The Steam of Punk [An interview with the Romanian photographer Nicu Ilfoveanu]

by Adrian Ioniţă

: Several years ago, the Romanian art critic Ştefan Tiron wrote a review about a photography art exhibition announcing “Nicu Ilfoveanu is Steampunk”. Pleasegive us some details about the show and your opinion regarding this critical statement.

Nicu Ilfoveanu

: The show was named "Tourist you are the terrorist" and it was a kindof reaction to the stampede of glossy commercial imagery we were flooded with in thepast decades, especially those depicting places which were in reality dirty, evenunsanitary. My images were made with an old camera, a box-camera, through my owntechnique in which a positive film is “developed as a negative”, using untreated lenses forcolor, filters, scan and prints based on pigments, etc. By this means I was able to recordreality in a strange way - a combination of

autochrome,

a process invented by theLumière brothers in 1906 – and the appearance of a romantic picture. The locations Ichose were around the industrial belts of the city, places that look “cool” for somecontemporary artists, but which have a specific “warmth” for myself. I mention this fact because sites like these belong to the memory of my childhood; I was born and grew upin a typical Communist apartment, which is a concrete cubicle, in an area in whichdemolishing and construction was the norm, not only on an architectural, but at ahuman level as well.[The Grant Bridge ©Nicu Ilfoveanu]

Adrian Ioniţă

: Tell me more about the interaction between this human aspect and yourartistic orientation.

Nicu Ilfoveanu

: Before the show, it happened that I started gathering gramophonerecords. How? Well, I found at the flea market a box of brand new gramophone needles.It is known that one needle is used for a record and each face of it has only one play, soevery time you listen to music, these needles get worn - a good enough reason for vendors to sell them like match boxes. Concomitant to this purchase, I received a bunchof records as a gift from the library of a famous musician, obviously, too busy to listen tothem in a digital world. Their sound was extraordinary and transported me in amiraculous world, completely different from the world I was living in. Back to yourquestion, I did an analogy between photography, music and the gramophone as aninstrument, and in 2004 I opened a show with steampunk flavor, which was named“Brand New Gramophone Needles”.

Adrian Ioniţă

: Sounds like the name of a song!

Nicu Ilfoveanu

: The text with the instructions from “His Master’s Voice” records, from1920, was written in an archaic Romanian, and since I have one here, I think that it is worth reading it:

“His Master’s Voice”:1. Disuse is bad for the machine. 2. Don't wind the spring too tightly. Allow the instrument to run whilst winding, hencestop when the spring offers resistance. 3. Avoid the slightest injury to the Mica Diaphragm, on which the reproductiondepends.4. SPEED IS IMPORTANT as it vitally affects the reproduction, thus do not interferewith

the speed regulator, unless an adjustment is necessary. 5. Keep the leathers which operate on governor friction plate well oiled. This will promote smooth and uniform running.6. Never use a steel needle twice. Avoid cheap needles, they ruin one’s records.

The reading of these instructions served me as a guiding model in my artistic activity, being almost like an artistic statement.

Adrian Ioniţă

: What does Steampunk mean for Nicu Ilfoveanu?

Nicu Ilfoveanu

: The first time when I conscientiously started thinking about the word,I translated it as a “Steam of Punk”, or closer to my imagery, a “scent of punk”. It may bea coincidence, but I was born during the times when Punk surfaced, and largely, my childhood was impregnated by a fog, in fact a dust from demolitions, or an illusionproduced by it. I carried this “dust” with me in photography and film, so that on the onehand Steampunk, became more of a style in capturing images from reality with as simpleas possible means. On the other hand, it is an exercise with the memory of a locus. Thepast and the flow of time become transparent, not only by employing techniques, butalso by the sheer chance that these radiography-images from my mind be recorded on areal or imaginary film, a process which seems to be dependent metaphysically on aninternal state of expectation or on the crazy intensity and belief that I am the witness of amutation in time. To be more explicit, I will tell you the story of my first box-camera thatstarted the Steampunk Autochrome series. A friend of my mother’s found out that I wasa photographer and gave me a Box-Tengor. I was happy for the gift and I thought it was apretty, but useless, thing. I am not a collector, so I simply threw it on a shelf. But then,out of curiosity, I opened the box and, to my surprise, I found a film inside. I closed it inan instance, and in a dream-like state I went into the darkroom, prepared a strongsolution, took out the roll, that had a wooden spool, which meant that it was a film from before the 50’s and I developed it.

Adrian Ioniţă

: It happened to me several times, but please, I do not want to interrupt you, as the story is very exciting.

Nicu Ilfoveanu

: Two images appeared on the negative - I will talk about their contentsome other time -, but what baffled me at that moment, was the fact that the filmsurvived for so many years and, once having been developed, it looked as if it had beendone a day before. Thus it happened that I was taken by this feeling of making photos