#26 documentary strategies
Over the course of the 20th century the term “documentary photography“ attained a variety of very different meanings. One can speak of a photographic archive of society, an easily abused tool of power, and also a tool of resistance. What could the assorted meanings of photography be at the beginning of the 21st century? Will it assert itself as an important device enabling us to exercise a critical viewpoint on the present, despite the fact that the very credibility of photographic representation has been thrown into doubt? Which of the possible functions the photographic documentary has taken on over the years will prove the most inspiring for contemporary artists?
“True documentary photography does not exist yet,“ Martha Rosler wrote in one of her essays, alluding to a situation where although there exist a huge amount of socially engaged images, society has become accustomed to absorbing these as part of the consumption of daily news coverage which testifies more about the recipient – approximately in the sense that “I live better than others“, rather than offering insight into the life of others. Perhaps true documentary photography does not in fact exist. In spite of this, we wish to discuss the ways in which the contemporary visual arts transmit information about the world around us. We do not attempt to categorize all of the various genres and approaches; rather, to put forward the question of what the term documentary actually denotes. What is it that we as viewers are prepared to regard as objective, even though we rationally know that due to its very essence photography cannot be a true imprint of reality? It remains to be seen whether perhaps selected artistic approaches, and their subjective perspectives, may bring a more inspiring and authentic report to the testimony of reality.
#37 uneven ground — Profiles
Karol Radziszewski

Radziszewski’s art, in its multidisciplinary medley, is driven in its roots by a longing to carve out a space of diversity and queer beauty out of misery. Be it the secret queer meeting spots in communist Poland or the place for alternative narratives on history, it is constantly craving for a less miserable world…
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Heji Shin

Although the German-Korean artist Heji Shin attained wider popularity through her photographs for the Spring/Summer 2017 collection of the New York-based brand Eckhaus Latta, which featured explicit images of couples of varying ethnicities and sexual orientations engaging in sexual acts, the true scandal arrived with her portraits of the American rapper Kanye West, who recently elicited controversy through his relationship with the incumbent president of the United States…
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Karolina Wojtas

Polish artist Karolina Wojtas doubtless has a lot of fun creating her photographs and installations. This usually seems inconsistent with the depth of thought her photographs suggest. Even so, this is exactly what her photographs are: a fluid mix of various kinds of humor, bizarre elements, practical jokes, children’s jokes, and bullying…
Read moreTaste Fotograf #37
#37 uneven ground — Profiles
Alžběta Bačíková

While Alžběta Bačíková’s experimental approach to documentary puts the transparency of the filmic medium in parenthesis, this self-reflexive attitude does not operate at the expense of creating an empathic relation between artist and protagonist, subject and viewer…
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Sidsel Meineche Hansen

One hot summer day, I happened to reach for H. G. Wells’s 1923 novel Men Like Gods. In it, Wells presents his idea of the world of Utopia. People here are precisely carved castings of ancient deities representing the ideal potential development of our society at some point millenia in the future…
Read moreContent
- ––– Profiles
- Taryn Simon
- Rhea Karam
- Martin Errichiello & Filippo Menichetti
- Rafał Milach
- Jan Jindra
- Open Group
- Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin
- Ivan Kyncl
- Trevor Paglen
- Eric Baudelaire
- Akram Zaatari
- Libuše Jarcovjáková
- WassinkLundgren
- Mark Strandquist
- Alfredo Jaar
- Pavel Štecha
- ––– Interview
- Metrography - the first independent photo agency in Iraq
- ––– Discoveries
- Nicolas Idée
- Kris Lemsalu
- Jaap Scheeren
- ––– Theory
- Civil Imagination: A Political Ontology of Photography
- ––– Events
- Jan Lukas Centenary
- Rencontres d'Arles 2015
- ––– Fotograf Gallery
- Martin Horák
- Anna Hulačová & Viktor Takáč
- Vladimír Skrepl
- ––– Reviews
- On the Uniqueness and Reproduction of the Photographic Image
- The Alphabet of Things: Notes on Modern and Contemporary Art
- Bringing to Light
Archive
- #35 living with humans
- #34 archaeology of euphoria
- #33 investigation
- #32 Non-work
- #31 Body
- #30 Eye In The Sky
- #29 Contemplation
- #28 Cultura / Natura
- #27 Cars
- #26 Documentary Strategies
- #25 Popular Music
- #24 Seeing Is Believing
- #23 Artificial Worlds
- #22 Image and Text
- #21 On Photography
- #20 Public Art
- #19 Film
- #18 80'
- #17 Amateur Photography
- #16 Photography and Painting
- #15 Prague
- #14 Commerce
- #13 Family
- #12 Reconstruction
- #11 Performance
- #10 Eroticon
- #9 Architecture
- #8 Landscape
- #7 New Staged Photography
- #6 The Recycle Image
- #5 Borders Of Documentary
- #4 Intimacy
- #3 Transforming Of Symbol
- #2 Collective Authorship
- #1 Face