A lot of the people seemed somehow lost to me, either geographically, mentally or even physically. It’s that second before they recognise you, taking the picture, somehow giving you an intimate moment with a person you never gonna see again in your life. They open up, like it would be the most private place, in fact being the least private environment one can imagine.
While working as an intern in New York City I shot primarily candid street scenes. That’s what I like to do the most. I am highly interested in people’s interaction with different environments, as an observer. I try to imagine what they’re going to do next, to anticipate their interpersonal behaviour. When producing these pictures, I was just shooting without an aim in beforehand. I just photographed everything that touched my mind, subconsciously. Afterwards while editing I realised that I had a lot of pictures of people seeming lost somehow, so maybe I found a way to transport my inner self into my photography without thinking about it too much. If I would prolong the series with that method today, I maybe would get a different product, because my state of mind is different now. From the visual standpoint, the golden sunlight in combination with the ‘lost second’ resulted in scenic pictures that reminds me of movie stills or billboards, but without being staged.
About Rokas Jankus
Rokas was born 35 years ago in Vilnius, Lithuania, today he is an architect and photographer based in Hamburg, Germany. He passionately captures daily life on sensors, film and ultimately on paper and tries to find beauty [or absurdity] in commonplace situations on his way. He mostly has no aim in beforehand, likes to utilise a certain feeling of a place or situation to create something within or after the process of shooting. He sees his photography as a visualisation of his thoughts and feelings just for a certain period of time and likes to think of it as self-portraiture sometimes. As his feelings do, the pictures change with the passing time. [Official Website]