Adam Holý – Romantic porn

#2 min Pavel Vančát, Adam Holý

7. 1. 2015

Adam Holý, selected from files created 2005–2007
Adam Holý, selected from files created 2005–2007

“Everything is erotic, isn't it?” retorted Adam Holý in his questioningly innocent manner, when I asked him what connects his lightly ruffled nature photographs with nudes taken in the style of amateur S&M production. Eroticism, like an anagram of vitality, is nothing really new in photography. Edward Weston photographed peppers and toilets instead of women; Helmut Newton, on the contrary, photographed women to appear as if made by Audi. Adam Holý tries to find a Grand Unified Theory.

#10 EroticonProfileAmateurism

Holý is one of the most interesting fashion and style photographers in Prague. But for him, it’s not enough; photography is a sort of refined gluttony. As such, he is permanently driven to ask which of his pictures are really usable, and even more precisely: when, how and (above all) where? The non-problematic migration of his “shots” between high and low, between craftsmanship and spontaneity, makes the whole of his work an interesting study of diffusion and the mutual influence of the artist’s free and commercial work.

Holý is one of the most interesting fashion and style photographers in Prague. But for him, it’s not enough; photography is a sort of refined gluttony. As such, he is permanently driven to ask which of his pictures are really usable, and even more precisely: when, how and (above all) where? The non-problematic migration of his “shots” between high and low, between craftsmanship and spontaneity, makes the whole of his work an interesting study of diffusion and the mutual influence of the artist’s free and commercial work.

Holý gets inspiration wherever possible: Wolfgang Tillmans and Jürgen Teller, as well as Nan Goldin, Terry Richardson, but also František Drtikol or Karel Ludwig, and even the romanticizing (and also painterly) influence of the group Bratrstvo (Brotherhood). Holý not only builds on their foundations, but also confronts them. He adores genres, he loves to play with them and he relishes diving deeply into them. A profound symbolism of religious motifs and references to old painting follow from this, but alongside, we find a playful exploitation of the amateur “snapshot” style, which should help Holý to shake off professional ennui. But all the arrangements (whether confessed or not) are under strict control, at least from the perspective of the final selection.

As Holý proudly admits, photography is about unveiling; the rest is just idle chatter. He simply “takes shots” because he must. He “shoots” – in the true sense of the word -- in the way the “angry young” post-war photographers projected themselves, both barbarously and romantically. Photography as a straightforwardly sensuous activity, full of desire and discreet violence –an authentic expression of a enchanted machismo.

Text | Pavel Vančát

All images | Adam Holý, selected from files created 2005–2007

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Pavel Vančát

is a free-lance curator and writer, based in Prague. Since 2008, he has worked as project curator of StartPoint: prize for European Art Graduates. He has curated dozens of exhibitions of contemporary art, photography, and visual culture. He was the head curator of Prague’s Fotograf Festival 2019 and co-curator of m3 Sculpture Festival 2020: Layers of History.

#10 Eroticon

Intimate and Raw – Afterglow Revisits the Work of Adam Holý

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Intimate and Raw – Afterglow Revisits the Work of Adam Holý

Fotograf zone ExhibitionOpening

On Thursday, 3 September, Fotograf Zone will open Afterglow, an exhibition dedicated to the remarkable photographic practice of Adam Holý. Staged ten years after the artist’s death, the exhibition reflects on his lasting impact on Czech photography while repositioning his work within a contemporary context. Bringing together intimate portraits, spontaneous snapshots taken from a moving car, and lesser-known landscape montages, the exhibition offers a compelling encounter with a complex body of work whose images continue to surprise, unsettle, and fascinate.

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#5 min Filip Láb, Pavel Vančát

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#41 Postdigital PhotographyProfilePostdigital photography

Filip Láb, who died unexpectedly and prematurely in May 2021, was not only a prominent theorist and teacher of photography, but was also one of a generation of artists that dealt with the shift in political polarities and radical changes in the photographic paradigm. His relatively short but very significant creative period, tied to his collaboration with Bára Mrázková, still surprises with its innovation and precision.