Karen Jerchik and her surreal color stories

Photographer and designer Karen Jerzyk is well known to all lovers of the dark and otherworldly. The master turns abandoned buildings into blood-curdling Gothic illustrations, the plots of which border on madness. But recently Karen has opened a new facet of her talent to her fans by presenting a series of Colors works, which, although very unusual, no longer frighten the viewer.

The concept of the new Jerchik project is rooms, each of which has a certain color. It is possible to consider these works for a very long time, but even the most careful analysis will not reveal the secret of the author's intention, without her explanations. It was in order to find out the history of the appearance of the Colors photo series that Phil Mistry, a blogger and teacher at the Digital Days Workshops school founded by SONY, met with Karen Jerchik.

Self - portrait

Karen was pleased to tell Phil about what formed the basis of the idea of these unusual works. As it turned out, it all started in 2016, when the photographer's mother decided to throw away the old TV. Karen did not want to part with the vintage thing and painted the device blue, using a spray can of paint. It turned out lively and unusual.

Blue

But the creative nature of Jerchik did not let her stop at the decor of the TV receiver and the girl painted her entire room blue. It took a lot of time and a lot of aerosol cans, but the photographer liked the idea. She decided to create something strange, unusual and incredibly attractive using this simple, but very time-consuming technique.

Violet

The development of the concept began in April, and was completed only by the end of August. The author had to make hundreds of sketches, thousands of test shots and move tons of props. Working in the basement in the summer heat was not easy. It was complicated by the fact that Karen chose a small room in which it was necessary to create a whole fantastic story.

Brown

The result of the work were 11 beautiful works dedicated to different colors. Creating the composition, Jerchik tried to get away from stereotypes that tie red to anger and green to envy — everything is different in her pictures. No boilerplate solutions and dull classical angles — only fresh finds and professional play of light and shadow.

White

Karen told Phil that the Green job had caused her the most problems. To create this frame, the photographer had to spend 15 long hours, during which Jerchik did not leave the basement. But the efforts were rewarded and now it is this frame, together with the "Pink", that the master considers especially successful.

Black

A model with a wooden prosthesis and vegetation, striving to capture the space of the room, cause some anxiety to the viewer. The room is perceived as a hospital ward with a resident who is tired of the realities of life and let everything take its course.

Green

The work of "Pink" was also not easy. In the frame it was necessary to combine unusual characters and a little girl. Jerchik decided to shoot the child separately, so as not to frighten the strange environment of the room and models in exotic costumes, and then insert the girl into the frame using Photoshop. Everything went perfectly and "Pink" took pride of place in the gallery of the master's favorite works.

Pink

The most difficult in terms of scenery was "Orange" for the photographer. The two-meter wig caused the most trouble, which could not be effectively placed in space, and then fixed so that it did not shift during filming. This frame consists of 15 shots and both characters are the same guy, shot in different images.

Orange

Yes, Karen admitted to Phil Mistry that almost all of her models were found on Facebook and are not professionals. There are always enough people willing to participate in the filming, so there is no need to spend money on the services of highly paid extras from Jerchik.

Red

The girl said that many bring children to her home studio, who really like the creative atmosphere that reigns supreme from the basement to the attic. Kids are happy to try on unusual costumes, take pictures and then look at the pictures. Karen and her family are helping. For example, the main character of the photograph "Red" was her mother and two domestic cats.

Gray

When asked how Photoshop helps her in her work, the photographer laughs it off. But in the end, she manages to find out that she never managed to thoroughly master a complex graphic editor. In this regard, most of the incredible effects in the pictures of Jerchik have to be made using real objects and materials. In the program, the author of the works performs only the installation of individual parts of the image and some post-processing.

Yellow

Finally, Phil asked Karen about how she wanted to evoke feelings in the audience of her works. The photographer answered this simply — her main goal is to get people to look at her pictures for more than five seconds and then store them in memory. She also really likes it when people try to find something personal in her works or explain what is happening on them from their point of view.