by Mikhaliuk Siarhei (iconnn)
 Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the 1st of September 2024

 Photography is no longer about objects. It’s about you.

 ‘Fluxism/ Barcode’ by Siarhei Mikhaliuk
 

In classical photography, the camera is a tool for control and documentation, operating through the sense of vision.
In Fluxism, however, the camera becomes a conductor of feelings and the body, a means of visualizing what is usually invisible: your sensations and states. It becomes a medium for merging the author and the surrounding world.

This change occurred unexpectedly, like a quiet whisper: my camera ceased to be what it had always been considered and created for. It renounced its duty to document the world.

It refused to serve vision alone, opening its sensors to the flow emanating from the entire body and awakening the senses. Instead of capturing visual images, it captured vibrations: the hum of the city absorbed by the skin; the chill of the wind on the nape of the neck; the thick, honeyed scent of the blooming linden trees.

The camera unveiled its mirror, in which these subtle signals of sensation were refracted as they reached towards the light.

And in this ritual, in this meditation, something astonishing occurs. The person holding the camera inevitably turns their gaze inward. In order to allow the camera to become the body’s conductor, the focus must be shifted away from the horizon or composition and onto the delicate layers of one’s own organism that usually remain beyond attention: the rhythm of breathing, muscle relaxation and tension, the sensation of the feet on the ground and how the spine responds to movement. This focus is not an intellectual effort but a plunge into sensation. The entire process becomes a reflection, a silence and a meditation.
 

by Siarhei Mikhaliuk

And that’s not all!

Another miracle unfolds when we look at the screen later. What we see defies ordinary description. It is neither a landscape, a portrait nor a still life in the traditional sense. Instead, we see the visual form of our own sensations — the very vibrations that filled us at the moment of capture.

Our encounter with the world — its light and movement, its unpredictable matter — has given our invisible, ephemeral feelings a tangible form. They have materialised as whimsical blurs of light, uneven streaks of motion and abstract patterns that seem chaotic yet eerily familiar.

Not everything we see on our screens will be worthy of note, but some of it will be undeniably beautiful. Perhaps one or two frames will reveal new interconnections of forms and lines, rhythm and structure — calculated not by logic, but by the living perception of a new reality. These rare shots are like flashes of insight where chance reveals a harmony that is hidden from the eyes, but open to the heart. Chaos momentarily coalesces into a clear, yet inexplicable, pattern.

by Siarhei Mikhaliuk

This image is unique and cannot be repeated. This image is your mark on the universe.
And so, Fluxism was born.

Fluxism. The Inner Landscape.

Recognizing your inner landscape in an external image is an incredible feeling. It draws you back and compels you to pick up the camera again and again, not to capture something specific, but to observe your reactions and responses to the world through this unique visual poetry of sensations in the here and now. On the screen, a trace appears. Not the footprint of a single moment, but the imprint of an entire stream of inner states, left in the very fabric of reality.

The Process of Photography. How It Works.

Imagine space as dense and solid, like the Earth. The body moving through this space leaves a trajectory, relying not on sight, but on touch, hearing, intuition and trust in the flow — like a mole tunneling through the universe. Every movement, touch and breath leaves an invisible yet real imprint on this dense medium, creating a unique form of interaction woven from light and shadow.

In Fluxism, the camera, with its light-sensitive elements, translates these invisible paths onto the screen. It reveals the traces of movement and contact between your entire being and the outside world. On the screen, you do not see objects, but rather the echo of an encounter: a visualization of how your inner state resonated with the space at that unique, irreplaceable moment.

Not beautiful, but true. From control to trust.

Such a manifestation is only possible under one condition: when the mind momentarily steps aside. When control — that eternal overseer obscuring raw feeling — weakens. It is when the door to trust opens: trust in your sensations, trust in the body holding the camera and trust in the unpredictability of light and motion. It is when you allow the world to enter you and yourself to dissolve into the flow without trying to seize or freeze it. It is only in this openness, in this temporary surrender to chaos, that the alchemy occurs and sensations take visible form.

by Siarhei Mikhaliuk

How do you see your feelings? Not as an abstraction, but literally and visibly? The answer lies not in psychology, but in this strange interplay of body, light, trust and chance. Transformed into a transmitter of sensations, the camera becomes the key to Fluxism.

