Alexey Bednij (1988)

Surreal shadow photography

Alexey Bednij is a 28 year old Russian photographer who works with manipulative black and white digital photography work. His work is based on capturing the shadows of subjects such as people, cats, dogs, birds, etc. and manipulating the shadow that is cast. At first glance when one views his work, it may seem that he has impeccable timing or is always in the right place at the right time, but in reality you suddenly find that all these shadows would not normally be cast in different directions on subjects in the same area.

He creates a wonderful composition and pattern of black and white forms. His play with positive and negative space is pleasing and inviting to the viewer. Many say that his work is along the same lines as M. C. Escher’s drawings in some ways.

The viewer often stays longer because of the subtle confusion that is conveyed. wondering “how did he do it?” I can relate to the “thrill” of confusing your audience in my own work as well. With my photograms I play around with positive and negative space and black and white contrasting forms to the point that the viewer isn’t even sure what he or she is actually looking at. I think Alexey and I have the same fascination with form and contour line. It’s almost a fusion of elements of drawing and photography together when this kind of work is created