dancephotography - Nino G. Photography

Euclidean Air: Merging Geometry and Aerial Artistry

Posted January 8, 2025January 8, 2025 ninogphotographyLeave a commentPosted in Collaborations, Euclidean Air Project, Women Artists

Euclidean Air has been one of the most exciting and intellectually stimulating projects I’ve worked on. This conceptual collaboration with an aerial artist explores the relationship between geometric form and aerial dance, drawing inspiration from Oliver Byrne’s 1847 Pickering edition of The Elements of Euclid.

How It All Began

I’ll never forget the day Elizabeth walked into my studio at Western Ave, holding this massive book. Her eyes lit up as she shared her vision for bringing Byrne’s work to life. I was immediately intrigued. We had an amazing conversation about how we could blend the human element with the geometric beauty of Byrne’s designs, sparking the idea that would become Euclidean Air.

About Oliver Byrne

Oliver Byrne (1810–1880) was an innovative 19th-century mathematician and engineer, best known for his colorful and visual approach to teaching geometry. His most notable work, The First Six Books of The Elements of Euclid (1847), presented Euclidean geometry in a revolutionary way, using vivid primary colors to represent shapes and lines. This visual approach made complex mathematical ideas more accessible and bridged the gap between art and mathematics. Byrne’s use of color and design in education was ahead of its time, and his work remains a unique contribution to both fields. Byrne’s method, though initially dismissed as an educational tool, gained recognition for its aesthetic beauty and later influenced movements like Bauhaus, Kandinsky, and Mondrian. His striking use of red, blue, and yellow to illustrate geometric concepts felt like the perfect complement to the elegance of aerial dance, highlighting the hidden connections between mathematics and human form.

Bringing our Vision to Life

Elizabeth had already composed brilliant costume. She wore a blue leotard with red high stockings on one leg and a blue fabric strip on the other. She wrapped the aerial hoop in yellow and red tape, mirroring the bold primary colors in Byrne’s book. This attention to color and form was key to making the concept come to life.

I knew I wanted to capture the clean, even lighting Byrne used to present his geometric forms. We spent hours refining the shots, ensuring the lighting and Elizabeth’s movements aligned with the mathematical precision we wanted to evoke. The resulting images were captivating—her graceful aerial movements framed by the bold shapes and colors brought Byrne’s vision to life in a completely new way.

The project turned out even better than I had imagined. We seamlessly merged the elegance of aerial dance with the mathematical precision of Euclidean geometry. The human form, suspended mid-air in perfect harmony with geometric shapes, revealed the beauty and complexity of both disciplines. I felt we had uncovered something truly unique—a new way of seeing both art and mathematics.

Sharing Our Vision

After the photoshoot, we were eager to share our work. We were thrilled to have Euclidean Air displayed at Gallery Z in downtown Lowell, where it received overwhelmingly positive feedback. The striking imagery and underlying concept sparked conversations about the connection between art, geometry, and movement.

This is just the beginning. Elizabeth and I are already planning to expand the project, with a special focus on bringing Euclidean Air to schools. We believe this concept can help people, especially students, see math differently—not just as numbers and formulas, but as a beautiful force that exists in everyday life. The journey with Euclidean Air has only just begun and I’m excited to see how it evolves. There’s so much more to explore in the connection between geometry and art, and I can’t wait to continue sharing this vision.

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Bringing Life To An Industrial Space

Posted September 2, 2020November 5, 2024 ninogphotographyLeave a commentPosted in Collaborations, Dance Photography, Women Artists

Whatever moves you, whatever makes your heart beat little faster, whatever inspires you, do it! Whether you were diverted on your journey through life, or simply lost track of time, it’s never too late to revisit your passions. My hope is that, after reading this post, you will be inspired to revisit your own passions, whatever they may be, without inhibition. Start creating. It’s never too late!

While I’ve been a professional photographer for 10 years now, dance photography had always been an elusive professional goal, never far from my mind. Then I discovered Rachel Neville’s amazing work and started watching the videos she posted showing how she worked with the dancers. She inspired me to add dance photography to my repertoire.

Ballet and dance have fascinated me since I was a child. Photographing dancers gives me the same feeling I had as a little girl, anticipating the start of a performance, sitting patiently in the audience waiting for the curtains to open, soaking in the ambience and the excitement of the room. The feeling is transcendental, a moment pure and full of passion. The whimsical, effortless movement the dancers display on stage does not come naturally, but through hard work, dedication, perseverance, and pain.

While I prefer to prepare for photoshoots by meeting with the model beforehand, letting them inspire me with ideas, on this day, I was going in blind. I didn’t know the dancers or what they were going to do! No outfits or makeup were planned. All I knew was that I was going to photograph them entranced in their craft. Once they started moving, the photoshoot became a dialog between the camera, the dancers, and the light.

The four dancers lit up the historic McKinney Cotton-Mill with their fluidity and emotion. The shadows formed by the setting sun followed us throughout the shoot, covering the space with a blanket of gold and amber, before leaving us at the behest of the moon. The light defined our shoot. The blue southern sky gave us a backdrop for silhouettes in a glassless window. The setting sun gave us long-drawn out shadows that seemed like they might break apart at any second. The darkness of night gave us a dense black and the freedom to create unfettered apparitions with the aid of rear-curtain sync lighting.