Bogdan Pastor
Bogdan Pastor is a self taught photographer based in San Francisco. He was born and raised in Romania, and immigrated to the US during his teenage years. More than two decades later, his immigration experience still raises important questions and imparts a deep influence on his art practice. He explores the state of having been uprooted, the process of finding equilibrium in the new environment and subsequent cycle of shifts in identity, as well as the meaning of “home”. He also looks for a deeper harmony and a beauty that is largely independent of the socio-political and economic conditions, but more intimate in its perception, and spiritual in nature.
We first met Bogdan at Djerassi, a resident artist program in Woodland California. We encountered a field of strewn white sheets in the grass, which on closer inspection revealed they were portraits - Hazy, blurry, beautiful portraits. Here is our conversation with Bogdan, with his especially poetic and powerful thoughts on softness, and alongside alluring portraits of the Elio Lamp as captured by him.
“Connection is impossible without softness””
Utharaa: I always like to ask "do you think about softness?", having encountered your photo series, "Less than a memory", it seems obvious that you do, is that a correct assumption? How did you decide to click soft blurry photographs as opposed to sharp ones?
Bogdan: To me, softness allows for a foreign object to penetrate an intimate space, softness suggests vulnerability, softness is inviting, softness requires faith that things are ok. Rigidity rejects, softness absorbs and holds, allows for adaptation. Connection is impossible without softness.
Softness relates to truth. Softness indicates a certain amount of ambiguity and truth is also ambiguous. From a need for safety we want to describe, categorize and put things into narratives that we understand. That may work with objects… or faces, and in that case photography becomes a medium that is employed to capture, preserve and make use of the image. But how do we describe an emotion? How do we describe an attraction? What about love, friendship, or jealousy? …their truth is always veiled in a soft layer of mystery.
“I like to let things come to life slowly, almost by themselves.”
Utharaa: Tell us about your photography practice. Do you think of it as your art or your work or both?
Bogdan: I see my photography practice as art. I never looked at it as work. In this way, I find it easier to follow the path that feels right and not compromise. Art for me is a way to understand the world, to better understand my-self and ultimately to connect with others and with the environment.
A problem that arises for me when I try to look at photography as work is a problem of time. Work means deadlines and I like to let things come to life slowly, almost by themselves. My most recent project called “less than a memory” began in the summer of 2021 and I only photographed it in its final form last year. It took quite a bit of time, brainstorming, writing and two or three different visions to arrive at what it is today. Now it feels as a genuine way to look at the world and I can also look at beautiful Elio in this way.
Utharaa: How do you choose your subjects?
Bogdan: I always explore themes that are present in my life, questions that I’ve been trying to answer for some time, and usually they are questions that create more questions instead of answers.
I immigrated to the US at the age of seventeen. Questions of home, identity, connection, memory or adaptation have been on my mind ever since, in a conscious or unconscious way. That explains the feeling of longing in my photographs.
Sometimes it happens that I take a photograph and I’m not really sure what it is I am photographing. It’s a certain feeling that moves me to do it. Those moments are very special, but they don't come around as often as I wish. Most of the other times I choose a subject either because I like what I see or because I am inspired in some way about the concepts behind it (its history, meaning, or connection to the theme).
Utharaa: Do you have one great passion or many? Are there other mediums or passions you explore in your artistic practice or as part of your personal process?
Bogdan: I have a great passion for art film (Andrei Tarkovsky, Antonioni, Wim Wenders, Claire Denis, many others). Cinema inspired me to buy a photo camera in the first place. The films that I admire most became part of my philosophy. I like to read fiction, history and philosophy; and I use what I learn to get a deeper understanding of the concepts I work with. Lately I read “Tears and Saints” by Emil Cioran, and “The Scent of Time” by Byung-Chul Han. There is also music. Music is always part of the landscape.
