Smich Lov - An Intervew
I noticed Smich Lov for her art. Her photography is exciting and weird and interesting and takes you away from looking at things with the straight eye. It makes you think. Makes you question things and that's what I love about her work. Her instagram page is like a perfectly curated gallery of her artwork. Please do make sure to take a visit to her page and follow to see her work!
Instagram: @SMICIOTTI
What’s your name? // Artists name? // Age?
Smich Lov is my artists name, but also my real name, because everyone call me Smich in real life. In short, my true real name doesn't matter.
I am 28, more or less.
Where are you from? // Where do you live?
I'm from Italy and I live in a small village in the North of the country, surrounded by mountains, rivers, other small villages and a lot of desolation. I think I'll move soon.
What is the background story to your work?
I have a various and chaotic background, to be honest. My work is fed by my natural interests, by my passion for my obsessions and last but not least by my studies in the fields of Psychology and Art history.
I use to work on 4-5 projects at a time, cause I have the bad attitude of getting bored of everything quickly.
Now, I am working on 2 new books, the first is a conceptual work with digital pics about the use and abuse of benzodiazepines, the second is a collection of analog photographs. Then I am writing a novel and a book full of nonsense conversations really happened. Oh, I really love books.
How did you come across film photography?
When I was 20 I found my dad's Yashica by chance, I played with it a few months, but without any particular interest.
Only years later, when I was completely bored of the world and the digital pictures that the world is full of, I fell in love with the film. Film photography gives me back something that doesn't really exist, something that I am not able to touch with my hands. A reality that I can't perceive just with my eyes.
What do you shoot on?
As the troubled artist I am, I don't have any favourite camera or film. I have two analog cameras and a digital one. Since 3 years I always take with me a disposable camera too when I go out, but I can take pics also with my phone if I need it.
I usually work on pictures that already exist in the world, and I revisit them.
In my opinion, the act of creating something doesn't concern the specs of the medium.
Have you had any exhibitions/published work?
I got the pleasure to take part at two collective exhibits, on in Venice (Inside HER mind, 2013) and the most important one in Milan (Braeraklasse, 2015).
Where do you find inspiration?
I would like to reply that I find inspiration in the world, in the beauty of things, but it would be an half-truth, cause I can perceive the same street or the same landscape in different ways, according to my personal mood. Some days, I am in a specific place and I feel that everything there is worth to became art, other days, in the same place, I hate everything I see.
So, I think that I find inspiration just in myself, or maybe it's inspiration that finds me, when I am enough open to be reached by it.
Tell me about your work.
I am sure that photography, as well as drawing, painting, music and the other artistic disciplines, are an amazing way to escape the world and being in the world in the same time. I feel that when I go out with my camera, when I scan my negatives, when I write my thoughts, I am living in a space and in a time different from the space and the time of the whole world.
For what concerns the aims, I really enjoy political or social oriented art, but personally I create something just for my pleasure or need. No aims, except remembering myself that life is full of beauty.
What makes you choose film photography?
Film photography gives me something unexpected, a sort of mystery when I press down the shutter button, film photography gives me pure adrenaline when I scan the negatives, film photography makes me believe in magic when I see the results.
What makes you take a photograph?
I feel the need to remember everything and the fear of forgetting something.
I feel like I was responsible for the memories of my whole life, and taking photographs help me reach this hard purpose.
"Beauty of nothing, love the capture of the blue."
"A simply sky and a minimal view impressed on film can be such surreal."
"Here I was in love with Paris and his building, to be honest I was in love with everything."
"In this shot I wanted to create some wonder in people due to the forced perspective of the trees."
"This shot was taken in Paris with expired film. The result was a yellow and low contrast imagine, I converted it in black and white and this is the final, unexpected result."
"Minimal and incisive."
"Here, I put together the first 3 pics of a film I shoot without closing the camera completely."
"Sky (and what you can see in the sky) is one of my fav obsession. I love create fake landscape, putting together different pictures."
"Here, I matched 12 different pics to obtain a surreal sky"