(Bradenton, Fla., March 12, 2020) — State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF) photography instructor Peter Gedeon was recently recognized with an honorable mention award for a 10-image series titled “Planet Ag” from the London International Creative Competition.
The competition judged work in 11 different categories including painting, video and film, application design, architecture and fashion.
“Planet Ag” features nudes covered in silver paint against minimalist backgrounds. In his entry, he writes, “I am exploring the delicate balance between avoiding the objectification of the unclad bodies and the celebration of the divine beauty of the human figure.”
The title comes from the periodic table — Ag is the symbol for silver. “My models often pose in unusual postures or with unusual objects,” he explained. “Planet Ag” asks the question: “What if we finally encounter one another, a different civilization originated from outside of planet Earth? How receptive, tolerant, resilient we are; how do we react when we come face to face with strangely different customs, cultures?”
The stark texture of silver paint on skin is something Gedeon has experimented with for several years, but the concept goes back farther than that. “It goes back to when I was 5,” he said. Using an old pencil sharpener, “my hands would get messy. I would get amazed at the transformative power of how the graphite changed the appearance of the skin.”
Gedeon is an accomplished artist with group exhibitions in 56 countries, 220 major awards and 35 solo exhibitions in six countries. Gedeon says he enters competitions for the critiques he gets from judges. “It’s a great source of information and it’s very useful feedback.” It’s a concept he tries to impart to his students at SCF. “One of the most important aspects I try to emphasize — you cannot properly judge your own work. There’s so much involved in the making of it, it will be clouding your critical eye. You need someone who can pull your head out of the work and ask ‘Step back and look now, can you see this?’”
And that, he said, is the key. “To tell a student why a good picture is good is kind of explaining one kind of recipe. But if you can drive them to the cookbook, they can make their own beautiful dishes in multiple ways and in a creative way.”
To learn more about the Art, Design and Humanities department at SCF, visit SCF.edu/Arts.
Photo Caption: State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF) photography instructor Peter Gedeon.
