The freedom of an irreverent mind has always fascinated American society; from our “devil may care” Hollywood anti-heroes to our darker obsession with more villainous types. TVs flood with crime shows, serial killer documentaries and unsolved mysteries behind which we just know is some wicked figure with absolute disregard for the understood laws of morality and justice. These things are just beyond our reach of understanding. After all, to know madness, one needs to venture into that darkness themselves. If we want to see what they see, understand the evil they perpetrate, we need to step to the shadows and forget the light that blinds us.
"ThIrTeeN KillErs" delves into the worlds of thirteen of the most heinous American Serial Killers. I can say after interviewing the photographer, he seems quite sane, but then...so did Ted Bundy, yes? I jest. Photographer Robert Smith's brilliance emanates from these images in that you need only the vaguest notion of these men to know immediately who he portrays. He humanizes each figure by removing the active violence from his scenes. There are no weapons, only the inference of victims. He explains:
“I wanted to create a hole in the past, a hole to see them without being seen, a hole to think about the facts, a hole to understand. No blood, no murders. Only the sensation of being witness, the alive one, not of his murders; but witness of their intimacy, of their secrets and understand the real meaning of their madness.”
VITALSHis Name: Robert Smith
His age: 26
Where he works and plays: Madrid, Spain
What kind of art he does: Photography
Education: I studied five years of fine arts in the university and three more of artistic photography
Upcoming Exhibitions: I would begin in September
with a first exhibition of this series and after this who knows.
Online Galleries: deadastronaute on deviantart
Contact: Robertsmith.fotografo@gmail.com
THE INTERVIEW
(Minor edits for length)
On his passion for "Dark Art" Photography
That is always hard to explain. There is some kind of communicative power in this aesthetics that makes me feel comfortable because it fits with the topics I use to talk about. I don´t like clichés and I´m always searching for the correct way to explain my ideas, it doesn´t matter if it´s in a dark way or not.On the inception of "ThIrTeeN KillErs"
Everything began with a first Project call "At the end of the day". I was looking some images that could talk about the dark side of everybody, the moments of loneliness full of dirtiness in the security of our own houses; I wanted to show the madness that we used to let free in the intimacy of our houses. When I finished this work I felt that the concept wasn´t complete. I decide to look for the biggest expresión [sic] of that double side, of the dark side of the intimacy and i found the
perfect topic: the psychopathic killers. I would show the real terror of that topic, the exactly moment of the explosion of madness in each one of them, their intimacy through a little hole in the time and the imagination. I wanted to make the people witness of that secret moment, of that singular place.
On Researching the seriesI spent months studying each particular profile. I made a first research to find my thirteen "Stars", and I decided that the series would talk only about American killers. This country has the best collection and the most special cases in the world. For almost six months I was living for them. It was everything I read or I watched, and I really found horrible documents that sometimes I forced myself to see. In a point of this researching I realized that I should stop for a while. I was losing a part of the humanity related with the project. I began to consume explicit texts, images and videos without feeling that all that stuff was real; I was losing contact with the reality of the cases. When I finished all the research and studies I had a very clear image of each one of them. I really understood the Nietzsche quote: "If you look in the abysm, the abysm will look back to you."
On Digital Manipulation
I´m not opposed to the manipulación [sic] of the images, but I prefer just to control the images from the beginning. Every image is made in one shot, and the digital edition is only related to the adjust of the levels and the colors. That made every session an imagination game. The fact that everybody thinks that this work is some kind of manipulation makes the project more valuable.
On His Usual Preparation Work
From the beginning I decided to create a rules that would guide the way of working. It would be necessary to understand what I was looking for and prohibit myself the use of any element that wasn´t related with the original idea. The psychological aspect of the series would have to be the first, and this meant that the use of the typical images of this topic(weapons, victims, blood…) was prohibited. I made thousands of sketches of each image searching the best compositions, introducing a lot of visual metaphors and creating very slowly the final step between my head and the photography. The real triumph of this series is that each photography is a exactly representation of what I had in my head.
On Showing “ThIrTeeN KillErs” elsewhereThe project began just like a personal project. I n the beginning I never thought to make something big with this series, but one year after the ending the series is beginning to walk by itself. It had been recently chosen [as] the best photography project of the Madrid´s art schools. It will be [exhibited] in September and there are a few magazines interested in featuring this work. All of this came to me like a present because I never had enough determination to send this project to any contest or gallery and I never did. Now maybe is the time of the killers and something is trying to tell me that the time for showing the people the horror is here.
On Selling Prints
I never thought of this project as a way of earning money. I´m open to any request about the project. Don´t be afraid to contact me asking for what you need of my thirteen friends. Robertsmith.fotografo@gmail.com
THE FINAL FIVE
What turns you on creatively? Some kind of horrible disease.
Who is your favorite artist? Marilyn Manson
What color best describes you? Red(mixed with black)
What music best defines you? The good one.
What is your favorite curse word? Joder
**NOTE: Robert Smith was not an artist that we uncovered. No, our friend Katerina first featured this series in an article she wrote for DeviantArt's Horror Week. We thank her immensely for shining a light on this gem.
written by Carissa Starr
