Inta Nahapetjan
Inta Nahapetjan (Yerevan, Armenia, 1988) is an Amsterdam based photographer. After completing her study in Museology at the Reinwardt Academy in Amsterdam, Nahapetjan turned to photography, and graduated Cum Laude from the Amsterdam Photo Academy in 2016. Ever since, her career as a photographer has ran its course and her work gained national and international attention through exhibitions such as her recent solo show at Galerie Claude Samuel, Paris, 2018; her solo show at The Amsterdam Picture Room, 2018; and between others her group show at New Dutch Photography Talent, GUP Galley, 2016. Her works has also been published in significant magazines such as Dans Magazine (2017) NRC magazine (2018) and her work “Papillon” has been chosen as the cover image for New Photo – Dutch Photography Talent in 2017. The working method of Nahapetjan entails full control over the whole creation process of a picture, from the selection of the model to the styling, the art direction and the ultimate shot: for this reason, Nahapetjan’s work is also suitable for commission.
Influenced by the artistic climate she grew up in, Nahapetjan’s work is centered around the concept of the extreme, in all its different facets and gradations. Fascinated by the peculiar lifestyle of artful characters, Nahapetjan attempts to capture the essence of the creative intensity common to all her models. Following them closely for a period of time, Nahapetjan manages to fixate a moment of their lives in which this intensity is concentrated: the result is a mixture of lust, beauty and darkness, which engage the viewer while at the same time retaining a certain mystery. The red thread throughout Nahapetjan’s work is constituted by the search towards the core of this extreme, and all her pictures reflect the impossibility of fully pinning down this border line between elegance, attraction and inexplicable sorrow. From her Ballet series and Vulgar Elegance to her series of portraits, the body of work by Inta Nahapetjan contains the restlessness of the ultimate quest: the one towards the understanding of beauty.
Curriculum Vitae
Exhibitions and Nominations
Current
2021 | Blow up Gallery, group exhibition, Hortusplantsoen 7, Amsterdam
Past
2020 | Aveda Salon, solo exhibition, Amsterdam
2020| Violet and Wilde Gallery, solo exhibition, Amsterdam
2019 | De Krachtcentrale, group exhibition, Huizen
2019 | St. Pauluskerk, group exhibition, Antwerpen
2019 | Aveda Salon, solo exhibition, Amsterdam
2019 | UMCG, group exhibition, Groningen
2019 | Martinikerk, group exhibition, Groningen
2019 | Blow up Gallery, solo exhibition, Amsterdam
2019 | Laurenskerk, group exhibition, Rotterdam
2019 | Violet and Wilde Gallery, group exhibition, Amsterdam
2019 | Ambassadors, solo exhibition, Amsterdam
2018 | Zo Mooij Art Gallery, group exhibition, Amsterdam
2018 | Galerie Claude Samuel, solo exhibition, Paris
2018 | The Amsterdam Picture Room, solo exhibition, Amsterdam
2017 | Gallery Sehnsucht, group exhibition, Rotterdam
2017 | Arti et Amicitiae, group exhibition, Amsterdam
2017 | Modefabriek RAI, group exhibition, Amsterdam
2017 | Josilda da Conceicao Gallery, group exhibition, Amsterdam
2017 | Off fotofestival, group exhibition, Naarden-Vesting
2017 | Metaal Kathedraal, group exhibition, Utrecht
2017 | Het huis De Gecroonde Raep, solo exhibition, Amsterdam
2016 | New Dutch Photography Talent, GUP Galley, group exhibition, Amsterdam
2016 | Creative House, solo exhibition, Amsterdam
2016 | Roest, group exhibition, Amsterdam
2015 | Il Tramezzino, solo exhibition, Amsterdam
2014 | Photo Academy, group exhibition, Amsterdam
2013 | Sane, solo exhibition, Amsterdam
NOMINATIONS
2021 | Nominee International Fine Art Photography Awards
2017 | New Dutch Photography Talent - GUP 2017
Ballet series
Inta Nahapetjan;
I perceive the ballet world and it’s high culture as one of the most enchanting and beautiful face of our human civilization. I have followed many international Principal dancers during their working period in different settings. There I have observed the magical transformation which occur within the dancing act. By getting under their skin and experimenting dancers’ exceptional characters I portrayed them in my own artistic way.
In my photography I intend to expose the beauty of the ballet and not the pain and sweat behind the scene. Therefor my aim is to create an aesthetic and perfectionised work within the ballet world. During a ballet performance I experience such a perfection, almost painful to look at, connection, love and joy. There I observe everything in life expressed in dance.
I believe each single choreographic movement what dansers express with emotion and the way they live on stage through the dance. Everything happens there; love, pain, joy, grief even death and that all in such combination of choreography, music, decors and costumes through elegancy, delicate mastery of trained bodies and minds as main tool of expression.
The bodies are just so beautiful to look at. Imagine that dancers train six days a week to have a body like that. It is a surreal existence actually and that’s truly fascinates me; The „unreal„ reality.
Getting into the story of the performance brings me sometimes to tears because I get really sucked into the story. Sometimes after a ballet I feel disconnected with the whole world because I am so moved. From another hand after a fairytale ballet I can feel really happy and walk out with a smile. The musical composition does a lot to me as well. I love classical music a lot. Music is my biggest inspiration for my work. I enjoy ballets by composers such as Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Khachaturian.
Ballet series
