INTERVIEW with Helen Sorokach
Carmela Loiacono talks with Helen Sorokach who takes part in the International Art Exhibition NATURAL FLOW – Exploring water’s essence in Matera, at cultural hypogeum Lega Navale Italiana Matera-Magna Grecia.

Carmela Loiacono – Please introduce yourself and talk about the selected photo series: “Water in Motion” you presented during the exhibition NATURAL FLOW – Exploring water’s essence. 
Helen Sorokach – My name is Helen Sorokach and I am a photographer and visual artist from the United States. The photo series “Water” is a collection of shots taken during a firefighting summer camp for teenage girls, and the photos exhibit various training exercises in which the girls took part. 

Carmela Loiacono – How would you describe your creative process? What or who influenced or is influencing your work?
Helen Sorokach – For photography, preparation is everything. Making sure that I am ready and present in the moment to capture the photographs as they happen is very important. After the photos have been shot, I like to do minimal edits to bring to focus what I find most essential in the photograph. Usually, this is cropping the photograph so that the lines and silhouettes are balanced to me.  I am influenced by various other visual mediums when shooting and editing photos – both painting and architecture are interesting to consider when thinking about the flow and structure created by a photograph. 

Carmela Loiacono – What do you think about shared art on social media? Could it be an alternative way of communicating contemporary art?
Helen Sorokach – I think that social media is a great tool for opening works up to a much broader audience, much more quickly than ever before. Art works shared via social media have the ability to much more rapidly become a part of the cultural consciousness, but also to much more rapidly fade from this cultural consciousness in the rapid-fire cycle of content. 

Carmela Loiacono – What are your future goals and/or projects?
Helen Sorokach – I plan on continuing to photograph events and situations that are meaningful to me, and am interested in translating still work behind the camera to moving pictures and cinematography in the future!

Carmela Loiacono – We had the pleasure to meet in person in Matera, during the opening of the exhibition, did you enjoy cooperating with me? Did you like to stay in Matera? 
Helen Sorokach – The location of the exhibition – the UNESCO World Heritage Site and ancient town of Matera – was incredible to walk through before and after the exhibition, and the space used to display the works was beautiful and full of so much history. It felt like an honor to have photos displayed on a centuries-old cave-like wall, to be surrounded by and a part of so much history! Carmela was an incredible host and director of the exhibition, and a fantastic translator between English and Italian to explain the included works.