Moving Towards Vanishing: An Interview with Poet-Photographer Lucien Zell
New ways of seeing can open new ways of being. American-born, Prague-based artist Lucien Zell presents a curated selection of his photographic works at the Turuk Gallery in Bratislava, Slovakia, from February 18th to March 15th. Entitled Moving Towards Vanishing, the exhibition encapsulates Zell’s artistic vision through moments he has captured over the past 15 years across multiple countries.
In an official press release, Zell reflects on the subtle and intricate nature of photography, stating, “When we think about it, all good art forms soul fossils. And photography, with its magic vocabulary of shadow and light, is a powerful language that we all share, because we understand that life is fleeting: the world talks constantly—good photographs capture moments when the world starts singing.”
We spoke with Zell about the exhibition, his approach to photography, and his deep passion for the art form. He also shared his thoughts on the current state of the arts in this pivotal historical moment—one where artistic expression faces mounting challenges—and offered his perspective on the transformative power of creativity.
From Analog Roots to Digital Expression
Zell’s journey into photography began at age 14 in Seattle, where he learned the fundamentals using a Pentax K1000 film camera. He recalls it was “one of the simplest cameras; a film camera that can function without batteries,” and reflects that “entering through that doorway of primitive and basic functionality helped me learn about things like aperture and shutter speed, and the relationship between aperture and depth of field.”
Shortly after, he built his own small darkroom in a closet and became immersed in developing and printing images, deepening his understanding of light and its role in photography. “Photo means ‘light,’ and graphy means ‘writing.’ So, literally, what we’re doing with photography is lightwriting: we’re writing with light,” he explains.
Although he appreciates the mystique of analog photography, Zell was quick to embrace the potential of digital photography. The final analog camera he owned was stolen in Poland when he was 19. Reflecting on the experience, he shares: “The essential path of my life was forged by disappointment and betrayal, all these treacherous valleys that most artists have to travel through.”
After dedicating several years primarily to literature, poetry, and music, a friend’s gift of a digital camera in Venice reignited his passion for photography. “I quickly realised the advantages of digital photography,” he says, appreciating how it allows him to instantly check his images and make adjustments. This aligns with his preference for capturing the perfect shot in-camera, minimizing post-processing.
Despite working with digital cameras, many perceive a timeless quality in his images, reminiscent of analog photography, due to their graininess and blur. “I do think that my style, the statement that I make through my work, already has a time-transcending quality to it,” he says, noting that the elements he incorporates “make it look as if they’re coming from an archaic camera.”
Exploring Time, Surrealism, and Darshan
Bob Dylan once said that the purpose of all art is to stop time. While Zell agrees with this sentiment, he also seeks to “play with time . . . to make it surge into a dimension that we are not expecting.” His goal is to capture “the organic surrealism of everyday life,” distilling moments of absurdity and poetry.
Zell connects his work to the ancient Sanskrit word darshan, which he defines as a vision of holiness or an encounter with sacredness through another’s eyes. He believes “darshanning,” a term he coined, can happen at any moment, representing a deep, resonant connection between subject and artist, with the photograph serving as a lasting testament to that connection, what he calls (repeating for emphasis) “soul fossils.”
“I realise that this encounter occurs in some of my photos,” Zell reflects. “It’s a moment when the connection between the subject and myself is so deep and resonant with meaning that the person knows that the passing moment has stopped talking . . . and an eternal moment has started singing and that I’m an audience for that. And then there’s this third element, which is the picture itself, which is actually, I hope, going to survive longer than either the subject or me.”
A Global Perspective: Jerusalem, Venice, and Beyond
Zell’s photography spans multiple countries. He holds a special affinity for Italy, particularly Venice (he quotes Rilke: “maybe Venice is just a mood”). Describing Venice as one of his “soul cities,” he has captured it from unconventional angles, avoiding traditional tourist perspectives. His exhibition also features images from Prague, where he resides and finds inspiration in the city’s labyrinthine mysteries.
Two photographs from his recent (December 2024) trip to Jerusalem are included in the exhibition. One, “Homeless in Jerusalem,” depicts a homeless woman sleeping on a bench, while “With His Back to the Wailing” captures an Orthodox man praying at the Wailing Wall. He explains that the latter’s title symbolizes a kind of transcendence: “a way of peering into the future beyond this temporal realm and, hopefully, perceiving a world where there’s not going to be any wailing. Only the wailing of love-making, rock and roll, childbirth, and newborns. Not the wailing of war, violence, and oppression.”
