Oleg Ferstein

Joined Artfinder: Nov. 2021

Artworks for sale: 23

Netherlands

Updates from Oleg Ferstein's studio

  • Conquering walls

    Conquering walls

    "Conquering walls" was one of the most exciting series for me while exploring and studying the material I shot in China, Chengdu city, Sichuan. The project "The ancient legends of China" has actually started with this series. I still have an enormous amount of material that has to be worked out. I guess it's a kind of work for several years.

    17 December 2021
    Facing A Face

    Facing A Face

    "Facing a face when the face is not a subject" is the title of my continuous project and practical course that I"m offering to my students. Portraiture is with no doubt is the most popular subject in photography and fine arts. And a Face isn't a subject indeed! A collision with the real or imaginative person or character always reveals a huge complex of conditions imposed by the performer, standing in front of the camera or drawn in our imagination! I'm deeply convinced that the only way to establish communication with a performer is to unreservedly accept all the conditions and circumstances it imposes or provokes. In simple words: you cannot demand from a cat to bring you a cup of coffee, but stepping on his tail will unavoidably provoke a response. And that notorious response - a reaction is the only subject we are dealing with when shooting portraits.

    17 December 2021
    Shooting Cinderella Vs. Rhodopis

    Shooting Cinderella Vs. Rhodopis

    Every time when I listen to Cinderella by Sergei Prokofiev I never cease to wonder - how is it possible, that this prodigious music, written by a highly educated, outrageously innovative, sometimes with shocking attitude composer could be based on the most bourgeois, primitive, and banal libretto which is always attached to it. I can't imagine that an extraordinarily talented writer, as Prokofiev was, didn't know the ancient original story of Rhodopis. Hetaera was abducted by slave traders and sold to Egyptian aristocrat. She was finally rewarded for all her suffering, and not because of her incredible beauty and inept fairy's presents, small-sized feet, or stupidity of a crown prince... but for her fantastic skills in dancing. If Cinderella always was a kinda joke, a figure for the saltiest mocking, Rhodopis on a contrary became a beautiful legend, а role model, poetry. Well, let's leave it on Charles Perrault's and Brothers Grimm's conscience. So, I and the magnificent Die Wu - soloist of Chengdu Ballet Theater, took the liberty to abolish the known libretto and have staged a mono performance on the music of Prokofiev.

    17 December 2021