Burim Myftiu (b.1961, Prizren) is an Albanian-American photographer, curator and visual artist. He is a member of New Haven’s Arts Council in the State of Connecticut.
Also founder of KIPA – Kosova Images Photo Agency, and has served as a Regional Liaison representative for FIAP – “Federation International de l’Art Photographique”.
In 2003 he co-founded the PACK – Photo Arts Collective of Kosova, and co- founder and director of DOKUFEST – International Documentary and Short Film Festival, Prizren.
In 2011 he was appointed by the European Commission the Ambassador of Culture of Kosova. He is a member of juries at film festivals, photography exhibitions, festivals and other international events.
Burim Myftiu’s work is presented in books, publications, galleries, national and private collections and international exhibitions in Albania, Kosova, the United States and Europe. His work is represented by the PABA Gallery in New York and New Haven (Connecticut).
Some of his exhibitions are: “Kosova Mon Amour”, International Art Gallery, Yale, New Haven, Connecticut, USA 2000; “Broken Dreams” Museum Künstlerhaus, Bregenz, Austria; “Utopia in Kaos”, Kosova National Gallery, 2010; “Trance” Lea Gallery, University of Findlay, Findlay, Ohio, 2018 Burim Myftiu lives and works in the US and Kosova. We are publishing his cycle “Symbiosis, dedicated to the Kossovar artist Ismet Jonuzi.
By Burim Myftiu
The human history began with the communication through the images in caves. Then the languages were born. With the dynamics of technological development, I believe that
communication will be restored to the images again because photography is the fastest way of communication. Part of a second is needed to create it, and that much time to read it. Within a photograph is a whole world. Looking at the image awakens the curiosity in
the human brain, creating obedience and an emotion. Everyone sees differently looking at the same image. Within photography, it is not present only the appearance or the actual
event, but the creator itself is there. What a photographer express through the photograph also depends on the viewer, or the “reader”of a photograph. It depends on the intellectual level and its knowledge.
Photography is similar to poetry. It is created at the moment of inspiration and the same moment does not repeat. There is nothing “probably” in the
photography. Only the images created in these moments of inspiration are true and they live. Otherwise they have no value and are quickly forgotten. Let’s just mention “Picasso painting the minotaur in the air”, an iconic photograph of Gjon Mili, which is unique and can not be repeated anymore. The photograph, as I conceive is an immediate drawing with
light made with intuition that can not be corrected or repeated. If you need to correct it, it is not the same image photography anymore, but is other.
The difference between a good and a mediocre photograph is matter of milliseconds and millimeters. So the difference is very small, but it is essential. Photography is like math, or let’s say it’s like an equation that has only one solution, and it’s intuitive. If you ask me, what is the best picture I have ever made, I would probably answer you: the best picture is between the two shots, the one that does not exist. I’m following the instinct and waiting for the moment to take that next photograp, hoping to catch that moment in between the two shots.
Photography is my passion. That’s how I communicate. It’s like a universal global language for me. My obsession is to photograph beyond what is visible. When my subject is a dervish I photograph the trans, the state of his mind and a soul. When the subject is a mannequin I photograph a reincarnated soul in it. When I have an artist, I photograph a symbiosis of him with with his art. That’s what I do, a psychoanalysis, an alchemy. My photographic projects lasts long, for many ears. I photograph the same story, the same people, the same places … and then I go and photograph it again, and again … it’s never same, it’s like a psycho therapy lab for me. Nature gives us so much that we can not accept everyything from it. Therefore we must choose. We need to know how to select. What is important is dedication. When I photograph I’m completely focused on the subject, in that moment I am in another dimension. It happens that imagination is so powerful that I forget myself, and these are the moments when the image becomes stronger more powerfull. I think all the time before taking a picture, but during the shooting I don’t remember much. It seems that the real images are made by not thinking, when the mind is in a state of zen. Sometimes special images are created even without knowing what
I’m doing, Incidentally.
