In today’s Instant Photographers interview we have the pleasure to introduce you to the Romanian Concert Photographer Miluță Flueraș, whose work has caught our eye while we have been browsing through Instagram.
Thank you so much for taking part in this interview, Miluță! We are very excited to have you as our guest artist!
Can you tell our readers in two phrases, who is Miluță Flueraș?
I am a photographer who has always been fascinated by contemplating the experiment in all its forms. I’m known especially for my concert photography, but I have affinities in various areas of photography. I attended the master courses of the Centre of Excellence in Image Study at the University of Bucharest, where I also cultivated my passion for video production. I’m always looking to reinvent myself while still maintaining an attraction to portraiture, melancholy, and cinematic atmosphere.
How did you start photographing concerts? Was it something you have always been interested in?
My attraction towards photography was present from a young age, I remember holding my father’s camera and asking all the details about the process and my fascination with it. I started shooting my first concerts in 2007 while trying to combine my love for music with my passion for photography. After shooting a few concerts I got addicted and never quit, starting to develop my skills and create my own style. For some years I was affiliated to various publications and, since 2015, I am doing only freelance work, directly collaborating with festivals, promoters, and bands. Thinking back, it is hard to conceive my life without music and photography
Do you remember your first concert you had to photograph? How did you feel?
My first official press photographer gig was an Arcana concert in April 2008. I remember being hyped about it, considering it was the start of an ever-lasting love for concert photography. Of course, the results weren’t so amazing, but those were the beginnings and they were magical.
How did you start working with Polaroid Cameras and Polaroid film? When you did you buy your first Polaroid camera?
My first Polaroid Camera was a OneStep2 bought in October 2017, soon after the release from F64 (the largest photo store in Romania). As I had a long experience with double exposures on digital, learning that this camera can easily do double exposures, convinced me on the spot to start experimenting with it. So, I came pretty late to the game, but I recovered by getting a vintage SX-70 Sonar in 2018.
From what I have seen on your Instagram page, you are playing with emulsion transfers between two polaroid photographs, how did you start doing emulsions? Where do you get your inspiration when you’re experimenting?
The idea came by reading Rhiannon Adams’s book Polaroid: The Missing Manual, so I’ve started doing emulsion transfers for a project that will be exhibited at Bucharest Photofest (my exhibition opens on October 3rd at Victoria Hub in Bucharest).
The project, called “7 minutes,” tries to have the portrait shake off the superficiality of two-dimensional representation, constrained on a single visual level, by juxtaposing a secondary level, consisting of the incomplete emulsion of a frame made 7 minutes before the first. This juxtaposition acquires a special trait due to the 45-year-old age gap between the two cameras used – Polaroid SX-70-Sonar vs Polaroid OneStep2.
Although both frames were somewhat staged, both by the contrast resulting from the juxtaposition of color/black and white, and of different moments in time, the viewer is challenged to recreate the missing fragments in his mind.
Where do you get your inspiration when it comes to photography, in general? Who do you admire from the photographic world?
My main inspiration comes from the groups of photography on the vk.com platform, I also follow lots of photographers on Instagram and discover new ones on Lensculture.
If you had the last pack of Polaroid film, how would you use it?
Probably I would use it to photograph my closest friends or for a special project, who knows, let’s hope we will not run out of Polaroid.