Another standout piece is “Child of the Road,” taken in Serbia, capturing an Iraqi refugee child staring directly into the camera. Zell captured the moment using a small Leica camera while lying in the grass, channeling Robert Capa’s famous belief that “if your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” The photograph used as the exhibition’s poster image, “Amrit in London,” features a French actress nibbling a pear outside a café, while ghostly window-reflected faces hover behind her. Zell recalls the moment he first saw the picture after taking it as a revelation, saying it was when he truly understood “the organic surrealism of everyday life.”
Rehumanisation and the Role of the Artist
Zell is the founder of Moving Center, a Prague-based foundation that originally began as a literary festival. He has coined the term “heartist” to describe an artist who spreads heart and compassion through their work. His art is driven by the idea of rehumanisation, counteracting the dehumanization of others, and resisting what he calls “the danger of ‘they,’” where people create divisions and stereotypes.
His recent trip to Israel was fueled by a desire to bring Palestinian and Israeli artists together for workshops and performances in Prague, fostering mutual understanding. “I wanted to experience that diversity and try to bring some of these rehumanising forces together,” he explains. “Something that being in Israel taught me is the importance of bringing combatants out of an unlevel playing field and into a neutral space where they can meet as human beings.”
With this initiative, he hopes to cultivate what he calls revelationships—deep, meaningful human connections that transcend conflict. As a singer-songwriter, Zell uses the neologism in his new song “Shalom is Our Home,” (co-written with Tomas Sky) which he is currently recording with the Palestinian singer Meera Eilabouni.
Zell acknowledges the difficulties artists face, particularly the close link between “poetry” and “poverty.” Because poetry and poverty, according to him, are intricately linked. They have precisely the same letters, he says, except for the ‘v’ in ‘poverty’ which stands for the mockery of a ‘victory’ that tends to elude us; as well, by poverty’s dyslexic subversion of ‘rty’, the ‘try’ in poe’try’ gets muddled into the subliminal suggestion that all ‘trying’ will be futile.
“Your real work is not what gives you your food—it’s what gives you your hunger,” Zell says, and believes true artists focus on inner transformation rather than commercial success, and encourages them to define their own purpose. Through his poetry workshops (he insists that a good poem is “a marriage of music and accuracy”), he aims to inspire others, saying, “Another important role of the artist is to be a kind of mentoring sunlight that draws out whatever is inside the seeds around us.”
He also hopes to move beyond the era of selfies and encourage otheries, fostering empathy and deeper connections. To him, great art is a brainbow: “when the rain of feelings is pierced by the sunlight of intellect.”
Moving Towards Vanishing: Embracing the Ephemeral
The title Moving Towards Vanishing was inspired by a composite image Zell took in Venice, featuring two lovers surrounded by blurred figures. The image prompted him to reflect on the universal truth that everything—people, conversations, objects, civilizations, even planets—is moving towards vanishing.
“Ultimately, when we understand this truth, we can experience a full spectrum of emotions, from dread and fear to absolute joy and ecstasy. We can hold a reckless conversation with the darkness within. The key is to embrace the process of moving towards vanishing while seeking something that neither moves nor vanishes.”
For Zell, love, mercy, both “mirror-seeing” and ‘misericordia’ (the Latin term for ‘mercy’ that implies to Zell’s poetic mind “misery-cords”: cords of misery)—understanding the shared suffering that binds humanity—are anchors in the face of impermanence. “Understanding that we’re all tied together by these cords of misery can be painful, but if we approach this hard fact with authenticity and hunger, we can become fierce emblems of light. Each of us, a unique emblem of light. That is also what I, myself, aspire to be.”
Fine art prints (limited edition, 1/25, signed and framed) are available via orders placed with Lucien Zell’s agent in Prague, Martin Icha: martin@icha.cz. Support Lucien directly on Patreon and/or Buy Me a Coffee. Check out Zell’s other endeavours, including: Zell’s international online poetry discussion group; Zell’s foundation, Moving Center; Zell’s collaboration with the Hungarian world music band Earthjam on “Imagi-Nation”; “Make Me Miss,” a rock music video Zell filmed during Bohemian Lockdown; and Zell’s poem-video, “The Ivy.”
