WATER SERIES

Convinced that photography's power comes from it's unparalleled ability to describe what's visible in front of the camera, I try to provide subjects or combinations of light and substance which test that power. My photographs are very "straight”, in other words the camera simply records what was in front of it -- one standing at the lens would see what the camera “saw”. There is no manipulation after the initial single exposure of the negative either in the darkroom or with computers, etc.

 WATER

The Water Series began about ten years ago. Working in the studio with a 4x5 camera, my initial concern was to see if I could combine water with the human figure in naturally convincing tableaux. To my surprise the variations made possible by mixing two such mythic symbols led from picture to picture until now the Water Series consists of over one-hundred images.

Optically dynamic, water is transparent, reflective and refractive. It "mirrors" and "lenses". In a sense we don't actually "see" water. We see what water does to what is in it, under it or reflected by it. Liquid water moves and its motion relative to the viewer and the light dictates what it does visually. Along the way I learned that the geometry, or shape, of the surface of the water was the most critical aspect visually.This led to building sets and devices which allow other-worldly visual environments with wave forms, splashes and fields of lensing bubbles.

Suzanne Sbarge received her Bachelors Degree in Art History and Studio Arts from Barnard College in New York City and her Masters Degree in Art Education from the University of New Mexico. She has also studied studio arts at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Toulouse, France; Syracuse University in Florence, Italy; The Art Students’ League in New York City; University of Connecticut; University of Massachusetts; as well as Anderson Ranch in Colorado, Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and Vermont Studio Center.

“I combine painting, photography, and collage in layered, experimental images to explore the endless possibilities for merging these complimentary media. My images are created by oil painting over mixed media photo collages. My work is primarily figure-based, with a narrative iconography conveying a sense of myth, ritual, twisted fairytales, and the surreal aspects of everyday life.

I am inspired by the alchemical tension between the paint and collage elements. “Pure” painters and painting critics have suggested that I paint my collaged imagery instead of cutting, gluing, and integrating them with paint. This would defeat the purpose for me, because the combining of media is integral to the message.

The juxtaposition of paint and collage causes the viewer to be jarred into an altered vision. Trying to visually figure out this tension causes one to look at the image with a different kind of perception. This “collaged state of mind” is what I look for in my own process and what I also hope the viewer experiences. The dialogue between the real and the surreal highlight life’s essential mysteries while serving as metaphors for life’s ambiguities.

My collages are narratives from my unconscious. I try to let accidents and chance, determine my choices while I compose collages. I have a background in archetypal psychology, which I’m sure comes into play.

I try to get in touch with the place where dreams come from to develop images that speak on a universal level. I like for viewers to find their own meanings and have their own experiences with my work. I seek to create images that are mysterious - to the viewer as well as to me. I like to be surprised by the strangeness, humor, and wisdom of the unconscious.”

Confessions of a Tapist

The process is like driving from Albuquerque to Los Angeles non-stop.  It’s like being in shape and running ten miles. It’s like chanting.  It’s like doing all the movements of Tai Chi the meditative way.  It’s about finding a zone of no thought.  Time passes and only my aching fingers and shoulders indicate how long I have been continuously painting with the tape.  I relish the focus on details and to be lost in the quiet and minute parts of the whole.  Decisions are mostly made as a reaction to the materials, the image and the emotive feel.  Time is a factor.  It must take long sessions to get to the zone.  After each session there is another zonal journey.  Clarity often comes after a long session.  More things are revealed to me after each session.  Magic is a goal.  My entire day is shaped by solitude and what I believe is constructed beauty.  I want magic in my life and work.  Beauty is important.  Constructed in the simplest of ways, I believe that these are among the most beautiful pieces that I have created.  I relish the fact that the tape is an inexpensive and somewhat castaway art material.  The Zen of the material and process moves me to a spiritual happiness.

I have often desired the overlay of sensory experience in my work.  These pieces require looking from afar and getting in very close, both vantage points offer differing visual experience.  The pieces are wonderful to touch.  I’ve been in the zone off and on for over twenty-three years with this work.  Time has no fixed position, it has been positive energy for me.  It has left me no room or desire for negative creative existence.  Most things seem to now have a place in the cosmic meaning of things.  Especially in coping with getting older and dealing with cancer.

