Photoreographia Collection by András Dobi

"This art project, titled Photoreographia, is the realization of a photographic concept that is based on the act of resolving the contradiction: dance being a movement through time and photography being the imprint of a
moment.

To make this possible, I asked several professional choreographers around Germany to choreograph pieces of dance dedicated to this particular occasion. The two most significant differences between choreographing in the traditional stage-orientated method and the way that
Photorerographia is done are linearity in time and orientation in space.

Since the main aspect of this art project is to depict an entire choreography in one single image, the end result is a visual imprint of the choreographer’s decision of where and how the dancer was going to move. In this case, linearity in time as one of the most important factors in choreography loses its importance. When a viewer looks at the Photoreographia, it is clear that the usual starting and ending of choreography in terms of time are not significant anymore. This gives the images a singular nature. Viewers can decide their own way of experience and understanding of the images, and through them, the choreographic work as well."

Photoreographia is photographed from above. The camera is placed on the light supporting system pointing downwards. The choice of perspective has two main reasons: it creates an unusual viewer experience that allows one to see the whole dance choreography spread out on the stage, making it look like an abstract form that was formed by the dancer upon the choreographer’s artistic decisions.

The composition of the images is uniform. The black background supports the complex motion to be shown in one single image. When people look at Photoreographia images, some say they see them as an imprint of the choreographer’s artistic signature. What a coincidence? The word “choreography”, derived from the Greek language, literally means “dance-writing”.

Photoreographia’s unusual perspective also encourages choreographers to rethink the way they use spacing in their work. The traditional theatrical audience-performer physical relationship doesn’t exist in this art project.

The connection between dance and photography has been evident since photography reached the technical level of being able to capture the fracture of moments. It allows the viewer to witness dance movements in a way that was not possible before. For obvious reasons, photography has been cast in a purely documentation role in this play.