Fotograf Magazine

The exhibition of works by Veronika Bromová and her parents at Fotograf
Gallery may for some represent an interesting comparison of family
approaches, or possibly a historical discourse about the photographic
medium, but – above all – it turned into a form of psychology. It became an
intense and productive session spent with a psychotherapist, bringing proof
of relationships and ties we would otherwise possibly not even try to find.

In any case, this was a fairly daring undertaking for Veronika Bromová,
a leading star of 1990s new media. She actually showed – sometimes
even directly naming – the subconscious elements that have helped form
her approach to creative work and to her own body. On the surface, the
illustrations and collages made by her parents, husband and wife Pavel and
Dagmar Brom, look to be standard lyrical works of their time, without any
political subtext, appearing as streams of hypertrophied imagination and
lots of donkey work and preciseness, which often overlaps their emptiness.
This is an emptiness that is loud and narcissistic. With the passage of time,
however, it all of a sudden comes across as seductive and baffling.

After 1989, with the onset of the post-modern, new digital technology
also entered the scene. Veronika created her own characteristic,
provocative style: she worked with photographs of her own body, which
she deformed physically or using a computer. Even in this exhibition she
provides a commentary on her parents’ work using enormous selfies,
composed of many fragments. Whilst the collages made by the Broms
have manifold meanings, Veronika selects details, single elements she
elaborates further. Now she has given us an hour with a psychotherapist:
let us pay attention to the pitfalls that have led her to making such candid
works, to ongoing self-revelation. Hats off!

Lenka Lindaurová