The taping process is obsessive.  It is done with precision and ardor.  Masking tape is a simple material.  I use every variety of masking tape that is commonly available.  The subtle color of the tape creates my range of hues for my “painting” palette.  There are varying degrees of translucency and the amount of layers dictate a value shift.  The tearing and cutting parodies a variety of “brush strokes.”  The original surface images are large chromogenic Light-jet photographs from a variety of sources that are often collaged and manipulated in Photoshop.  These are cold mounted with Coda (two sided archival adhesive) to museum rag board.  The archival museum board is contact cemented to oak wood laminate and stretcher bars are wood glued for stability.  Finally, the entire finish taped surface is multi-coated with Golden Acrylic Matte Medium of different strengths.  Two final brush coatings of Golden Polymer Varnish with UVLS (Ultraviolet filters and stabilizers) are finally applied.  Although masking tape is not considered an “archival” medium, the matte medium both seals the piece from oxidation and soaks through the masking tape for added adhesion.  My “tapist” career started in 1983 and the pieces made at that time have lasted throughout the years.  I believe that the pieces have a life of their own and will change very slowly in time, much like mummies from ancient Egypt have lasted through the centuries but nevertheless have changed.   The work might be seen as an evolving entity with the spirit of permanence and impermanence interwoven into the materials used in the artistic process.

A perfect quote from Patricia J. Graham’s book, Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art 1600-2005, regarding artists influenced by using Buddhist imagery in Japan hits home to my thinking today.  “All these artists turned to Buddhist imagery for intensely personal reasons, without regard for the whims of the art establishment, and developed distinctive styles for Buddhist subjects.  They borrowed freely from Western art, philosophy and art materials in order to instill new life into traditional religious themes, and they completely absorb themselves into their work, which itself becomes a path of self-cultivation.”

I work in different techniques of oil and acrylic paint. Most of the time there is a great deal of learning in each painting. If I used the same technique all the time, I think I would get bored and eventually stop painting.

 I also draw every day almost like a journal, whatever comes into my mind. When we were students, Zuñiga always tried to teach us to draw from the model in a simple and logical way, making us see beyond the conceptual approach of the forms.

 When I finished art school I was told, now you have to forget everything you have learned; look for your own voice so you do not become merely an academic painter. I went out and tried to forget my training and years later wondered if I did not forget too much!  Later on I started learning again so that I can paint what I want to paint.

 My methods of working are very different. I paint because I like to paint and discover what is coming up in the canvas. I can start with an idea or I can just start with a single figure that will find its own environment and composition. Sometimes the result is completely different from the initial intention. Generally, if it does not work the first time, I abandon the work.

 From time to time I go back to Velazquez, Rembrandt and Titian to see how these masters solve the problems of representation of three dimensions on a flat surface. Tonal painting, atmospheric painting offers more possibilities for what I like to do in my work. Painters like Bacon, Arisman, Oliveria, Corzas and even Giacometti, although Giacometti’s paintings are different from those others, work in that way, and so I am indebted to them.

 I think every artist is the creator of one work of art and its variations; ultimately, it’s impossible to escape from your self.

Bruce Barnbaum has been creating images as a fine art photographer for more than forty years, and is regarded as one of the world’s master silver gelatin printers. Barnbaum’s unique style is characterized by his vivid imagery, sweeping forms and dynamic compositions.  An advocate for both photography and environmental activism, Barnbaum produces works which simultaneously convey his passion for the conservation of the natural world while capturing the grandeur and awe of the most beautiful unspoiled regions of our land.

An accomplished author, Barnbaum's internationally acclaimed books include Visual Symphony, The Art Of Photography, Tone Poems - Books I & Book II. He has also taught photographic workshops around the world for over 30 years, and founded the famous Owens Valley Photography Workshops, which enjoyed international acclaim from 1979 through 1990. Barnbaum's photographs can be found in numerous museum and corporate collections the world over and continues to teach workshops internationally.

Gardner’s canvases resemble acts of nature more so than the profoundly contemplated paintings they in fact are. A fallen leaf, the bough of a tree left barren by the onset of winter, the skin of ripening fruit, roots below the surface of the earth; she masterfully conveys aromas, flavors and the essence of time passing onto the surface of her canvases.

Her abstract allegories allude to commonplace natural artifacts and moments in time, yet they hover at the horizon of understanding, like archetypal talismans containing the knowledge of the unfathomable secrets of nature. Reds so crimson you can feel them pulsing through the canvas; leafy greens that smell of spring in the Celtic highlands, ruby-fire opalescent tears enmeshed in a fleshy matrix of leather and wood.

