Fotograf Zone – Eugenia Maximova

An award-winning photographer speaking out against the depiction of violence in the mass media has produced a powerful parable on transience: On 6 October 2018, the author’s relative, television journalist Viktoria Marinova, was brutally raped and murdered in Ruse, Bulgaria. After 48 hours, a young Roma man was arrested as the perpetrator, which was to end any debate on violence against women or about those who investigate corruption. The topography of the murder is evoked by retracing the tracks of both the victim and the alleged perpetrator, Severin K. Until their paths converge by the Danube, they move through a bleak urban landscape of places imprinted with (post)communism. The accompanying text was written by Dimitre Dinev and can be read in English, German, and Bulgarian. The very cover suggests that the book also traces the visual artist’s own journey.

Text: Josef Moucha

Josef Moucha

(1956) is a photographer and teacher at the Institute of Creative Photography of Silesian University in Opava. He has published essays Zážitek arény (The Experience of the Arena, 2004), a novella, Mimochodem (By the Way, 2004), essays Obrazy z dějin fotografie české (Images from the History of Czech Photography, 2011) and two picture books, Válka za studena / Fotografie ze základní vojenské služby v Československé lidové armádě (Serving It Cold: Photographs from Basic Training in the Czechoslovak People’s Army, 2017) and Doličné okamžiky (Incriminating Moments, 2018).

#49 Talk Together

This issue explores language – its forms, possibilities, and limits. We look at how we communicate in the digital space, how the language of artificial intelligence changes our notions of creativity, and how visual images can replace words. You will discover why language is never neutral and how it shapes identity, creates inequalities, and opens paths to liberation. The issue features a reflection by bell hooks, the artistic practice of Eszter Magyar, projects documenting the Roma community in Brno, and visual essays by Claudia Larcher and Tabor Robak. The magazine presents language as a tool of communication, power, and resistance and invites you to reflect on what it truly means to talk to one another today.