Description Title : SIMYAEL.Creation Date: 16 May 2017'Fire Portraits' Series.Year: 2017.Influence: 'To Reign in Hell' novel by Steven Brust.Art Photographs: Photography of fire shaped into Portrait-like imagery, of the characters, angels, in 'To Reign in Hell', written by Steven Brust.Note 1: After doing the first art photo, I said to myself, 'I'm seeing some faces from Brust's novel in this image, and I need to investigate, and work this out further to see what develops.' Note 2: One very interesting aspect of Brust's story is that all of the angels were essentially good until a conflict and deception arose among the angels. On top of that, the three 'evil' angels in the story ( evil according to many 'modernised' views...modern being several thousand years for Satan/Lucifer/Devil, and hundreds for Mephisto ) Satan and Lucifer are the same entity, and Mephistopheles is the name invented for the historical Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480c. 1540), and in demonology, Mephistopheles was 'one of the seven chief devils and the tempter of Faust'. Nevertheless, in Brust's story, Satan and Lucifer are 'First-Borns', and Mephistopheles is an archangel, not devils or demons. Note 3: My Brust angels are a contradiction because they are made of fire. Angels of fire, I think is a contradiction. Note 4: 'Simyael, 'the demon in charge of blindness' mentioned in Mandean works (Ginz, trans. M. Lidzbarski (1925), 200, and The Canonical Prayer Book of the Mandaeans, ed. E.S. Drower (1959), 246), is simply a variant of Samael.' (Source: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/samael ) In addition, 'the forms Samael and Sammuel date from antiquity. This third version is preserved in the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch 4:9 (from the tannaitic period), which states that the angel Sammuel planted the vine that caused the fall of Adam, and therefore Sammuel was cursed and became *Satan. The same source relates in chapter 9, in an ancient version of the legend of the sh
Nawfal Johnson, Malaysia Member Since September 2006 Artist Statement IMAGEKIND: ARTIST BIO — Nawfal Johnson — Smokephotographist Beginnings: When I pick up my camera ... when I compose the subjects in the frame ... and, when I plan and set up my lighting, I have one thing in mind — To take a better photograph than the last time.
I have been using a camera as a hobbyist since I was 12 years old, and then as a freelance professional since 1998.
Photography is a Madness for Me — My Work: I have been a long-time Freelance Stage & Dance Photographer; nevertheless, I focus much of my energy designing fine art Abstract, and, Abstract Expressionism Photography. I also design SMOKE-ART PHOTOGRAPHY, and that is the art style I focused on in my 2011 book, titled, ETHEREAL DREAMS and HOPE.
My Artistic Influences: My main artistic influences are Jackson Pollock and Robert Henri. As for photographic influences, I have always drawn inspiration from photographers Carl Fischer, and Andreas Feininger.