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New Slovak Photography

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Photographs: Andrej Balco, Martin Kollar, Symon Kliman (photo), Lucia Nimcova, Viktor Szemzö, Juraj Chlpik, Jana Ilkova, Petra Cepkova, Marek Kvetan, Petra Bosanska, Filip Jurkovic, Dalibor Krupka, Pavel Maria Sme

Text: Lucia L. Fišerová, Václav Macek

Publisher: Central European House of Photography

104 pages

Year: 2009

ISBN: 978-80-85739-47-3

Price: 15 €

The exhibition „New Slovak Photography“ is a free continuation of the two shows on Slovak photography organized by the association FOTOFO – „Contemporary Slovak Photography“ and „Young Slovak Photography“ – these were mapping changing forms of this medium in the course of the 90’s. The current exhibition offers an overview of the situation in the Slovak photography after 2000, mainly in the last 3-4 years. Through works of presented authors it reflects new approaches in form, content, topics, and used technics as well. What represents a big shift comparing to the previous decade is an increasing usage of a photographic image by authors who do not primary regard themselves as photographers, but for which photography is rather one of important means of expression. This phenomenon is closely linked to expanding of a topic frame; authors do not focus anymore exclusively on a formal and technical perfection of image (also because of a different artistic specialization and education). They introduce socially engaged topics from the field of politics, economics and contemporary lifestyle in their work, using colour photography above all. In these topics, authors often cope with recent political past and presence of Slovakia, as well as with global problems of the world; all as sort of a visual archeology. The exhibition reflects a longer-term trend of genres merging and dissolving of their established definitions by still more frequent usage of digital manipulation as means testing medium limits (e.g. in the photographic document). In other digitally manipulated series, authors put also a purely formal question what it is exactly an image and what is its essence. A concept of photography as an image carrying information based on social relations has brought with itself also questioning of clear borders between the „amateur“ or „craft“ photography and the „artistic“ one. Last but not least, the problem of identity, gender and intergeneration or social relations directed to face and body, either in an interiour intimacy or in an absurd situation of man in a countryside or urban environment characterizes the Slovak photography. The current show of the new Slovak photography should serve as a kind of probe in the depth of this medium in Slovakia at the time when the long time ago disturbed waters of political and medial revolution have stilled. Lucia L. Fišerová, Václav Macek

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