February

In the past few weeks, I put a lot of effort into my own practice. I needed to focus primarily on picture taking. I stopped reading as much as I did in the previous months, and I started to use the theory for my practice. I have been traveling across Poland and Slovakia a lot, and I took couple dozens of interesting images that I already started to pair up. 

I divided my interest into couple of themes which I will be working on, before deciding on one, for the Major Project. 

1. Inspired by D.Roussel, 'The Places I Live In"

    - photos of places from outside and inside perspective 

    - space transition, looking at one place from different space positions at one time

    - juxtaposing space ( outdoor/indoor)

2 . Inspired by R.Gibson, "Overtones"

     - taking photos (creating diptychs) according to their shapes, forms, geometry

     - concentrating on formal similarities

     - paying attention to tones - shade/ light  

3. Objects evoking positive / negative emotions 

     - creating emotional juxtapositions

4. Negation of composition vs Des-integration of composition

     - dead pan style images juxtaposed to precise studio shots

     - dead pan  (pattern, landscape, chaos)   vs  studio (one object as a central motive)

5. Empty spaces vs used spaces

     -focusing on one space portrayed as used on one side, and as empty/abandoned on the other 

    

6. Other unclassified scenes and objects that interest me

    - with preferably social, environmental or cultural theme

This list is not final and it is a subject to change. 

In the following weeks/months, I will be traveling a lot, taking pictures of different places which I will then adjust for pairing (resize, dust removal, pushing contrast in some cases). 

I will be mostly using 35 mm camera for the street shots, and medium size camera (6x6) for the studio/dead pan shots. 

January

In the past few weeks, I have been working mainly on practical site of the Major Project. I have been taking street photos on my travels across Slovakia. I was focusing on interesting sites, empty or used by people. I have traveled across rural and urban places using variety of transports (train, bus, hitchhike). That helped me to photograph places I otherwise would never see. Sometimes I ended up at places in the middle of nowhere and even there, I found interesting sites to photograph. When I am traveling, meeting new people, finding new places, photographying everything I find interesting, I feel completely free. There are no boundaries to what I can capture. It gives me a complete freedom over my creativity and experience of photography.Part of my most recent work involved a computer work - pairing up images into diptychs, size adjustments or other manipulation (croppings, removing dust...). I have finalized couple of diptychs which I could divide into three categories:

1. The Street Photography diptychs (made of images taken on ''the street'', usually paired up with the same style images, although sometimes paired up with a stu

dio shot)
2. Composite Series ( Half Heads put together creating one combined Identity, there is a strange relations

hi

p between the two halves of different heads, which readers are to explore)

3. Other diptychs (Empty Spaces vs Used Spaces, Ironic Diptychs, Bizzare-Experimental Diptychs, diptychs made of two different mediums...)
In next couple of days/weeks , I will start wor

king on contextual essays, writing and contextualizing work I have done so far. I will also write on basic photography theory which is the core

 of my project. Besides writing essays, I will be taking pictures on my trips In Europe (Poland, Czech, Slovakia). I will also do more of the studio head shots for the composite series.

HEAD COMPOSITES

Zuzka / Unknown

Edna / Gaspar

December

Previous couple of weeks, I spent collecting, annotating and summarizing material which I found interestin and inspiring for my project. I have started narrowing down the focus into researching diptychs and their use.. Looking at work of other artists gave me a valuable insight into issues around diptychs and also it has inspired me in many cases.

My aim is to use my images to provoke audience to ask questions. I want to challenge them. I know that my work must be visually interesting enough for them to be bothered to think about it, question it or even to look for answers / meanings in it.

 I have decided on my project's working title : 'Diptychs'. So far, there is very little outcome of it, as I have just made first experiments with portraits which I had shot for this project. I have combined various images together creating visual games. 

One of the ideas which I will be developing further, is combining a portrait of a person with his thoughts written on a paper... Images of both will be displayed side by side influencing each other and reading of the diptych.

