Interview with Paul Veron (Amazilia Photography)
Paul Veron (Amazilia Photography) was born in 1959 in the Channel Islands, where he still lives today. He studied natural sciences to degree level in Aberystwyth and Swansea Universities, before attaining his Post Graduate Certificate in Education at Exeter University, UK.
Amazilia’s art centers on the beauty, grace and intrigue of the female nude; a subject which has fascinated artists, and drawn them like moths to the flame in every creative discipline for millennia.
His work covers three core areas of people photography dynamic fine art nudes, sensual nudes and nudes in nature. While some of his most well known works are in the first two genres, his recent projects have focused on nudes in the natural environment, where Paul is always trying to depict a sense of the deep rooted, intrinsic connection between people and the natural world. Paul’s first two monographs “Rewilding the Human Spirit” and “Naturally Nude in Nature” contain contemporary narratives, along with a selection of more than 100 of his favorite images of art nudes in nature and in the landscape.
He is an internationally published photographer with several print publications, who has recently won the Runner Up “Photographer of the Year” position with an international magazine, as well as achieving success in several global fine art photographic competitions. He holds Distinctions in both Foundation and Advanced Photography Diplomas.
He has exhibited his work at group shows in London and (in April this year) Seattle and is currently planning an exhibition in Lisbon, Portugal. He is currently working on a restricted number of Signed, Certified Limited Edition. High Quality Prints for Art Collectors, as well as continuing to make his work more generally available through a series of Monographs, combining his joint loves of writing and visual art (through photography).
Could you please introduce yourself and tell us how you started in the arts? and your first experience in art-making?
I’m an artist who has lived in the British Channel Islands most of his life. Until the last five years, most of my creative energy has been released through writing. After a career writing all sorts of documents from policy reports, to scientific papers and travel books, I knew that pure writing was no longer enough to satisfy the creativity that lies within.
Wanting to combine the release of artistic ideas and visions with the opportunity to learn new techniques and technologies, I picked up a digital camera. Having spent a lifetime studying nature and our natural world, travelling extensively on every continent, the obvious subject for my art may have been expected to be landscape and wildlife photography. Indeed, I did try to become interested and to see what images I could create in these two genres, but all my attempts were lack-lustre and in truth uninspired.
Then I took a trip to Paris and visiting the Louvre Museum and the Museum d’Orsay. While I appreciated many of the portraits, religious works and battle scenes on display, they ignited no significant fires within me. And then, I saw the artistic nudes painted by the likes of Bouguereau, Courbet, Degas, Gaugin, Ingres, Manet, Monet, and Renoir, and I instantly felt a real connection with the art; it meant something to me, it made me think, it made me appreciate, it lit the fires within and inspired me.
After returning from Paris, I went for a similar tour at the National Gallery in London, picked up my camera, headed off to a studio and worked with my first nude model, creating images which enabled a real release of the visual artist within me; something that had been rather lacking in my life to that point.
How would you describe yourself and your artwork?
I am a very inquisitive person, who works hard to try to get the most from life’s precious experiences. Whatever I do I have to do it to the best of my abilities, and I always admire people in every form of life who push beyond the boundaries to explore what lies beyond, and what becomes possible when we step outside that which we already know.
I am fascinated by human’s intrinsic connection with, and sense of belonging within, nature, and I love to explore ways to depict this deep-rooted need and feeling that we all have (whether we recognise it or not).
My art must be creative. While there are many artists’ and photographers’ work that I admire, I do not want to copy or mimic their work. I want to take what I feel and to work with others in producing something visual which invokes thoughts or reactions in the viewers. Given that in the main, I am trying to depict beauty and harmony, I hope that most of the reactions I get when people view my art are positive, but it is inevitable that there will also be some negative views; such is the lot of an artist.
Works which invoke no thought, connection and/or reaction by the viewer is wallpaper, not art; at least that’s how I feel about my own art!
Where do you get your inspiration from?
For my Nudes in Nature work, I am always finding inspiration from the beauty and complexity of our natural world, and the myriad of life forms that comprise it. However, it is not just that, it is also how individual people respond and react to being in nature. It has been a revelation to me to see how even people who spend 95% or more of their time in cities, surrounded by man-made environments of concrete, glass and tarmac, connect so quickly and deeply to the natural environments of grass, trees, flowers, hills, rivers and mountains.
For my studio work, my inspiration comes from working with very talented and experienced models who are happy to try new things, to pose in new dynamic ways, and to try to produce images that are truly unique and highly creative. Building good, trusting working relationships is critical to this, as only when people are prepared to fail do they push themselves to new levels creating breath-taking works.
