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Luis
Durante
Born
in Soria, a place some consider the most romantic area
of Spain, Luis Durante came to this world in 1955.
He spent his formative years growing up in Madrid where
he remembers sketching and painting constantly. When he
was seventeen he left home to live in what he describes
as a "hippy community". He fell in with a
group of actors there who were part of a local theatre
group and soon started joining in their shows. They
ended up traveling throughout Spain and England giving
street performances. At twenty-three he
moved once again, this time to Paris to study
photography. He stayed there for four years before
returning to Spain where he took up work in public
relations.
Luis has been a lifelong student of art and famous
artists. He is especially drawn to the highly stylized
work of the Surrealist and Symbolist painters, but also
finds inspiration in the work of many photographers (Saudek, Blum,
Berquet, Hamilton) and writers (Baudelaire, Becquer, Safo,
Stoker, Poe, Byron). His personal work bears an obvious
influence of these masters.
The photography of Luis Durante is an artistic delight.
Much of it possesses something of a painterly quality
giving it a quality of being created by some unknown
master from a bygone era. His use of delicate young
women strengthens this attribute and further provides a
powerful air of enchantment. It is simply breathtaking.
We feel this is one art photographer for whom great
things are destined.
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