Fotograf Magazine

The exhibition, Štěpán Grygar 12 and 13, shows the newest creations of photographer and Prague FAMU teacher, Štěpán Grygar. The three photo collections of staged photography create a compact entity that reflects the creative principles typical of Grygar’s artistic work up to now. At first glance the noticeably aesthetic creativeness of Grygar’s photographic images is the result of adhering to principles that have had their own place in Grygar’s works for a long time now. Exploring the basic means of photographic imaging – light, composition and depth of focus – is the starting point for each of the exhibited series. 

In Grygar’s words, the inspiration for the series of colourful, geometricized compositions was Henri Bergson’s philosophical revision of the perception of the time in a given era; one that casts doubt on time as a collection of cause and effect. Grygar refuses to exhibit his photographic series both in full or in chronological order. By disrupting the logic of temporal flow he calls for the series to be viewed as a singular artistic whole. In another collection of views of changing coloured lighting of a roof-top window, Grygar shows a series of photos, whose composition is constantly the same; only the colour composition differs. Even without having to intervene in the shots in any way (the photographs are never manipulated), he demonstrates the ability of the image‘s elements/resources themselves, in this case colours, to completely change the resulting character of the photograph. Grygar’s artistic sensitivity does not even depend in any way on formal research into photographic processes. The visually attractive exhibition, Štěpán Grygar 12 and 13, is proof of this. 

Eva Riebová