/you just photograph it like a house by loos.../
... explains Tomáš Souček (b. 1975) and in this remark he offers a clue to the understanding of a creative approach employed not only in the collection of color photo prints Provizorní působiště (Provisional Place of Work, 2002) but also in his other works. For with his professional photographic technique and skill, Souček transforms objects of ”low“ quality into elegant photographic images, just as he does in his applied work (mostly architecture and design). In his free creative work, he does not cease to keep in mind the aesthetic value of objects and settings, and their often vanished function.”I am intrigued by the accidental aesthetic of things“ the artist claims. Rather than the principles of Surrealism, the choice of theme in Provizorní působiště brings him close to the generation of photographers (Reich, Poláček, Lutterer) looking for both poetry and banality in the outskirts, so frequently sought after by Czech artists. The stagnation and emptiness of the Normalization era (particularly visible in public spaces) no longer need concern Souček. His kinship with artists of the 1980s, however, lies in the documenting of similar places that have lost their human dimension and have long lacked a stable function (Souček points to the short-term function in his title). They are places that will not cease to draw one to thinking of the suspected past, and the possible future.
Tomáš Souček attained an education in traditional photography at what is now the Faculty of Applied Arts in Ústí nad Labem (studying in the photography studio of Pavel Baňka, 1998-2000) and hebcurrently studies at FAMU in Prague; both are schools where apart from their school assignments, students are made to, as part of their applied photography exercise, to realize the dependence of the photographic image on the photographed object. The nature of such assignment defines Souček's program, which is based on tying the photograph to a visible, tangible world, and not to the independently functioning world of images.
Souček's concern in portraying the objects of material culture dates to his student years in Ústí. In black and white, he photographed the deserted industrial zone in this North Bohemian city, and almost parallel to it also the still lives found in the rooms of the flat he was then reconstructing on his own. Perhaps thanks to his frequent stays abroad, Souček gradually began changing his style. He evolves from the typically Czech concentrated gaze (searching for the essence of phenomena) towards a more international, open perspective.”I don't think it is essen- tial to show clearly from what part of the earth the phorograph comes from“, observes Tomáš Souček, underlining the uniformity of the world with the uniformity of the image.
Even so, his precisely composed views, which in the structure of framed surfaces prompt a comparison with abstract art, are a testi- mony of concrete objects and spaces, a testimony of the nature of place and time.