Influence/Inspiration

My main inspiration comes from Lubo Stacho and his diptychs, work of Denis Roussel and Ralph Gibson. Lately, I have been also looking at series of diptychs made by Mark Laita.

@ Lubo Stacho

   ------------------------------

@Mark Laita

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@ Ralph Gibson

Furthemore, I am inspired by other contemporary artists like Barbara Kruger, Jeff Wall, Richard Prince, Thomas Ruff, Manolis Baboussis, John Stezaker, Gillian Wearing, Duane Michals...

THE MAJOR PROJECT

 Lukas Macek – Proposal for The Major Project

 Based on my previous research and recent projects (triptychs), I am going to make the Major Project using diptychs and composite techniques. I am interested in using diptych compositions because of its narrative and juxtaposing tendencies. This interest comes from my previous experience with triptychs, and thus I find diptychs a reasonable step towards further exploring of the relationships and tensions between images. With my work I am trying to investigate people and their living space (urban/rural) as two faced, focusing on differences in architecture, tradition or lifestyle that reflect past and present. I am also trying to establish a visual communication between viewer and the body of work. To do that, I will be using techniques and processes like, translation of the analogue medium to digital, creating narratives and juxtapositions, visually excite or stimulate interest (using objects that merge from one image to the other). I will mainly be taking photographs on the street (documentary, snap shot), which I will then pair up/juxtapose into diptychs to create new relations and meanings. The creative process of the Major Project could be divided into three different sections.

The first section will be dealing with the contextual and visual contemporary research. I am going to look at other artists who used diptychs in their work, mainly as means of expression. Also, I will spend time researching the backgrounds of their ideas. The main focus is to develop the project and to do that, I will be building the context for it around the following artist: Lubo Stacho (for his spiritual/ humanistic approach), Denis Roussel, Ralph Gibson (for his visually stimulating approach) and Mark Laita. I will be linking my own practice to their work as well as to other contemporary artists (viewed exhibitions, talks).

The second section will be dealing with the theories that underpin my own practice: noting, describing and summarizing. I will be focusing on the theories within the contemporary art context. I will take a reflective approach that will consider closely the processes of making diptychs (through putting images together and creating meanings) and this will be written in my journal. I will further reflect upon these processes, selecting and exploring what worked and what didn’t towards my intentions and visions. With my essays, in order to provide a rationale for my work, I will consider and analyse the works of other contemporary artists.

The third section will be dealing with the practical side of the Major Project. I will be taking photographs on variety of locations (urban, rural). The outcomes will then be assessed and suitable images paired into diptychs. They will then establish new meanings that will invoke further exploration from viewers.

Over period of time, I see the images develop toward more complex body of work. The critical ideas will help to select and narrow down the focus so that the work becomes readable and influential. I have previously used triptychs as a way of narrative expression and I want to continue using narratives for the Major Project as well. I also chose to use diptychs due to their juxtaposing, contrasting, describing and narrative nature. When two images are placed side by side, there is an interaction between them, which is only created and visible when images are viewed together. With my diptychs, I want to invoke people’s interest, so that they start to question and explore the relationships within and among these images. I also would like viewers to think about their stand/position on the issues depicted.


Bibliography

Ashley la Grange, Basic Critical Theory for Photographers, Elsevier Ltd., 2005
Charlotte Cotton, The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Thames & Hudson, 2004
Geoff Dyer, Ways of Telling (The Work of John Berger), Pluto Press Ltd., 1986
Ralph Gibson, Overtones, Edition Stemmle, 1998.
Graham Clarke, The Photograph, Oxford University Press 1997
Susan Sontag, On Photography, Penguin Books 1979
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, Penguin Books 2004
John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Penguin Books 1972
John Berger – Jean Mohr, Another Way of Telling, Granta Books 1989
Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, Vintage 2000
Roland Barthes, Image/Music/Text, Fontana Press 1977
Robert Silverio Postmoderni fotografie, AMU Praha 2007