Photographer RJ Fernandez listens to Matmos and follows a somewhat similarly quirky muse. She started out as lensman Neal Oshima’s assistant. Now RJ has turned a few heads around with her off-kilter photography. Last year, the 24-year-old photographer was featured in an exhibit at Big Sky Mind, which showcased her shots of musician-friends from bands like Kapatid, WDOUJI and Spy, among others. And like photographer Annie Liebowitz who started out shooting musicians like John Lennon and Paul Simon for Rolling Stone, RJ loves capturing rockers on camera  especially onstage.
"There is always an interplay," says Fernandez. "It’s like letting your eyes hear the music, and you move along with it."
Fernandez departs from her favorite subject in her second solo exhibit at the Alliance Francaise Totalfinaelf Gallery, which runs until March 28. Her show is called Watergrams/Firegrams: An Exhibit of Photograms.
"Er…photograms?" this writer asks RJ, hoping she will dish out something like the Sesame Street or The Electric Company of edgy photography.
Photograms are "cameraless photographs" created by placing something opaque or translucent directly onto light sensitive material and then exposing them to light. The image, which blocks out part of the light, is left on paper when processed. The Magellans of the technique have used the strangest of materials: dried flowers, leaves, toothpicks, pins, string, hair, wire, thread, etc. (This reminds me of Matmos’ sonic installations). In RJ’s case, she has created a series of watergrams and firegrams. And she discovered the technique serendipitously.
"I was processing film and saw the water moving," RJ shares. "I wondered what it would look like as a photogram. Same with fire, so I started experimenting."
My Twiddlebug of a brain still couldn’t grasp the concept, so RJ elaborates. "Imagine a tray with water. I put the photographic paper, move the water with my hand and expose it to light. I then re-photograph, enlarge and tone the photogram."
Motion, water and light are the three elements of a watergram. Mysterious and metaphorical, water is associated with life and regeneration. Fernandez intends her watergrams to function like Rorschach pieces opening doors to new perceptions. Very Huxley.
Firegrams, on the other hand, records traces of the imprints of fire on paper. And fire, dear readers, is usually equated with death and destruction.
"The images show how limited our perception is," Fernandez explains. "Making photograms is a simple process, really. But you can create a different world, a different reality."
(I couldn’t avoid sounding like an egghead in telling RJ that her works suggest the dichotomy involving Eros and Thanatos  the life and death bent  as well as the presence of the elemental in each photogram. Hey, wait…I’m starting to sound like my Aesthetics professor who bores the bejesus out of her students with her narcotic lectures; her Tina Turner wigs are a hoot, though.)
RJ continues, "I do it randomly and use different lighting positions. I experiment with different kinds of materials like vodka, glass, rope, lighter fluid, ash, etc. The image depends on the intensity of the light. You could also say there is an element of chance involved."
It’s like playing Russian roulette with chance, so to speak. It's the artist playing the role of a "manipulator" says Fernandez in her statement, which has a quote from surrealist/dadaist Andre Breton. And Breton is one cooky yet brilliant manipulator. So is German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose passages on birthing order from chaos is written on RJ’s journal. So are the musicians this charming girl listens to: Bjork, Matmos, the Velvet Underground, Charles Mingus, etc. (She even raves about the tribute album, "Weird Nightmares: Meditations on Mingus," featuring cutting-edge artists like Bill Frisell, Vernon Reid, and Henry Rollins, among others.) No wonder her art is edgy and unconventional, but she has a lot of respect for the older, established photographers.
"I really look up to older artists because they’ve developed the vision, the eye for detail. The senior photographers really took the time to learn their craft. But we the younger ones are exposed to more things  the information superhighway, the digital age, etc. Either this makes us very confused or gives us a really unique style. It’s up to the person how he interprets whatever piece of information is coming his way."
Like her firegrams and watergrams, there is more to RJ Fernandez than meets the erring eye.