04.29 | Reverse Nature Photography

Yesterday finally brought the moment when we no longer had to describe our meetups with phrases such as "post-heating-season depression" or "I'm still freezing in a coat". We set off into the heart of Vienna's 7th district, which, thanks to Zsuzsi, is now officially our little "Viennese Soho". We started in a gallery that is about as important to our community as coffee is to breakfast — because a serious exhibition is on the horizon for October.

If we want this grand event to become something more than awkward silence and a few random visitors, we needed to establish a few basic principles. For example: should the whole thing be a casual "bring your friends and family" one-night stand, or should we take it more seriously and rent a venue for a longer period — somewhere even aristocrats would only enter wearing a tuxedo? The team voted for the second option, probably in the hope that by then we will all have become world-famous artists. Nothing is impossible.

The next dilemma was whether our masterpieces should change owners at the end of the exhibition. The answer was a clear "yes", which could mean one of two things: either we set prices high enough to make visitors clutch their chests, or we auction everything during the opening and hope the champagne persuades somebody to bid even on a photograph of a sock.

Naturally, having the press there was also a priority. After all, who wouldn't want to appear in the local newspaper under a headline like: "Weekend recommendation: come and watch our friends' photographs gather dust on the wall"? The idea of an exclusive venue also came up, which is how we ended up considering a gallery in Vienna's 1st district — the very place where the whole "Vienna Calling" madness first entered our heads.

Now comes the hunt for a date, which will probably be about as exciting as looking for a parking space in the city centre. Livia will help us with that. During the remaining months we will work on assignments that prepare us, on the one hand, for smiling politely while a client digitally erases our favourite detail from an image, and on the other, for knowing what to do with sudden artistic freedom when we can create absolutely anything we want, without limits or boundaries. (This is probably where most people panic.)

The first task was a warm-up: in the golden light of the setting sun, capture tiny details of leaves on bushes while allowing the subject to barely touch the edge of the frame. Three photographs were the limit, and almost everyone managed to stick to it. ("Almost" is the key word here.) My long-term goal is for us to reach the point where a single click is enough for the perfect photograph — by then we'll probably all be professional paparazzi.

Then came the hard part, also known as "Hello reality, meet the moment of truth". I paired everyone up and asked them to make a flattering, sexy portrait of each other while the model was blowing on a dandelion. A classic cliché, with one twist: the picture only counted as successful if the model said, "I love this photo!" This was where everyone revealed their true selves. The photographers discovered what it feels like when a model honestly tells them that the pose they thought deserved an Oscar actually makes them look like a zombie who has just woken up and seen itself in the mirror. On top of that, synchronising the floating dandelion seeds with the perfect facial expression while keeping the light ideal was a bit like juggling chainsaws: dangerous, but survivable with a little luck.

Then came "reverse nature photography", which wasn't about how we see the world, but about how an ant might see it. Imagine a person doing something, but compose the photograph as if an ant were looking up at them. Nearby leaves and blades of grass remain sharp while everything farther away becomes blurred. Creativity really took off here, especially after I added one more condition: everyone had to leave space in the image for a caption that would be added afterwards.

Part of the BANHALMI ecosystem

For the professional context and practical side of portrait photography, visit the BANHALMI professional website. Related art series, books and exhibitions are preserved in the BANHALMI ART archive.