In a world that moves too fast, and of minds with no sense of slowing, Once We Were Wild is a bridge to who we were and what we will become.
In a fusion of classical photography and digital manipulation, this limited edition series by Daniel Jaems takes inspirational notes from Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens and Homo Deus that depicted a fingerprint mutated into a circuit board.
“In my ‘Once We Were Wild’ series, ‘Conscious Sky’ holds a special place. It was born from a session with Henry Van Berber, an experience that reshaped my understanding of what it means to capture the human spirit. To put this concretely, images like these would have remained in the drop bin as too candid or without a central focus – you all know how important eye contact is in most of my work. I think it was also the beginning of my interest to work with actors who understand that character is more important than ego in a pose. Working with Henry was unlike anything I’d done before. He wasn’t posing; he was living each moment, a rarity for most models. He was fully immersed in the process. It reminded me of an actor experimenting with emotions and reactions in real time in a natural, unforced way (sometimes even too quick to capture). It was like watching live-wire backstage in preparation whilst I was desperately trying to capture the sparks (it’s why so many of the shots were blurry – but it worked. This approach was refreshing for me as an artist. It challenged the usual dynamics of my photography where subjects are often overly conscious of the camera, slow, methodical, and much of my session is spent trying to undo that ego and preconceptions of how someone believes they should look in every shot. In this piece, I wanted to capture a sense of authenticity that comes when you study yourself and see yourself reflected back, not the version others see. There is a fine line between reflection and of Narcissus. I aimed to steer clear of that endulgence as his mirrored representation leans to the analytical as apposed to being consumed by it. As soon as I realised this, I knew it needed to be a abstract interpretation, so that I could further concentrate the meaning to that end. ‘Conscious Sky’ is more than a photograph for me; although it began its journey as a picture from my camera, it’s really just a reminder of when we truly see ourselves.” – Daniel Jaems
