Svjetlana Tepavcevic

USA
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The Sea Inside
Portfolio Introduction

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 181

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 4523

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 2535

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 4118

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 4459

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 9669

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 2988

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 3005

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 2948

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 4274

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 2887

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 3982

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 9676

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 3078

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 1351

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 3390

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 8205

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 8139

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 9824

Svjetlana Tepavcevic: The Sea Inside no. 875 & 887 (diptych)

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Svjetlana Tepavcevic Bio

Chronology
	Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia–Herzegovina, Svjetlana Tepavcevic lived through the early 1990s war in her country. She has resided in the United States for the past 20 years. She holds a B.A. from University of California at Los Angeles and an M.A. from University of Pennsylvania. Contemplative, interpretive, and uniquely expressed, Tepavcevic's work explores her surroundings through detailed and long-term observation, centering on how she relates to and experiences her subjects. A three-time finalist for Photolucida's Critical Mass Award, her work was exhibited at photo-eye Gallery in Santa Fe, NM and the Griffin Museum for Photography in Winchester, MA. Communication Arts Photography Annual, The New Yorker, New Scientist, Wired and PDN have all featured her photographs. Her prints are in the collections of corporate institutions, private collectors and museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the High Museum of Arts in Atlanta and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Awards
2014	Photolucida – Critical Mass Finalist

2014	Palm Springs Photography Festival, Slideshow Contest Finalist

2013	Grant from Atlanta Photography Group for acquisition of prints for the permanent collection of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta

2013	Communication Arts Photography Annual, winner in editorial

2012	Photolucida – Critical Mass Finalist

2011	PX3 Prix De La Photographie Paris, Honorable Mention

2011	Black and White Spider Awards, 2 nominations

2011	Palm Springs Photo Festival Slideshow Contest, Finalist

2010	Photolucida – Critical Mass Finalist

2010	Black and White Spider Awards, Nomination

2010	International Photography Awards, 3rd place

2009	Julia Dean Photo Gallery, Alternative Photography Contest, Julia Dean Photo Gallery

2009	International Photography Awards, Honorable Mention

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Solo Exhibitions
2013	Means of Reproduction, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2011	The Sea Inside (Portraits of Waves), Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA

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Group Exhibitions
2021	Underexposed: Women Photographers from the Collection, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

2014	34th Art Auction & Exhibition, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA

2014	Currents 2014, Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA

2013	Photo Auction 2013, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA

2012	Portfolio Show, Curated by Paul Martineau, Atlanta Photography Group Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2012	Water's Edge, Wallspace Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

2011	Smashbox Group Show, Month of Photography Los Angeles, Smashbox, Culver City, CA

2011	Pro’ject LA: Pacific Resonance, Month of Photography Los Angeles (MOPLA), Space 1520, Hollywood, CA

2010	Portfolio Show, Juried by Anthony Bannon, Atlanta Photography Group, Atlanta, GA

2010	Summer Mix: Images by Members of LACMA’s Photographic Arts Council, CPW Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2010	It’s Your Show: Design Communication Arts /Visual Arts, UCLA Extension, Los Angeles, CA

2010	Elements of Water, Juried by John Paul Caponigro, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO

2009	XI Krappy Kamera Competition, Juried by Brian Paul Clamp, Soho Photo Gallery, Venice, New York, NY

2009	It’s Your Show: Design Communication Arts /Visual Arts, UCLA Extension, Los Angeles, CA

2009	Alternative Photography Contest, Juried by Aline Smithson and Ken Merfeld, Julia Dean Photo Gallery, Venice, CA

2008	29th Annual Photography Show, SMC Photography Gallery & La Foto Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

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Collections

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The High Museum of Art Atlanta, Atlanta

The Harry Ransom Center, the University of Texas, Austin

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Bibliography

Means of Reproduction – Exhibition Catalogue 2013. Svjetlana Tepavcevic. Self-published, 2013 (photo-eye Cat# ZF472S)

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Education
2002	University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School for Communication, M.A.

1999	University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), B.A.

Svjetlana Tepavcevic Statement

Artist Statement

Means of Reproduction Statement

For five years I have been collecting seeds and seed pods from various plants I encounter in my surroundings. They fascinate me in part because they are infinitely varied and ubiquitous yet unfamiliar and even strange. They inspire me to ponder the complexity of life, the nature of time, and how we humans relate to the natural world today, when nature has become more exotic than modern technology.