Concepts alluded to but not entirely revealed, her creations evoke a sense of wonder similar to the feeling one experience’s when witnessing subtle forces of nature at work. Challenging the senses with their ephemeral nuances, yet as accessible to the soul as if enjoying a stroll down a favorite garden pathway.

Gardner’s strength lies in the intensity of her commitment to her process. Several of her paintings require years of continuous work before completion. Stratum upon stratum of complex pigment coalescing on canvas not unlike memories embedded throughout the spectrum of consciousness. The subtleties in her work can catch you by surprise as you stand facing a painting only to discover another painting residing below the surface of the first and yet another hidden pattern emanating from within the more obvious first impression.

Not a speck of pigment is out of place, not a single molecule of ground earth applied by chance. As much as her paintings appear to have been snatched from nature and cast upon canvas, you will find her compositions are carefully and meticulously executed one brush stroke at a time. No perfunctory strokes are present, only inspired gestures of movement from hand, to brush, to canvas; executed like a grand symphonic orchestration.

For as long as I can remember, I have been compelled to create. As a kid I would spend hours digging in the ground making armies comprised of bizarre, little clay and stick figures. Three-legged dogs and winged monkeys, my creations were always a little sad, a little misshapen. My own troop of misfits placed in the crucible of the mid-day sun to cure. They were my inner workings made outward. 

In my work I try to take feelings and give them form in order to create a world that feels comfortable and real. My work revolves around the tangible interpretation of the everyday. Through a dreamy window, I explore ordinary human experiences, and with compulsion I morph those settled common occurrences and make them strange. 

I interchangeably utilize human and animal imagery to symbolize both the best and worst parts of the human condition along with our connection to the environment. Birth, death, love, loneliness, hardships and happiness are some of the themes that I work with, to depict the inner struggles and conditions that make up life that we all experience from day to day. Transforming those feelings into work that include my own symbology, as well as archetypal themes to illustrate the interconnectedness of all humanity.

The Volakis Gallery represents emerging and established artists in the fields of photography, painting and sculpture. The primary focus of the gallery is to exhibit work that explores the following topics: the ephemeral nature of existence, metaphysics, ontological mysticism, Jungian archetypal imagery, existential humanism, wabi sabi and other esoteric themes. We gravitate to artists that eschew modern technological production methods, preferring to exhibit works that exude a high degree of physical craftsmanship and novelty. In addition to exhibiting works by contemporary artists, we are committed to displaying works by acknowledged masters who we believe have explored the aforementioned themes and concepts and to further correlate their continuing influence on contemporary art.

Throughout the years, Imboden has shown her photographs in an extensive range of group and solo shows at galleries and museums within the United States, South America, Europe, and most recently China.

Imboden’s photographs are in the permanent collections of several international museums including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The National Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Bibliotheque Nationales in Paris, France, The Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany and many other public and private collections throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

In 1993, Connie Imboden won the Silver Medal in Switzerland’s “Schonste Bucher Aus Aller Welt (Most Beautiful Book in the World)” Award for her first book of images entitled “Out of Darkness”. Her most recent book, “Reflections, 25 Years of Photography”, features photos from 1983 to 2009 charting Imboden’s artistic journey and offering new insights into her work and vision.

She teaches photography at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where her experience as a photographer began. Imboden conducts workshops around the world.

Imboden is also the president of the board of governors of the William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund. The Baker Fund focuses its grant making exclusively to Arts and Culture and in 2008 initiated the Baker Artists Awards, an innovative online process offering significant prizes to emerging and established artists of any discipline.

Rocky Schenck was born in Austin, Texas during the last century, then moved to a ranch outside of Dripping Springs, Texas at age five.   His dad was a part time cowboy and a full time postman. His mother occasionally worked for the Internal Revenue Service. Both were imaginative and creative artists, who enjoyed life, parties, and the occasional drink or two.  They delighted in creating a fantasy world for their two children, making each and every holiday, birthday, and lost tooth a "really big deal".  Rocky and his sister Becky innocently believed in tooth fairies, Easter bunnies, and Santa Claus a little bit longer than other kids.    He was nicknamed "Rocky" when he was three days old by his sister, who was confused by the other names his parents chose for his birth certificate: Richard Davis Botho Arthur Schenck.

