Emotional Landscapes

SMYAH: I am Yavor, I make and teach music and also run this platform. Sound in Picture helped me connect with incredibly talented people and enriched my life immensely. What gives me the greatest satisfaction in life (besides creating, of course) is facilitating the artistic expression of other artists. We’ve had quite a few established names on here but the best feeling is when giving young and upcoming artists the necessary playground to express themselves and reach new heights so running Sound in Picture has been one of the most inspirational activities these past years.

EVDN. I am a jazz bassist and experimental electronic musician from Bulgaria. I picked my first bass guitar at the age of 16 and that’s when the concept of EVDN. was actually born. I am driven by my dream to compose music for movies and my inspiration comes from a set of artists ranging from Bonobo, Tycho, and Damon Albarn to Robert Glasper.

Veronika: My name is Veronika spelled with a k. That is because I was born and grew up in the Czech Republic. I am a London based photographer working with wedding, corporate and creative industry clients, but I also develop personal projects, predominantly documenting life as it unfolds around me. I am simply very grateful to be here – to be a mother, a lover, a creator and an explorer of everything wonderful that life throws at us. The natural world is my greatest therapy and a place of inspiration. I also love to learn about the emotionality of the human connection, what being alive means to people and where they go in their imagination. So, if I am not taking pictures or spending time with my family and friends, I am lost in a forest or in a gallery. Music and photography is how I connect to my inner emotional landscape.

Veronika: The track brings me to a forest river, naked treetops, open sky and open mind. It’s a wonderful smooth journey to a place of peace and meditation, but also invites me to enter another dimension of playfulness and freedom. I find the track relaxing and easy to listen to on a loop.

What’s the story behind the visuals?

Veronika: It was an experiment with colour, haziness, and movement. I was spending time up in the Czech mountains, which at the time were covered with a gorgeous thick blanket of snow and fog. The almost surreal beauty of the landscape was deeply moving. I felt both calm and connected to my surroundings in a soulful way, yet excited about all the different possibilities of playful expression in a way that was planned and involved different strategies and stages of development. I love fog for the mystery that it gives to any landscape. Here, every single thing, including the air, was white and milky. The nature was still and silent, offering a perfect blank canvas ready for an artist to play – What if the landscape was full of colour….’Flip The Narrative’. 

Veronika: I have recently been drawn to the mystery of dreamy, abstract images. It’s not only about the aesthetics, but about how they come to life. I want to know who is behind them and what they were experiencing during the process of making them. I am interested in the inner imaginary world where these images are born. This project was an opportunity to tap into the unfamiliar and employ a new approach to making pictures to what I am used to. Exploring new techniques was exciting.

The primary focus was to relax into the process and have fun with it. To convey what it is that I feel when I am close to the natural world was the main direction. The different colours, tones, light and blur is precisely that. Being in nature is just like listening to music. It connects us to the source, to our authentic self as we dance to the unseen yet deeply felt.

Veronika: I started taking photographs to document life at first, but recently I have found myself in a place of artistic exploration and self expression. Even though this new phase is intriguing as I keep discovering new layers of my being, I don’t think I can or want to be on an internal journey for too long. Yes, it’s very important for anyone hoping to communicate something to know themselves well, but that knowledge is born out of external experiences. I love life, not just within me, but also around me. It is as simple as that. One thing I am proud of for the world to know is that I am possibly the most sensitive person I have come across and that this sensitivity has become my strength.