On the Path of Impressions. How?

How do you capture the impressions of a journey, rather than just souvenir pictures of mountains, waterfalls or buildings?

How do you capture not the architecture of a monument, but how it made you feel, how it resonated within you — its scale and grandeur?

How do you photograph not just sand dunes, but also the sense of detachment you feel in the desert and the tremor in your legs as you stand on the edge of a cliff?

How do you capture the movements of a dancer or footballer and the invisible traces that their energy leaves in space — their emotion embodied in motion and speed? How do you capture the echo of a dance and the vibrations in the air that you could feel on your skin as you left the theatre?

The answer to all these questions lies not in technique, settings or rules. It lies in the paradoxical transformation of the camera from a tool for external documentation to a mirror of the internal world. It lies in the act of Fluxism. This is a wondrous, almost mystical process in which your most intimate, wordless sensations meet the chaos of light and space and suddenly take form before you on the screen — mysterious, elusive, yet undeniably yours.

In that moment, photography ceases to be about the object. It becomes about you. It becomes about your unique and irreplicable way of feeling and being in the world. This is the mirror. The mirror of your sensations.

by Siarhei Mikhaliuk

Fluxism. Why Not Sooner?

Historical Context as the Key

Photography has been moving toward this moment for 200 years, like a river toward a waterfall.

The analogue era (19th–20th centuries): The struggle for recognition as an art form (emulating painting → documentation → 'the decisive moment'). Technique was limited by light, film and chance. Control was the holy grail.

The Digital Revolution (1990s–2020s): Technical perfection became accessible. Control became total with the advent of Photoshop, autofocus and burst shooting. Perfectionism triumphed.

The AI Era (2020s–present): Algorithms surpassed humans in creating 'perfect' images. Control and perfectionism were devalued. A vacuum emerged: 'Why humans if AI does it better?'

Fluxism is the answer to this crisis. It did not arise in spite of photography's history, but as its logical conclusion. Only now have two things become possible:

- Technical: Digital cameras allow experimentation with chance, such as high ISO, long handheld exposures and instant review.

- Philosophical: Algorithms have revealed a core human value: the ability to engage in spontaneous, bodily and unpredictable dialogue with chaos.

Intuitively, photographers have long moved away from mere documentation, experimenting with infrared cameras, pinholes, Vaseline on glass and more, while always maintaining visual control over the process. Fluxism highlights the importance of consciously abandoning compositional focus during the shooting process, ensuring that these methods become expressions of sensation and intuition rather than mere artistic tricks.

Fluxism Opens Possibilities for People with Visual Impairments.

In Fluxism, light is not just for the retina, but for the whole body.

Fluxism broadens the traditional concept of photography, demonstrating that seeing is not merely looking. Like a martial artist who hones their intuition and reflexes with their eyes closed, the Fluxist photographer relinquishes visual control in order to:

Immerse themselves in the flow and create images that transcend templates. Heightened perception without reliance on sight means sensitivity to light, movement, air temperature and spatial vibrations intensifies.

Neuroscience explores this phenomenon. Research shows that, in blind individuals, the brain rewires itself to enhance other senses and re-purpose the visual cortex to process non-visual information.

One such scientist is Amir Amedi of Harvard Medical School.

Key discoveries: The visual cortex in blind individuals does not lie dormant, but instead processes sound and tactile signals (cross-modal plasticity).

The blind can "see" through sound (echolocation, like bats).

Fluxism is alchemy where you allow light to heal the body.

Fluxism as Meditation.

Fluxism is not just an artistic method, but also a unique state of perception akin to a meditative trance. Modern neuroscience confirms that when consciousness releases control, the brain operates differently.