 At age twelve, Rocky began studying oil painting, having been greatly influenced by the romantic landscape paintings and portraiture work of his great-great grandfather Hermann Lungkwitz (1813-1891) and great-great uncle Richard Petri (1824-1857), both German immigrants and artists who moved to the Texas Hill Country in 1851. Rocky began selling his paintings professionally at age 13.

Around this same time, Rocky began a lifelong interest in motion pictures and photography.  He began writing, directing and photographing low budget experimental films.   A self taught photographer, he honed his photographic skills while taking production stills on the sets of his movies.

After 12 years at Dripping Springs School (300 students 1st grade through 12th grade) and a year and a half at North Texas State University (where he was an art major), he quit college and moved to Los Angeles.   He continued making short films and taking personal photographs while working at a variety of odd jobs.

In 1987, a gallery owner in New York discovered Rocky's work and gave him his first one-man exhibition, followed by a second exhibition in 1990.  Both shows were well received and reviewed by several publications, including Art in America, Artforum, and Aperture. Since then, Rocky has continued to show in galleries around the world and his work is now included in several prestigious collections.

Rocky is a firm believer in the therapeutic value of road trips, and travels often (usually with a friend).  This body of work was created during numerous trips throughout the South, and various parts of North America, Europe, England and Norway.  His images range from landscapes to interior spaces...from hotel rooms, store windows, lobbies, living rooms, information booths and conference rooms to oceans, lakes, forests, fields and trees.  These environments are occasionally inhabited by silhouettes or isolated figures. 

When asked how he goes about creating his photographs, Schenck replied; "My approach is rather simple. I record on film what I see and what I feel as I travel through life.  Although my photographs have been taken all over the world, there is a consistency to the imagery due to the manipulation of both the film's negative and of the print's surface.

I consider my images to be illustrations of my conscious (and perhaps subconscious) dreams, emotions, and longings.  Many of the images explore positive and negative realities, which inhabit dreamlike settings. When I shoot these images, they are usually not premeditated or contrived.... I simply take my camera with me wherever I go and try to remain open to whatever life shoves... or gently places...  in front of me. 

When I'm shooting, I look for images, which tell a story, or provide some element of a dramatic narrative.   Of course, sometimes it's a matter of being swept away by the haunting beauty of nature, which provides constant inspiration and solace.  If I am sad or depressed or melancholy, I can wander somewhere with my camera and usually turn my mood around by stumbling upon something unexpected and wonderful." 

At the core of every human being’s life is the question of: “Who am I?” As we grow through life, many of us often identify with our body & mind and skip the dimension of being, which if we test it, is as infinite as this whole universe.

The images I produce act as a portal to reclaim our intimate relationship with the infinite. This is achieved through our primary homes: the bare earth and the bare body. Through the simultaneous use ofperformance art, painting and analog photography, I stage the body in its rawness as it relates to the landscape through situations that recall the magic of being and the nature of Light.

Through the colorful painting of the body I am arching back to the realization that has long been made by physicists and mystics alike, that this body and the earth, while they appear opaque and dense are also entirely made out of light. As we go deeper into the structure of any material, matter remains elusive.

Nothing seems to be more “magical” than light since it travels but has never been tangibly held or found by anyone, nor is it propelled by anything, nor does it stop anywhere, nor does it seem to clearly originate anywhere. Lastly, since light travels at a constant speed, in an otherwise constantly changing universe, perhaps for this reason light in many traditions is seen as godly in nature.

This realization is the seed of the work to be presented: through the bare body painted with the colors of light, I bring humanity back to its fundamental nature, bypassing the usual layers of identity, space and time, and re-contextualize it into being-ness as Light, or “who we really are”.

Through other means, such as presenting the body in flight or having it interact in various ways with the earth, I further elaborate on the nature of “Form being the Formless” (light) while simultaneously evoking our direct kinship with the earth and some of the predicaments humanity faces in our dependence on dualistic thinking.

I was born in 1946, the first year after World War II. My parents managed to survive the hardships of evacuation and returned back home to Riga, then under Soviet occupation.

I grew up amongst the Russian speaking population of Latvia. Russian culture became my root culture. I graduated from the technical college as an aviation engineer but never worked as such. Instead, I joined Riga Motion Studios as a designer of equipment for special effects. I was in my early twenties and mostly ignorant about art. At this time social realism was the official culture of the country and I did not care about it too much. Information about modern western art was hardly available and my knowledge of it was highly limited.

