Since Synchrodogs featured in our September 2012 issue, the Ukrainian photography duo have continued to gather momentum. Commissions for Tania Shcheglova and Roman Noven include Croatian eyewear design Sheriff & Cherry, a shoot for New York Magazine, and a portrait assignment for Dazed & Confused photographing their compatriots, the protest group Femen. Their recent project, Reverie sleep, sees Synchrodogs explore their dreams – the space between wake and sleep that is both familiar and remote. “The project deals with the stage of non-rapid eye movement sleep, during which some people may experience hypnagogic hallucinations caused by the natural process of falling asleep,” they explain.
“Experimenting with those lucid dreaming techniques, we usually wake ourselves up in the middle of the night to make a note of what we have just seen, gathering our dreams to be staged afterwards.”
This project has a distinctly surreal feel, but the duo’s work always builds on the uncanny and the strange, often including naked or semi-clothed figures hiding their faces and holding contorted poses. Their models are often shown against or within the landscape; indeed, nature and human nature is a theme that consistently permeates their work. “Our personal projects are usually nature-related,” they say. “For us, art is an attempt to keep in mind all basic instincts that come about, reaching for the raw sense of self and intimate relation to the surrounding environment and nature.
“The more we work on our personal projects, the more we understand ourselves, as the process requires deep emotional analysis,” they add. “We love being inspired by landscapes, by the world itself. It makes us want to share the aesthetics we find in the natural environment. We believe it can inspire others as well – not to shoot the same pictures, but just to live.”
Find more of the duo’s work here.
First published in the January 2014 issue. You can buy the issue here.