Using photography and sounds, artist hopes to capture the energy of Florida swamps

Using photography and sounds, artist hopes to capture the energy of Florida swamps

For multidisciplinary artist Chris Leventis, photography has already had a grasp on his heart. FOX 13 photojournalist Barry Wong shows us.

TAMPA, Fla. - For multidisciplinary artist Chris Leventis, photography has already had a grasp on his heart. "The idea of a single frame telling a story is just magic," Leventis said.  

The backstory:

After a 15-year career as a commercial fashion photographer, Leventis took a five-year break.

"That was a really prescribed way of shooting. Very clean, focused and sharp, I had to follow the rules," Leventis said. 

He wanted to do something completely different, so he pursued his master's degree in fine arts. An assignment forced him to reconnect to nature. He ended up in a swamp, where he could break many of those previous photography rules. 

"I felt like I was home," Leventis said. 

Dig deeper:

"One of my mentors asked me what would one of your images sound like in the swamp? What would they have to say? What's their voice?" Leventis said. "That kind of sent me down a really deep rabbit hole about thinking, yeah, there's energy out in the swamp. I felt that immediately. I wasn't sure what it meant."

Using his background in sound production, Leventis decided to bring a modular synthesizer to plug into the roots and harness that energy he felt. "A short while later, I was making images and creating and composing songs with the swamp all at the same time," Leventis said. 

What they're saying:

"963 Hz" represents a Solfeggio frequency. "It's a belief that certain frequencies do things to the mind and the body and can heal," Leventis said.

The exhibition features 27 images. They are all long-exposure shots, varying from a couple of minutes to an hour. Leventis moves the camera and introduces elements throughout the exposure to create an abstract feel to the black and white photos. Five of the photographs feature accompanying music that was created on location. 

"It really comes to life in a different way," Florida Museum of Photographic Arts Director of Operations Clara ten Berge said. 

For Leventis, the four-year project taught him many lessons. 

"Self-discovery, breaking the rules, breaking free, and allowing myself to really create without any tethers, without any expectations, and allowing myself to make mistakes, that was the important part," Leventis said. "Because I'm a type-A personality, everything has to be perfect and planned, but when I started this work, I slowly started to let go, and I found out things about myself. I think it was the most important thing."

What's next:

Leventis will be holding an artist talk at the museum on Sept. 25 at 5:30pm. It is included with the standard price of admission. He will be doing a live performance of his swamp soundscapes on Oct. 17.