Thu, 09 Sep 1999

Semeniako turns his lens to night photography

By Tarko Sudiarno

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Photographing is basically drawing with light. But for French photographer Michel Semeniako it is more than that, as we can see by his night photographs on show until Sept. 10 at the Indonesia-France Institute in Yogyakarta.

Semeniako displays 18 color and eight black-and-white photos. The night-time photography specialist blends art photography and painting. He innovates by playing with color and light in every frame.

He creates a night atmosphere which is tranquil and magical. An object photographed in dim night light has deep nuances which you cannot see with the naked eye.

Semeniako began specializing in night photography in 1979 when he began traveling far and wide, seeking out new objects to satisfy his photography hobby. He photographed still lives, beaches and buildings of renowned architecture at night, often with the assistance of artificial spotlighting. He called his night photo journey "white magic rituals".

Well aware of the power of his lens, Semeniako now specializes in photography in the dark of the night. Colorful lights help beautify his objects and improve the visual effects.

With the help of assistants, Semeniako takes his time when photographing a particular object. To produce colorful lighting, he uses small spotlights provided with filters.

Although most of his objects are landscapes or still lives, he has a capacity to make the photographs come alive and "talk" to the viewer.

Take for instance a photograph titled Lotschental, a mountain range in Switzerland. In the daylight, the rock heap with the snow-covered mountains would be a photograph of an ordinary landscape. But Semeniako infuses it with something extra at night.

He bathed the rocks with lights from different angles, and his camera recorded a combination of pink and golden colors.

And look at another of his photographs of an old building (he calls it the bottom of a submarine). The building looks even more spooky with the contrast between dark and white rays combined with the red tree in the foreground.

Similar techniques are employed in other images of beaches. The cliffs look like a foreign land in fictional comic books.

Semeniako says photography is like a language that the photographer can use to communicate his or her artistic ideas.

On why he specializes in night photography, he says dark night stimulates people's imagination as their sixth sense seeks to communicate with elements around them.

His black-and-white photographs are equally charming, and again he plays with artificial lights. His photograph of the Paris planetarium building in Paris is a great achievement. The building is featured with beautiful Paris in the background.

The round building with two windows looks like an extraterrestrial being facing Paris in the photograph. Another wonderful image is his picture of Pisa Tower.

Most of the photos on display were taken in France, although the 55-year-old Semeniako has also taken photographs in Surabaya and Yogyakarta. The photographer has had many of his works collected in major European museums.