Studies by Richard Davidson (Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin–Madison) and others demonstrate that deep meditation results in:

Brainwave patterns shift, with increased gamma activity being linked to clarity and presence.

Activity in the 'default mode network' (DMN), which is responsible for inner dialogue and analysis, weakens.

Sensory perception intensifies and the connection between emotion and action becomes stronger.

Fluxism harnesses this state — not to think, but to feel. Not to construct a frame, but to allow it to form naturally. When the photographer relinquishes rational control, bodily memory, intuition and spontaneity take centre stage.

Meditation transcends the mind and control without negating them. In an era where AI can mimic any aesthetic, this approach may offer a solution: art that cannot be replicated by algorithms because its source is the elusive living moment.

For the Fluxist photographer, unique opportunities arise in both the photographic process and self-exploration.

Fluxism is meditation for those who do not sit in the lotus position, but who move with a camera.

It is enlightenment through aesthetics, not renunciation.

by Siarhei Mikhaliuk

Experience and result.

Many photographers have experienced moments when an 'unexpected accident' has influenced a shot, such as slipping or stumbling, or fogged glass. Is this coincidence? Upon review, something profound (or even miraculous) is often discovered in that frame.

The idea of art as a 'tool' of awareness has been discussed before by scientists, philosophers and artists.

Fluxism does not create something from nothing; it is the logical continuation of the centuries-long search for art, but for the first time it unifies what previously existed in fragments:

- Meditative spontaneity (as in Zen calligraphy).

Bodily rhythm (as in expressive dance).

- The philosophy of non-control (as in Dadaist acts).

- the alchemy of light (as in the early experiments of the photo-avant-garde).

This is synthesis, not eclecticism — where the camera finally ceases to be an 'eye' for vision and becomes a resonator of the whole human being.

What was once the serendipitous discovery of individual artists becomes, through Fluxism, a holistic method — an answer to the age of algorithms.

by Siarhei Mikhaliuk

Camera for Fluxism

The modern camera is not yet suitable for Fluxism. Over 200 years of evolution have seen photographic cameras retain their brick-like form, which remains adapted for visual control. Features such as fast and precise auto-focus, lens and sensor stabilization and tripods are designed to neutralize the photographer's influence on the final image.

However, Fluxism requires the opposite approach: there must be no separation between the camera and the photographer, and duality must be rejected in both philosophical and physical senses. The camera must read information from the body while allowing the body to feel the camera itself — this is crucial! It should become an extension of the photographer's body, just as a sword becomes an extension of a fencer's arm.

This could be a camera bracelet, glove, sphere, or flexible module — something that is perceived as part of the body rather than a foreign object. During shooting, the camera must become an extension of the hand, chest, back or leg.

Prototypes: 'Wearable Cameras' from the MIT Media Lab. These are not designed for wearing comfort, but for enhanced tactility.

Although AI algorithms can replicate "eye-centric" photography perfectly, they remain powerless against the chaos of a living body.

Man and Art.

Personally, I believe that Fluxism in photography has helped to redefine the values and goals of art, where the pinnacle of the pyramid is no longer the artwork itself, but the human being. Art is an act that leads to the rebirth of the individual.

All content described in this article is based on personal experience and perception.
The author of the article and founder of the "Fluxism" movement in photography: belarusian photographer, choreographer and artist Siarhei Mikhaliuk.

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 FLUXISM/ ORIGINAL

Some images from 1x photographers with similar aestretics as fluxism.

 ‘Biking, the sportive look’ by Yvette Depaepe
 

 #33 by Louise Fryer
 

 #4 by Louise Fryer
 

 ‘colored tunnel’ by HAN dong hee
 

 Untitled by Dan Stanila
 

 ‘Her’ by Dan Stanila
 

 ‘Sunshower’ by Swen MUN

 ‘Workshop’ by Suren Manvelyan

 ‘Watch out! It’s slippery’ by Francesco Martinelli