I read that all plant life on earth evolved from a single species that transitioned from sea to land. Infinity from singularity. Scientists say this is how the universe began. When I look at a tree with hundreds or thousands of seeds, I see that tree as a universe unto itself. Shaped over millions of years of evolution, each seed on that tree stands for the kind of time we humans cannot perceive. Each successful seed determines the character and destiny of the next tree.

This project builds on Karl Blossfeldt's book Art Forms in Nature, published in 1928. Like Blossfeldt, I am concerned with design and form. I am also concerned with color and with the concept that Georgia O'Keeffe, in her 1938 painting, called poetically “the faraway nearby” -- the macro embodied within the micro. In my large-scale prints, I isolate the one from the many and enlarge each subject many times without regard for its actual size relative to others. Haloed, they float in a minimalist color field, an illusion of a seemingly empty space. Inspired by Irving Penn's “Small Trades” and Richard Avedon's large portraits, I aim to bring the concept of portraiture to the still-life genre.

I believe that to understand the world, sometimes we need to focus on the small detail, look hard at what is close to us, and glean a picture of the whole from these small insights. I hope that this personal collection of images will illuminate some aspect of life's amazing transformative power.

The Sea Inside Statement

The Sea Inside (Portraits of Waves) is a series of abstract black-and-white images exploring the energy, complexity and individuality of ocean waves. More than simply being photographic representations, the images in The Sea Inside are unique and subjective interpretations, imbued with my emotional connection to the sea.

The sea has always had a magnetic effect on me. Growing up in Bosnia, I spent summers at the Adriatic Sea. The rest of the year I longed to be near it, often remembering my long, solitary evening swims when, far from the shore, only the glow of the day's last light and the deep darkness of the sea seemed to exist. I found unspeakable beauty and peace in my deep seawater solitude.

In the summer of 2008, a world away from the Adriatic Sea, I began to photograph waves. The desire was instinctive and almost inexplicable. Now my eyes beheld the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, vast and mighty waters quite different from the calm cove of the Adriatic I once knew and still know in my memories. Ocean waves are untamable, but I photographed them as if I could somehow tame them, as if I could calm them and find peace inside them.

Fraught with dualities and complexities, waves are a metaphor for life. Mysterious and violent, at once they symbolize birth and destruction; force and fragility; chaos and peace. The same force that gives them life takes it away, often in the course of a human breath. Waves come and go, too fast for the eye to focus on their fleeting gestures, so our minds find comfort in their predictability and similarity. And yet, no two waves are ever alike -- they embody the idea of the infinite.

When I look at waves, I see invisible winds carving and crushing nameless sculptures never to be seen again. I also see reflections of myself as if I disappeared among waves. “It is a place of faith,” Ondaatje wrote of the desert. The same could be said of the sea. For me it is a place of consolation, a place where my faith in life is renewed.

Process Statement

With their deep, rich blacks and subtle tonal variations, the prints in the The Sea Inside (Portraits of Waves) portfolio resemble hand-made drawings. People often ask how I get the effects in my prints. All effects in my work come from the choices I make about how to use the tools with which I work. Those choices are guided by the vision for the project. I always endeavor to be in full control of my tools. What I cannot control -- and wouldn’t wish to control -- is the subject. Waves are unpredictable. They always surprise me.

The images are photographs. Everything that’s in an image is recorded by the camera in a single exposure. From the beginning of the project, I have followed my intuition. I knew I wanted to capture the motion and energy of the water in a particular way. Relying on longer exposures, I record with the camera what the eye cannot see.

While I work with modern digital tools, at heart I am a traditional artist. I am deeply committed to the craft and art of making the print and to the printed picture as an object. My aesthetic comes from my knowledge of the zone system of exposure on black-and-white film and the traditional darkroom printing. The adjustments I make in these prints are akin to adjustments one would make in traditional printing, only digital tools allow for more control and precision. With inkjet printers, I make the prints that are ink on matte paper, the kind of paper artists would use for etchings or drawings. These materials are essential for the expression of my wave portraits.

I often feel the printmaking process is like sculpting. The image you start with, as the camera recorded it, is like a block of marble -- the art of printing is to excavate and chisel out the final form and expression of the image. Sometimes you impose your will on the marble and break its resistance, other times it guides your hand. Being in firm control of one's tools is necessary. Another key factor is time. Silent time spent looking, looking hard, looking over and over again. Time spent listening, listening carefully to what your subject is telling you, listening to what your mind is telling you.

Svjetlana Tepavcevic Books
Available from photo-eye

Featured in:

Means of Reproduction – Exhibition Catalogue 2013. Svjetlana Tepavcevic. Self-published, 2013 (photo-eye Cat# ZF472)