with one object: Where does it end, or when do you feel finished with it?

It’s about playing with lots of objects all the time and trying things out, as long as it’s fun and worthwhile. I’m finished with a project when I’m happy with it and that’s when it all falls together and makes sense. The only purpose to reach an end is to finish a project - but it is really not that important to find all the answers. What is really interesting are the questions because they make you try things out, make you think and investigate. The process is what’s interesting and that can lead you to situations and possibilities that you couldn’t have anticipated. The results are then also a documentation of that process.

Give an example, please.

If you look at an object, such as a Zippo lighter, that has a chrome surface and is reflecting like a mirror: Although you might know this object really well, you actually never really see it itself. You mostly see the reflection of the environment around it including yourself watching it. That could be very interesting for me to explore. Still, you understand and perceive it like any other firm object whose shape you can see very clearly. That’s only because you understand how it works. What interests me is that I want to forget for a moment that I actually understand an object and try to explore it in a way as if I have never seen it before. Doing this I often find alternate qualities in objects.

Such as?

You can use this Zippo chrome lighter as a mirror to put your make-up on - and so it’s not only a lighter any longer. In that spirit, some things can also have other qualities than they were originally made for: That lighter can also turn out to be a great bottle opener, or a door stopper, or a paper weight. This is endless, just think about all the different pens that you already have used to stir your coffee or all those things that you put under the leg of a shaky table to make it more stable.

So, it is about taking objects out of their usual context…

But other than such obvious and functional aspects it can also lead to more psychological aspects of perception: Often when you only change the context of things you can find new meaning. Or you add something to an object or you take something away from it. Or you put it upside down. All this can change it – a glass put upside down loses all its original function and becomes just a “thing”. Maybe you spotted the posters for HSBC on American airports – this campaign works with this as its main principle. In fashion you can also explore what really makes a shoe elegant or trashy, cool or ugly, expensive or cheap, sexy or vulgar, functional or decadent. Also, I find it interesting to take very ugly photos of very delicious food, or to shoot trash so that it looks very elegant and luscious.

Also, association is very interesting: Why do certain things suggest certain connotations and make you feel in certain ways? That deals with psychology and culture and touches the very personality of the each individual. This perhaps might sound speculative and controlling - it’s more about detecting the humour in things and being playful.

Interestingly you started exploring this with your special still photography in 2000 when, for two months, you were taking pictures of garbage for the Swiss market chain Migros. What happened during these trash sessions?

Garbage is truly beautiful. It is an aesthetic material that results out of objects that are already removed from its original purpose and appearance. Often, they still keep changing their structure. These bits and pieces of remains sometimes also carry a complex layer of further meaning - very poetic and truthful. At that stage objects often have developed more personality than when they were still new and unused. Sometimes, things become an alternate reality to the one originally intended.

In addition to your background in fine arts and graphic design, you obviously have an interest in psychology. You said in another interview:
“He who said that he does everything in the name of love I find very inspiring because this really touches the very base of the motivation to do anything … in the end all relates to love … or to feeling the lack of it - having desires – to share and to communicate desires is often what an artist does and what intrigues people because it is a direct link to a person’s psychology.”
So, humankind is basically driven by the need to be loved?

This quote is really very important and personal. When you try to think what motivation really is, you can easily get lost with so many different ideas and endless details or complex constructions. What could really be the most simple and most basic reason for creating art? For me work and life cannot be separated – and then I came up with this thought. How can one possibly argue about the power of love?

True! I also recall you said that the artist is kind of a mouthpiece for other people’s desire - how would you define your artistic language then?

If I can manage to have real joy with my projects this can likely also communicate my excitement to other people and perhaps inspire. That’s what I really want to share: humor, obsession, intelligence, curiosity, making an effort…

…and start a discussion. Your Foot Fetish series for V Magazine #48 was how I came across your work. I thought Wow! You’re really pushing it, but in an intelligent way! These images of naked female bodies say a lot about sexism in our society… please explain a little.

The shoes in these images [see main pic and above] are designed to shape the female body and her posture, not only her foot. They also sexualise the woman who chooses to wear such shoes and I got interested to investigate and to maximise this visually, to explore how the already sexualised female body of a woman would fit with those shoes in a very exaggerated manner: How their shapes would possibly meet and what new proportions they would create on a different scale.

I also wanted to reflect on the already established connection and purpose of such shoes and how they are designed towards the female body. That is why I don’t show the heads of those bodies and they are all nude.

They fit in nicely with the shoes…

And instead of having created only a digital Photoshop fantasy by manipulating and placing actual women into these shoes, I decided to build and cut these female bodies out of prints. I placed these shapes then in the actual shoes to make the process more realistic and physical.

That makes it even more interesting! What did the publishers think?

