Email: nawfal@nawfalnur.com
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“Behind the Lens” Photo-Journals
Nawfal Nur
Artist’s Bio:
“Taking ordinary subjects and creating unusual images from them is my ideal photography exercise, or ‘photography-maze,’” says Nawfal Nur.
Nawfal’s background is not in photography or art, but he says he’s been a student of photography for the last 30-years. He started his photography journey in his grandmother’s flower gardens, taking macro photographs of anything in that magical place, using his first SLR camera, a PENTAX K1000.
Nawfal graduated from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, in 1990, with a Master of Community & Regional Planning. He spent some time working in City Planning and Computer Software while living in Lincoln.
In 1994, Nawfal and his family moved to Malaysia. “Most people think that moving across town is a chore; well, try moving you and your ’stuff’ halfway around the world, that move for us was a gargantuan task!”
Abstract Expressionism is a painting style that Nawfal loves, and he tries to incorporate the feeling of this style when he does any Abstract Photography. Nawfal’s favorite Abstract Expressionist painter is Jackson Pollock, and in a way, Nawfal’s “Alien Water” photographic series is an extension of Pollock’s paint splatters.
Getting in close is something that Nawfal tends to gravitate toward. “I must fill the scene with the subject when working on macro photography – the closer the better!”
Nawfal has been inspired by many photographers, but New York Commercial Photographer, Carl Fischer, is the one that comes to his mind first. “I had no idea at the time, that many of the magazine photographs from ESQUIRE and LOOK magazines I marveled at in my youth were Carl Fischer’s,” said Nawfal.
“I fostered a respect for his professionalism and creativity as a photographer and his work was quite inspiring for me. I can probably attribute my fascination with Special Effects Photography to Fischer.”
Nawfal says that two photos by Fischer are especially memorable for him: Andy Warhol drowning in the can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup (1969); and, another important Fischer image is of world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in 1967, as the martyred St Sebastian. In the 60’s, these photos took 3-days to complete, and all done by hand – no computer manipulation: Totally amazing.
In 1998, Nawfal started shooting freelance: His first assignment was writing and photographing a story for Standard Chartered Bank’s gold card magazine, rightly called, GOLD. For this assignment, Nawfal had to become familiar with and compile an understanding of the ancient Indian classical dance, Bharatanatyam.
Over the years, Nawfal has worked on many photo-essays, focusing on Malaysian cultural subjects such as Malay weapons, antiques, jewelry and ethnic dance. Nawfal has published feature stories in GOLD, BLADE, Dance Teacher Now and Dance Spirit magazines. Nawfal has also shot numerous dance and stage productions for local dance companies.
Lately, Nawfal has been working on Still Life and Fine Art Photography and currently sell prints through Imagekind, ( http://nawfalnur.imagekind.com/), here you can see and purchase his Art Photography.
In 2007, Nawfal was a participant in the, “This Planet” Photography Project, where photographers from around the world took photographs in their region, all at the same time. For Nawfal in Penang, he took his photograph at 10:07 pm. You can see the preliminary website for this project, here.
In 2008, Rock & Roll Band, MILLION DOLLAR RELOAD (aka., Million$Reload, and M$R) contacted Nawfal regarding artwork for the cover of their new album. In Oct 2008, M$R cut their new album/CD, “Anthems of a Degeneration”, for worldwide distribution. You can see the album cover and hear some of their songs at their website:
http://www.milliondollarreload.com/
In April 2009, Nawfal photographed at a charity concert, capturing performance images of Malaysian artists, Mawi, Stacy, Ahli Fiqir and Mila. Some of these images can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nawfal_nur/sets/72157617335609102/
All in all, Nawfal, when he picks up a camera, any camera, his main goal is to create better photographs than the last time he picked up the camera, and that’s not such a bad goal to have.
Thank you for your visit!
Updated on 9 Aug 2009.
