Witold Kanicki – Wacław Nowak, Polaroid

#1 min Pavel Vančát, Witold Kanicki

29. 1. 2024

#46 TourismHistoryPhotobooks

The book is a pioneering study of the photographer Wacław Nowak (1924-1976), who in 1973 got the opportunity to work with the Polaroid SX-70 instant camera, then unavailable behind the Iron Curtain. In addition to mysterious women and glittering cars, the images include parks and details of historic buildings. Kanicki's extensive text interestingly develops the issues of the polarity between the West and the East and their visuality, and mentions other pioneers of Polaroid in the socialist bloc: Fidel Castro, Sibylle Bergemann and Andrei Tarkovsky. 

 

Witold Kanicki, Wacław Nowak. Polaroid. Lusowo: Wolno, 2022

#46 TourismHistoryPhotobooksTechnologyAppropriationDocumentTourismPolaroidAuthor's review

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.

#46 Tourism

It is interesting how much the world of photography is connected with tourism, in other words, how much the two domains may have in common. If we look at them through the lens of a mass phenomenon, they may even be similarly old. And it is in this perspective that a number of controversial questions arise in all their clarity. To what extent has tourism affected many of the coastlines and unique destinations that attract tourists? And to what extent does photography influence our perception of the places we visit?

Filip Láb – Apostle of Future Photography

#5 min Filip Láb, Pavel Vančát

Filip Láb – Apostle of Future Photography

#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.