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The 40th Anniversary of the Rockers series


I can hardly grasp it, but it is 40 years ago that I ditched the advertising agency I was doing product photography for and started working on the Rockers series. I made thousands of photographs and the project at first almost left me broke, but over the years it became my bestselling project. The photographs are still popular and at times I feel like an old rock band on a come back tour with a public shouting to do my first hit once over.

Of course I am also very proud of this series. During this series a certain style of portrait photography evolved and up to this day I am faithful to that photographic approach.

This is a good time to start thinking about a book and my friend Norm came over to Amsterdam to write some poetic prose about the subject and we made this short movie to hopefully encourage people to buy the book that will be published in 2018.

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In-between Time – Adam Magyar

For most of my life I have been waiting for something really new and adventurous coming out of photography, and I am nearly 60 now, and it never really happened.

Early photography was used as an inspiration for painters to stretch the rules of classical composition conventions. Later, we see photography imitating painting.

There were moments of hope. When I first heard about holography I was excited, but when I saw my first holograms I was thoroughly disappointed. It seemed that the technicians who made these images had little or no affection with art.

The hologram was invented to show us the third dimension, and it didn’t pan out. Not for art. It did a great deal of good for tourist shops, though. And for official documents to prove authenticity, of course.

Now my eye was drawn to the works of Adam Magyar who in his very original way with a self constructed camera was attacking the fourth dimension: time.

Strictly speaking, his works do not really belong to photography, nor to videography, yet his works scream photography in every aspect of dealing with light, scenery and composition.

For an in-depth article about Magyar’s work, please read: Einstein’s Camera or visit the artist’s website, or even better: do both.

Below are three videos that will give you an impression of his work.

Adam Magyar – Stainless, 42 Street (excerpt) from Adam Magyar on Vimeo.

Adam Magyar – Stainless, Alexanderplatz (excerpt), 2011 from Adam Magyar on Vimeo.

Adam Magyar: Urban Flow from Matter on Vimeo.