I started to photograph when I was nineteen, driven by desire to create my own personal style and vision. I was involved in portraiture and created some documentary shots, but soon realized the results did not satisfy me. I put my camera aside and concentrated on reading (Dostoevsky, Bulgakov) and cinematography (Tarkovsky, Parajanov). I was constantly looking for a way to express my personal feelings and thoughts utilizing photography. One year later it came to me clear and simple. I decided to photograph concepts.

In 1972 I created my first, and most important image - Confession.

I instantly recognized the potential possibilities of the conceptual approach. The knowledge I acquired from the creation of this image became the backbone of the work I have produced since.  In 1974, after years of disgust with communist authorities, I left my country and arrived in the USA.

Conventional vs Conceptual

Do I point my camera outwards to the existing world or turn it inward towards my soul?  Am I taking photographs of existing reality, or creating my own world, so real, but non existent?

Results from these two opposite approaches are notably different. In my opinion, conceptual photography is a higher form of artistic expression that places photography on the level of painting, poetry, music and sculpture. It employs the special talent of intuitive vision.

By translating the personal concepts into the language of photography, it reflects the possible answers to major questions of being: birth, death and life.  Creating an idea and transforming it into reality is an essential process of conceptual photography.

Today's conventional approach, with a few exceptions, completely dominates art photography.  But with the introduction of digital photography, we can change this balance.  The ease of producing altered realities will bring a new wave of talented artists who will use it to express their special world of visions with all its meaning, symbols and mystery.

In a world of high technology will you still believe in the truthfulness of a photograph?

Would it matter?

To me it matters. In all these years of creating conceptual images, I have strived to make them as realistic as possible. My technical abilities have improved which have allowed me to broaden the horizons for my ideas.  But this is not the most important part of the process.

The poor concept, perfectly executed, still makes a poor photograph, therefore, the most important ingredient of a powerful image is the concept.  The blend of talent to create a concept and the skill to deliver it - those are two major building blocks of creating a convincing conceptual photograph.

It is not a new idea to manipulate photographic images. As a matter of fact all images are manipulated to a certain degree. The real power of photography emerges when altered reality is presented as existent and is expected to be perceived as such.

An obviously manipulated image is a trick that shows a lack of understanding of the unique power of photography - the belief engraved in our subconscious that what was captured by the camera has to exist. In the best examples of successfully manipulated images the question "Is it real?" does not arise.

My first introduction to digital manipulations showed me how similar analog and digital techniques are. Each has it's bright and dark spots. At this moment I don't see any reason to switch to digital. I still prefer the glowing quality of an original silver print and the laborious process to achieve it.  Yet, I believe, that it is only matter of time before digital technology replaces analog and the conceptual approach will receive a well deserved place in the canon of photographic art.

I also want to believe that, many years from now, artists will continue to develop the language of photography, understanding and preserving its unique power. 

My work is about the human condition. Not specific people, but a kind of general statement about the condition of human kind at the dawning of the 21st Century. I work using the human figure and head as a starting point. By putting a recognizable human form in front of the viewer I make it easier for the viewer to connect with my work. I juxtapose the figure with elements that may at first seem discordant in order to create metaphors that will I hope shine a glimmer of light on man’s place in the world. My work can be funny, sad, scary and at times and to different people all three. I love word plays and I love visual puns. Like T.S. Eliot’s “J. Alfred Prufrock” I hope my work makes the viewer smile and at the same time squirm with recognition.

My first experience with clay was in Tennessee. I was in first grade and my father had been called back to active duty during the Korean War. We moved to a trailer court just outside of Fort Campbell. The ground was a lovely red clay. One day I made a whole set of clay toys and tools and left them to dry on the porch steps. While wonderfully plastic, the clay didn’t hold together as it dried. I returned to find them all cracked apart. That first experiment linked forever clay and my imagination. It also made it clear that the importance is in the making not in the keeping.

I coil build almost exclusively. Coil building has a rhythm that I like. It is a very different process from throwing or from carving. I can almost conceive of the form of a piece from the first coil. I begin to feel as if I have become a kind of a channel for ideas. It is the doing that seems to be the stimulation for ideas and connections that I probably couldn’t make consciously.

As I get older I look back a bit more. I can see more of a pattern to my ideas and interests. They weave through out my life. The other day I reread Kafka’s Metamorphoses, a story that has served as a touchstone for me for years. It was both as I remembered it and not at all the same. In some ways my new work is a re-seeing of ideas I’ve carried with me for a long time but from a very formative place. I still feel a sense of wonder as each idea appears and reappears for me.

