"Thanks to Model Mayhem that I can find a creative people and collaborate with them. As a global expedition photographer Im always on a search for a new photo models to work with. Looking forward to create new art with new people... I always have a photographic vision in my mind. The best aspect about photography is that it`s magic. Everything that you can imagine is real. Photography is a tool to transform dreams into reality." - Eugen Kamenew
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Eugen Kamenew is a cosmopolitan. He was born in Kazakhstan, raised in Russian Federation and is currently living in Germany. His fascination for astronomy he got from his father who showed him a constellation of a Big Dipper in the twilight sky an early morning on the way to kindergarten. Since that moment his desire to explore the universe was huge and led to the start of his life's adventure. On his 12th birthday his parallel love for photography got a vital support when his mother offered him a whole set of mechanical analog camera - a magical instrument with which he could portray life and nature. His interest for both astronomy and photography has led him to the field of astrophotography that now has become his ultimate passion.
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The source of arts is longing, a longing to express the innermost which has so many facets that it needs to be condensed to a more or less symbolic vision for really being able to bear the essential. This being true for any form of art it certainly is for the photography of Eugen Kamenew: It expresses the wish of getting close while not being able to overcome the distance, to capture the evanescent yearning for making it last and it reveals the foreign aspects of the common by embedding it in an extraordinary light, culminating in visualizing the energy around us, flowing through us. Silhouettes of architecture, human crowds or single persons but mostly of loving couples shaped and exposed by exceptional sky phenomena is the code of Kamenews artistic language. The composition of his photography mostly needs deliberate planning in advance, since he treats his digital camera like an analog one refusing any manipulation and depicting only real moments in time. Due to solar eclipses being the main setting this leaves only small windows of place and time to ban his vision.

Bathed in spectacular light it is not clear whether the human silhouettes in front of Kamenews photos belong to the earth they stand on or to the colour radiating planet behind them – they are familiar and alienated at the same time, even the couples though their holding hands or kissing link them strongly to the world as we know it. Location and relative distance of the planets as well as the nature of their interaction remain even more vague. A specific parallel between them and human kind gets obvious: Like planets men and women circle through their life each on an own individual orbit and even if getting closer to one another they can’t leave it, though there evidently is a certain interference, an inclination for modification. More ore less severe or clear. And more or less stable. Solar eclipses particularly mirror these aspects. The planetary contact though being an illusion nevertheless is emitting an enormous amount of energy just as spectacular as the human one while transformation doesn’t touch anything but the surface. Yet, and this is the final message of Eugen Kamenews photography, the experience of beauty, of the extraordinary and of love generates moments of eternity enabling us to bridge the gaps between us. They may be evanescent and can’t be possessed but their power is changing the quality of our being and, at times, even of our orbit. It is all about being ready to share those moments – Eugen Kamenew is.

Kirsty Werheit ( Radio Journalist, Cologne, Germany )

Photography Awards

1st place in Philipps University photography competition “Marburg in picture” (Germany, Marburg, January 12, 2009)

1st place in 27th Okinawan Festival Sharing Uchinanchu Aloha Photo Contest in culture category (USA, Honolulu, September 5 and 6, 2009)

1st place for digital media achievement from Hawaii Pacific University in First Look Mixed Media Festival (USA, Honolulu, May 7, 2010)

Invitation to Greenwich Royal Observatory from a selection of 2200 photographers among 20 (London, England, Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011 on 8.9.2011)



Photography Exhibitions

Night Saloon Photography Exhibition (Germany, Marburg, July 1, 2008)

Philipps University: “Marburg in Picture” (Germany, Marburg, January 12, 2009)

Opening Night Event in Trauma Cinema with short films “Marburg Revolution” and “Le Parkour” (Germany, Marburg, February 6, 2009)

Hawaii Pacific University O’hana Art Exhibition (USA, Honolulu, from March 14 till April 23, 2010)

Hawaii Pacific University First Look Mixed Media Exhibition (USA, Honolulu, from May 7, 2010)

Urban Culture Festival Marburg in Trauma Kino with short movie "Hawaii Skaters Ultimatum" and "Life in a Day" (Germany, Marburg, July 23, 2010)

Exhibition "Space Night" (Germany, Marburg, KFZ, February 10, 2012)

Exhibition "India Astro Photo Festival 2012" (New Delhi, India, Nehru Planetarium / December 2012)

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