The main feature of the works of Tomáš Ludvík (b. 1980) is his preference for a conceptual approach, and a resignation to an aesthetic stylization and manipulation in photography. In a more narrow sense, Ludvík's graduation project (accompanied by a critical essay published in the present issue of Fotograf, on page 108) People of an Environment (Lidé z prostředí 2002-2004), takes a critical stand towards one of the main tendencies of Czech documentary photography, which - with the proliferation of visual gesture - has lost a certain authenticity and trust. In contrast to the long- accepted principle of the decisive moment, the artist highlights the method of zero action, of the banal situation, of any moment. He thus continues the well-trodden path (indeed, for more than twenty years!) of Lukáš Jasanský and Martin Polák, both in their absolu- tely radical personal disengagement to the portrayed, and the creation of transparent views of the world shrouded in technical images.
Without emotion, and with the hint of a smile, Ludvík photographed inconcpicuous scenes from life, translating them into black and white prints for the cycle People of an Environment (Lidé z prostředí). The distance of the artist from the spot where the action takes place stresses the significance of the environment, at the expense of the significance of the people photographed, who, thanks to the artist's deliberate distance lose their individuality and become mere types. An older series of photographs by Tomáš Ludvík, dating to his student years at the Faculty of Art and Design in Ústí nad Labem, was similar. The Waiting (Čekající, 2002) was the output of a final assigned project, on the theme of the portrayal of a social issue. This cycle of color photographs showed people in public spaces, photographed from a distance. Similar to the work of, for instance, Václav Podestát, in his selection Ludvík portrayed his people as waiting, but without the perspective of a seductive 'Something', instead with the expectation of the mortifying 'Nothing'.
Ludvík's laconic proclamation ”whatever and wherever I photograph is OK“ is losely connected to Gerhard Richter's claim in 1966 that ”A photo, unless it is 'rendered' by an artistic photographer, is the best representation for me. It is perfect, it is not subject to change, it is absolute, independent and unconditional, it has no style.“* Despite the fact that Richter highlights amateur photography mainly because of its visual qualities and originality, he appreciates also the fact that its force is all the more strongly marked the less it is manipulated.
Just as in amateur photographs, in Ludvík's images I am constantly transfixed by a paradox. As an ardent reader of all kinds of theories I may know that photography does not represent the world around us, but itself, but I am always astonished how transparent and truthful the things and situations transformed by photography with a minimal visual contribution from the artist appear to me. At the same time, Ludvík makes no secret of his creative ambitions: he is a photographer, and if he manipulates his photographs, it is mainly at the level of ideas. He explains: ”Photography can be made up“, adding, ”If I lost these pictures, I'd take them again, the same.“ Who knows?
*Note: Gerhard Richter is quoted from: Výtvarné umění 1994; 1: 10.
Without emotion, and with the hint of a smile, Ludvík photographed inconcpicuous scenes from life, translating them into black and white prints for the cycle People of an Environment (Lidé z prostředí). The distance of the artist from the spot where the action takes place stresses the significance of the environment, at the expense of the significance of the people photographed, who, thanks to the artist's deliberate distance lose their individuality and become mere types. An older series of photographs by Tomáš Ludvík, dating to his student years at the Faculty of Art and Design in Ústí nad Labem, was similar. The Waiting (Čekající, 2002) was the output of a final assigned project, on the theme of the portrayal of a social issue. This cycle of color photographs showed people in public spaces, photographed from a distance. Similar to the work of, for instance, Václav Podestát, in his selection Ludvík portrayed his people as waiting, but without the perspective of a seductive 'Something', instead with the expectation of the mortifying 'Nothing'.
Ludvík's laconic proclamation ”whatever and wherever I photograph is OK“ is losely connected to Gerhard Richter's claim in 1966 that ”A photo, unless it is 'rendered' by an artistic photographer, is the best representation for me. It is perfect, it is not subject to change, it is absolute, independent and unconditional, it has no style.“* Despite the fact that Richter highlights amateur photography mainly because of its visual qualities and originality, he appreciates also the fact that its force is all the more strongly marked the less it is manipulated.
Just as in amateur photographs, in Ludvík's images I am constantly transfixed by a paradox. As an ardent reader of all kinds of theories I may know that photography does not represent the world around us, but itself, but I am always astonished how transparent and truthful the things and situations transformed by photography with a minimal visual contribution from the artist appear to me. At the same time, Ludvík makes no secret of his creative ambitions: he is a photographer, and if he manipulates his photographs, it is mainly at the level of ideas. He explains: ”Photography can be made up“, adding, ”If I lost these pictures, I'd take them again, the same.“ Who knows?
/jan freiberg/
*Note: Gerhard Richter is quoted from: Výtvarné umění 1994; 1: 10.