GELLAGE

Since the end of 1989, Michal Macku has used his own creative technique which he has named "Gellage" (a combination of collage and gelatin).

The technique consists of transferring the exposed and fixed photographic emulsion from its original base onto a new piece of paper. This transparent and malleable gelatin substance makes it possible to reshape and reform the original images, changing their relationships and endowing them with new meaning during the transfer. The finished work gives a compact image with a fine surface structure. Created on photographic quality paper, each Gellage is a highly durable print eminently suited for collecting and exhibiting.

The laborious technique, which often includes the use of more than one negative per image, makes it impossible to produce absolutely identical prints: Each Gellage is an original work of art. Each image is limited to an edition of 12 prints.

Michal Macku discusses his work: "I use the nude human body (mostly my own) in my pictures. Through the photographic process [of Gellage], this concrete human body is compelled to meet with abstract surroundings and distortions. This connection is most exciting for me and helps me to find new levels of humanness in the resulting work.

I am always seeking new means of expression and, step by step, I am discovering almost unlimited possibilities through my work with loosened gelatin. Photographic pictures mean specific touch with concrete reality for me, one captured level of real time.

The technique of Gellage which I am using helps me to take one of these "time sheets" and release a figure, a human body, from it, causing it to depend on time again. Its charm is similar to that of cartoon animation, but it is not a trick. It is very important for me to be aware of the history of a picture and to have a sense of direct contact with its reality.

My work places "body pictures" in new situations, new contexts, new realities, causing their "authentic" reality to become relative. I am interested in questions of moral and inner freedom. I do what I feel, and only then do I begin to meditate on what the result is. I am often surprised by the new connections I find in it. Naturally, I start out with a concrete intention, but the result is often very different. And there, I believe, lies a hitch. One creates to communicate what can not be expressed in any other way. Then comes the need to describe, to define."

CARBON PRINTS

Since 2000 Macku uses also other historical photographic techniques in combination with the technique GELLAGE. After experiments with heliogravure, platinum and kallitype, Macku  has expanded his offerings through the technique of carbon printing. 

The carbon prints are sized approx. 35x30 cm (14x12''), printed on graphic watermark paper, stamped and signed. Each image is limited to 24 prints.

Public and Private Collections

Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark; The Royal Library of Denmark, Copenhagen; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Harvard Visual Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Moravská galerie v Brně, Brno, Czech Republic; Muzeum Umění Olomouc, Czech Republic; MOPA - Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, USA; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA; Kinsey Institute, Indianopolis, USA; Collection of Cherye R. and James F. Pierce.

Born in 1950, Poland, Andrzej Pluta has been producing beautiful images for over 30 years. As a young man he attended art photography school and fled the political situation in his home country in 1970. He first traveled to Rome and then later to Canada, moving from Toronto to Montreal and Vancouver undertaking personality and editorial fashion photography. In 1980, he moved to Los Angeles where he worked in the music and fashion industries.

Andrzej Pluta creates his images using analog photographic gear (Sinar 8×10 view camera) captured on Fujichrome film using traditional lighting methods.  Pluta does not alter his images in the darkroom or by computer manipulation, nor retouching of the original color transparency. He has developed his own unique style through experimentation. Each series of work produced brings about imaginative abstractions and varied color palettes.

His photographic works are in numerous public and private collections, notably in the collection of Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia. He has exhibited internationally including; Stara Gallery, (Warsaw), JCJ Haans, (Antwerp), European Parliament, (Brussels), Museum of Man, (Sofia) and in major metropolitan cities across the US and Canada, with over 20 solo exhibitions in New York since 1990.

The Volakis Gallery represents emerging and established artists in the fields of photography, painting and sculpture. The primary focus of the gallery is to exhibit work that explores the following topics: the ephemeral nature of existence, metaphysics, ontological mysticism, Jungian archetypal imagery, existential humanism, wabi sabi and other esoteric themes. We gravitate to artists that eschew modern technological production methods, preferring to exhibit works that exude a high degree of physical craftsmanship and novelty. In addition to exhibiting works by contemporary artists, we are committed to displaying works by acknowledged masters who we believe have explored the aforementioned themes and concepts and to further correlate their continuing influence on contemporary art.