FotoArtFestival Diary

FotoArtFestival 2007

It was a pleasant lunch, again a good soup followed by a slightly ordinary main course, but the company made up for any deficiencies. But eating is of the small problems of events such as this, and because of the delays, the presentations were moving on relentlessly without break.

I was sorry to have missed the presentation by Michael Macku from the Czech Republic, and only came in after Judit Horvath and Gyorgy Stalter had started their presentation on their work on gypsies across Hungary and in the ghetto settlements around Budapest.

This was work that greatly interested me; powerful, intimate documentary images, that seemed to really get to the heart of the people they worked with (I don't think they - or I - think of them as subjects) and also get to my heart as I viewed their images.

Looking at the work of this husband and wife pair I am at times surprised by the similarity of their way of seeing things. But that perhaps reflects more on my own 38 years of marriage.

Joan Fontcuberta gave a fascinating and truly enjoyable introduction to his career, and I particularly enjoyed seeing and hearing about the Sputnik Foundation. (It is perhaps clearer to look at this site.)

Ivan Istochnikov, a rough translation of Fontcuberta's own name, was a cosmonaut who disappeared during a failed docking between Soyuz2 and Soyuz 3, and was written out of Soviet history. Sothebys, New York, auctioned a photograph of him together with 5 other cosmonauts - and all six signatures - in 1993. Or, alternatively, the disappeared space pilot is artist Joan Fontcuberta, his image carefully inserted into the photograph, and in many others where he replaces other cosmonauts.

It was a hoax and a great scale, involving many forged documents and altered photographs, and dispute clear statements that it was fiction, many people were fooled - and the Russian ambassador in Madrid where it was first shown protested in alarm.

Earlier in this diary you can find my comments on his latest work, 'Landscapes without Memory'; although it has a certain amusement, I think it has little or nothing to do with photography or how we see or view photographs.

Naomi Rosenblum's lecture was entitled "Photo League", but in fact after a brief introduction to their work she took us through a history of documentary and street photography from its earliest inception, with many points of interest.

Interesting though it was, it was perhaps almost like a 'World History of Photography' in an hour and a half, and I would have preferred something that went into the Photo League itself and its many key figures in more depth. She after all is in a position to give an inside view on the organisation, having been married to one of its key figures and known so many more.

She was involved in the organisation, despite not herself being a photographer. As she reminded me when I talked to her afterwards, she was a designer and indeed had designed the cover of 'Photo Notes', the influential magazine of the League (Edward Weston praised it as the most worthwhile magazine dealing with photography.)

In her talk she had mentioned two of the photographers I was going to say something about the following day, John Thomson and Paul Martin, but as I said to her, I'm not a photo-historian, so I will look at them differently.

Nina Rosenblum's film about her father, 'Walter Rosenblum: In search of Pitt Street' was an amazing experience, and it was good that we had moved somewhere with a decent screen. However, the sound system in the theatre wasn't working too well, and Nina was upset. She tells me that the sound was worked on at great expense by the best sound guy in the business and it is really clear, and promises to send me a copy on DVD.

It's been a great day, and we are off to the Galeria Bielska for a party. More great party food - and more vodka, but at least there is a bar here where I can buy a good Polish beer. Or two.

Then I'm leading a group of photographers and volunteers and their friends to Franciszek's bar in Wzgorze again. For some reason most of the Poles decide against coming in

Perhaps it's because they already know that there will be a screening of a film about Nobuyoshi Araki. Its a strange kind of meta-pornography, in which the irrepressible giggling hyperactive in his cartoon round glasses takes an obvious delight in tweaking the genitals of his models. Actually he seems to find everything a source of joy, a maniacal glee at life itself which soon - at least on screen - becomes tedious.

Fortunately it isn't too hard for me to turn away from the antics on the screen while we talk and have a few beers.

Soon, Alex and I decide to walk back to the hotel, its been a long and interesting day, but I'm worn out.

(continued on next page.)

FotoArtFestival Bielsko-Biala 2007

FotoArtFestival 2007

FotoArtFestival Diary 2007

Peter Marshall

Bielsko-Biala, October 18-28, 2007