Director's statement
"This documentary about his life brings us very close to his world of creation of Adam Fuss, a well known British artist based in New York City, who uses photography to express his dreams and visions. This film was shot in a period of sixteen months, between
the United States and England.
If the truest poetry comes from freedom of articulating the things that move our imagination, then Adam successfully uses his camera to keep his images alive. His subjects — sometimes snakes, water, ghosts among many other mystical things — manifests his desires for the unknown, and relentlessly bring attention to every little detail Adam shifts to light.
I have known Adam for a long number of years, but only recently has he inspired me to visit his creative world. It happened one afternoon on sunny island called Hydra where he payed visit to our mutual friend late Lisa Libman Adams. We spoke about the time that had passed and I tackled the idea that certain things could be documented. He agreed, and soon after we were together inside his studio in New York filming the water falls turned into photographs, then his snakes, his visits to Arden and the last part of the journey took us back to his native land, where we found Fenny, his mother and the village in which he grew up in. As he drew me into his dreamland, I realized that I was going to be totally immersed in it rather than being an outsider who was simply documenting his journey where everything became an improvisation glowing with spontaneity; needless of any script. The documentary work proceeded smoothly, regardless of the weather conditions and of the limited amount of time that we had in the schedule.
What I thought that was a truly remarkable during this unique shooting experience, was the fact that there was virtually no difference between the countryside in Sussex or Upstate New York, nor between his studio in Chelsea or his cottage in England. We simply lived in a timeless zone.
There was also a certain glare to things and objects, which made me feel that all was alive, and that I could be inside of one or many finished or unfinished of pieces of his work since Adam has a fascinating quality of being fully present in each moment; and while his very fresh memories take us back to his own boyhood, it all felt like an easy slide between today, yesterday and tomorrow.
Svetlana Cemin
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