The magazine was very enthusiastic about these images and then all was getting really crazy: As soon as this story was out it got a very angry reaction by groups of feminists. Only a few days later I found about ten different websites that characterised me as a sexist and misogynist. They were calling for a boycott of the magazine and even of the designers of those shoes. But later I also found some sites that were starting to discuss my images in a more serious manner in relation to sexism in advertising and fashion. If total strangers with different backgrounds discuss my work on the web it gets very interesting as the web is in that way very democratic. I found a lot of feminists’ websites criticising these images - but also some fetish and porno websites liking them.

That’s why it was so polarising…

I firmly believe that an artwork wants to raise questions and it wants to be discussed. That is its purpose and in that way these images turned out to be really very successful. The position of an artist is not really to judge issues but to raise questions about issues and to explore them. The greatest success of an artwork is if it results in entering a more complex discussion that can eventually change perspectives and inspire thought.

Contemplating this harsh reaction that called me a misogynist, I thought later that the funny paradox of this story is: With these images one could eventually also see a critique to our sexist society. Or one can choose just to share my amazement of exploring this world freely and to find possibilities of a different perspective.

Definitely… But let’s also have a look at your other amazing works, for example Spalmati in Numéro #2: a sun lotion series consisting only of the lotion itself. [see pics above]

The magazine asked me to do a story on sun block lotions with a feeling of “fun in the summer at the beach.” I would have a lot of freedom and, to my amazement, the magazine was even willing to not showing the actual product, the container.

I wanted to “draw” a narrative story with those creams, and believe me, those lotions are extremely hard to control and to work with. I had to come up with lots of ideas and tricks of how I could actually paint with those lotions. This was really so much fun but also an intense and nerve-wrecking experience.

I also loved your Inflated Ego series for City #36 magazine using balloons as mannequins - somehow they associate vulgar forms grotesquely distorted. I bet you had fun with that! [pictures above]

As you can imagine there were a lot of balloons exploding and changing shapes - often just when I was almost ready to shoot them. This became a process of having one vague shape in mind and then seeing to which final state it will develop. It was about balance and patience because these characters happened to be very lively. I wanted them to find their final shapes by themselves and they have decided to be a bit on the chubby and wobbly side.

You must be a good observer, as this and all your other series tell accurate stories of the experiences we have in everyday life. Do you like to watch people interacting?

Thank you for this compliment and I do observe very much what is around me. That is the greatest inspiration, one that I will never get tired of and that always intrigues me.

Bela Borsodi, we have to thank you for your inspiring fashion photography and what you taught us today about everyday’s perception!

39 Comments

1. Borsodi Béla

   Posted by: mate on November 16th, 2007 at 9:18 pm

2. my favorite is the one “While You were Out”.. Super funny!

   Posted by: nana on November 17th, 2007 at 2:30 am

3. super!!!

   Posted by: Ivan Petrovich on November 17th, 2007 at 8:33 am

4. I personaly like the trash compositions. Great work!

   Posted by: markokon on November 17th, 2007 at 9:33 am

5. oh…these works are kinda boring… :(

   Posted by: pinger on November 17th, 2007 at 4:31 pm

6. excellent. i loved this article.

   Posted by: may on November 17th, 2007 at 5:00 pm

7. Ebből meglehet élni?

   Posted by: diplomás on November 17th, 2007 at 9:06 pm

8. Well, I don’t like it :/

   Posted by: Akai on November 18th, 2007 at 12:11 am

9. reminds me of senior fischli and mister weiss.

   Posted by: ben on November 18th, 2007 at 2:26 am

10. It reminds me Vik Muniz´s works.

    Posted by: Guilherme on November 18th, 2007 at 8:36 am

11. the “Fingered” shoot is a great idea!

    Posted by: Anonymous on November 18th, 2007 at 9:01 am

12. azért vannak ötletes darabok.

    Posted by: dreb on November 18th, 2007 at 7:35 pm

13. Superrrrr :)

    Posted by: youtube on November 19th, 2007 at 12:18 am

14. This is all quite mad and bizarre - I love it! And to think that most fashion people this a couple of blank faced models in an urban environment it cutting edge and creative.

    Posted by: MiNGLED on November 19th, 2007 at 6:00 am

15. nagyon jó = zajebiste

    Posted by: magyar + lengyel on November 19th, 2007 at 4:33 pm

16. hehe
    (the first series)

    Posted by: Horst on November 21st, 2007 at 1:35 am

17. [...] You Were Out,” your shoes had fun in the smokers’ corner…, bela borsodis, [...]

    Posted by: Sskizo. Save Your Bandwidth, Save The World. on November 24th, 2007 at 1:30 am

18. Fantastic, I love the meat-heads and the cool smoker shoes!

    Gimme-more!

