I imagine myself sitting on a water’s edge, in a virgin jungle - a
sacred and safe harbour, where beautiful, otherworldly creatures
come to play and express who they are.
Uninhibited by social norms and boundaries, they revel in their
beauty and sensuality, and allow me to sculpt them without
hammer or chisel. Shadows are my tools, with which I am able to
shape and perfect these “photographic sculptures”…
The dynamic and complex exchange with my subjects is like love
making: there is tension and testing in how much we reveal about
ourselves. At times I feel as if I am intruding on a moment of
private ecstasy, but say to myself that by participating in this
creation and exchange of energy, I reveal just as much about
myself as they do.
Aleksandar Antonijevic (b. 1969) is a Canadian fine art photographer.
He was born in Pozarevac, former Yugoslavia. He was trained in classical ballet at the National Ballet School in Novi Sad and joined The National Ballet of Canada in 1991. An accomplished international guest artist, Antonijevic has performed with the English National Ballet, Inoue Ballet Japan, Ballet Santiago of Chile and PACT Ballet South Africa.
The artist extended his love of dancing from the stage to the camera, implementing the same principles of form and space into his passion behind the lens. He deals primarily with the form of the human body.
The artist was influenced by the work of Rodin and his ability to model the complexity and the elegance of the human figure; and the highly stylized photography of Robert Mapplethorpe.
Describing Antonijevic's body of work, Peter Clothier, art critic for Art News, wrote: "His images reveal to us, at first sight, the breathtaking beauty of the human form in its perfection; and the dramatic beauty of its ability to reach the absolute limits of its potential. He invites us into the most intimate places of the human anatomy and makes them a matter of pure line and contour. As viewers, we are enchanted by the chiaroscuro, the play of light and dark, the mysterious, quasi-minimalist abstract forms created by those draped figures, tensed against the drapery that enfolds them."
Aleksandar Antonijevic has exhibited at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, April 2012 and The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, June 2012. His solo photography exhibit, inFORMants, part of the 2013 Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, received national and international critical acclaim.
His exhibit “smallRETROSPECTIVE” opened in Progress Gallery in Belgrade, Serbia on March 20th 2015.
The artist lives and works in Toronto.
Awards Silver Award Chromatic Colour Awards 2017 fine art nudes
Silver Award Chromatic Colour Awards 2017 fashion
Honourable mention Prix de la Photographie Paris nudes