What emotions do you hope the viewers experience when looking at your art?
The emotional reaction of viewers is very important to me; in fact, it is far more significant than the technical merit of an image. If the final image does not invoke a reaction it barely matters how perfect the image is; it is flat in the mind. My work should penetrate beyond the aesthetic to stir emotions in viewers.
For my Nudes in Nature work I like to think that my work may play a small part in re-connecting people to nature and their natural environments, where we have all evolved in our relatively recent pasts. A landscape without a person in it may be a beautiful scene, but when we put a person in the view, we become a part of the scene; we are no longer simply observing the picture, we become a participant. Add to this the fact that the person (a woman in my images) is nude, and the connection becomes even more primordial and subconscious because our vision is not affected by subjective views of clothing, jewellery, fashion, wealth or status. Without clothing the images are also less tied to a specific moment in time. I strive to make my Nudes in Nature work as timeless as it can be. It is not the moment that it is important, but the timeless (albeit evolving) deep connection with the landscape and with nature.
For my sensual work, I also wish to stir an emotion in the viewer, but in this case, it can be a very much wider range of emotions depending upon the pose and expression of the model. However, as a rule I always hope that there is something in my images which everyone can relate to; something that touches a memory or feeling of something significant that has happened in their lives.
When do you know that an artwork is finished?
This is a hard question to answer, because one of the most difficult aspects of working on my photographs is knowing when to stop fiddling. With photography as an art form it is always tempting to process images in different ways; some slight, others dramatic. Reaction in the viewer is more important than technical perfection of an image for me, so what I have learnt now is that I generally stop working on an image when I can sense a reaction.
What has been the most exciting moment in your art career so far?
I have been very fortunate indeed so far in my artistic career in that some very nice things have already happened with people appreciating my work, but if pushed I’d say the two best feelings, I’ve had are: -Firstly, seeing my images on public display, alongside others’ work, at international exhibitions; and Secondly, producing my first monograph “Rewilding the Human Spirit”. This has been personally satisfying because it contains a short story that has been very important in my life; it is a narrative that I simply had to tell. While I had the story in my head for over a decade, I had no way to get it out satisfactorily until I took up fine art nude photography; then, and only then, did I have the perfect platform to combine my joint loves of writing and visual art.
Have you ever wondered why people feel so deeply and innately connected to nature, and why maintaining contact with our natural world is so important to most people’s health and happiness? The book explains this very deep-rooted human need both through a short contemporary narrative which takes the reader from America’s Yellowstone National Park to the west coast of Ireland, and through a series of almost 150 colour fine art nude photographs shot in a variety of locations in Europe.
How long does it take to produce one work?
This can be very varied. Generally, the images are shot in a single half-day session, but it can then take weeks or months to select the special images, and then to edit and process them.
Themed projects involving a series of images can take much longer. For example, “Rewilding the Human Spirit” took around four years to complete; and that is only the first Phase, other work will follow in this long-running project.
What exciting projects are you working on right now? Can you share some of the future plans for your artwork?
I am continuing to develop the work on the Naturally Nude in nature project. Around half of the images for the next phase of this project are already shot. I have such a strong creative drive for this work, that it is a priority to complete it over the next 18 months or so. Several finished works including books(s) and limited-edition prints will ultimately flow from this.
I am also committed this year to working on more dynamic fine art nude studio images, working with models who are trained in dance and/or athletic skills. The aim will be to create another series of unique, visually attractive and challenging images to produce as Limited-Edition Prints, and perhaps ultimately a monograph on the subject.
Do you have any upcoming events or exhibitions we should know about?
I am exhibiting a set of four intimate sensual nude images entitled “Seasons of Venus” at the Seattle Erotic Art Festival in April, and am in discussion now for an exhibition of selected dynamic fine art nude images with a gallery in Lisbon, Portugal.
Where do you see your art going in five years?
I will be working to attend more international exhibitions, as I love the opportunity to display my work, gauge the raw reactions of people who observe it for the first time, and to chat with fellow artists and to admire their works on display.
I will also be very focused on my restricted series of top quality Limited Edition Prints aimed at the serious art collector, while continuing to exhibit my work more extensively through the production of further volumes in my monograph series “Naturally Nude…”, which combines my love of writing with my passion for the visual arts.
Full details are available on his web site, or by email:
Email: Amazilia.photography@outlook.com
Website: https://www.amazilia.photography