    Posted by: bento on November 26th, 2007 at 3:32 am

19. Experimental, Funny, New… Awesome! I like it :]

    Posted by: chron on November 29th, 2007 at 9:21 pm

20. “While you were out” is genius.

    Posted by: caty on January 2nd, 2008 at 8:54 am

21. may be it is good.but i think it is just fantastic

    Posted by: kurye on February 22nd, 2008 at 4:02 am

22. my fav ones r the ist,10th,and the 11th one

    Posted by: diana on May 17th, 2008 at 6:43 am

23. [...] Bela Borsodi is more than just lusty encounters with stilettos.  In an interview with PingMag, which highlights a broad array of his fascinating work, he gives insight into his thinking behind [...]

    Posted by: Genetic engineering gone horribly wrong: the shoe-porn model hybrid. « ShoeLaLa on July 9th, 2008 at 9:40 am

24. [...] Para ler uma entrevista (em inglês) com o artista clique aqui.  [...]

    Posted by: A César o que é de César « Fotoclube f/508 on October 2nd, 2008 at 2:48 am

25. [...] einer Schatzkiste. Eine schönere Form der Regenwetterüberbrückung kann´s heute nicht geben. Hier und hier gibt´s Bela Borsodi im Interview. Fotos via Bela Borsodi, aus Serie [...]

    Posted by: Bela Borsodi - Von stillen Stillleben keine Spurt » Beitrag » whats wrong with the zoo on October 17th, 2008 at 1:05 am

26. [...] a treasure box – the nicest choice to bring joy and inspiration into a Hamburg rainy day. Here and here, Bela Borsodi in interview. Photos via Bela Borsodi,  “Delikatessen” for [...]

    Posted by: Bela Borsodi - not a trace of still stills » Post » whats wrong with the zoo on October 17th, 2008 at 1:10 am

27. [...] Read interview on PingMag [...]

    Posted by: Feature Photographer: Bela Borsodi on November 4th, 2008 at 3:07 am

28. [...] can check his portfolio or read a couple of interviews with him at PingMag and [...]

    Posted by: ::: Natural High ::: » Blog Archive » Bela Borsodi's fashion work on November 23rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm

29. [...] definitely one you’ll remember.   there’s an interesting interview with him on pingmag where he goes into his intention behind the work.  you can see all of foot fetish on [...]

    Posted by: master of objects | two months rent on February 9th, 2009 at 12:51 pm

30. [...] image and the top one were created by Bela Borsodi Published [...]

    Posted by: foot licking « gimcrack hospital (PG) on March 7th, 2009 at 2:56 pm

31. Relly amazing, creative and funny

    Posted by: Arseni on March 28th, 2009 at 10:59 pm

32. [...] it, and have a good laugh over a cocktail.  For instance, if one were to check out the NY-based Borsodi’s interview with PingMag, he does expound upon the widespread criticism his work has received, namely from feminist groups, [...]

    Posted by: Clueless? Stacked? Too much money? Borsodi’s gonna blow your mind! | Artistic Things on April 14th, 2009 at 6:01 am

33. [...] Bela Borsodi is what we can call the master of Fashion Life Still photography , going through his portfolio, I didn’t see any similarity between all his editorial works - Instead of just showing us products for fashion magazines, he plays with our perception, giving each one a personality. He glues together art and fashion photography, creating his own mini sets, and the result is just stunning ! Bela collaborates also a lot with Paul Graves on some cool editorials - please check his portfolio here or read his interview on PingMag [...]

    Posted by: Bela Borsodi Still life photography | Trend.Land on April 23rd, 2009 at 1:56 am

34. [...] strategically folded clothing) on behalf of Yalook is getting some hype. Here’s also a very interesting interview with the [...]

    Posted by: SUNfiltered : Fresh culture daily. » Blog Archive » Bela Borsodi’s fashion faces on June 14th, 2009 at 6:08 am

35. [...] An in-depth interview on Bela Borsodi in PingMag. [...]

    Posted by: 30 Fashion Photographers You Can't Miss | Fashionary Blog on June 25th, 2009 at 11:16 am

36. [...] confira uma matéria com o cara na japonesa PingMag. Publicado por MMZUNO design Arquivado Fotografia ·Tags: design, foto, roupas Leave a [...]

    Posted by: Rostos de roupas « Marcelo M. Mizuno – Designer Gráfico on June 27th, 2009 at 1:42 am

37. Bela Borsodi’s art works is very exciting

    Posted by: maruzzang on July 25th, 2009 at 4:22 pm

38. olum bunlar nasıl tasarımlar lan.Aferin sana?

    Posted by: hemen izle on September 3rd, 2009 at 4:42 pm

39. [...] Aproveite e confira também esta matéria com Bela na japonesa PingMag. [...]

    Posted by: Rostos de roupas « blog mmzuno on October 31st, 2009 at 4:13 am

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