FotoArtFestival Diary

FotoArtFestival 2007

Misha Gordin is next, and has a video presentation of his projects. He introduces it by telling us about how he started by having a dream and then deciding that what he would do is to construct photographs of his dreams.

These were in black and white, and reflect much of the kind of vocabulary made popular by the surrealists as well as relating strongly to the totalitarian regime under which he grew up in Latvia.

[Later, while we are sitting in Krakow domestic departures terminal waiting for our flight to Warsaw, I tell him about my dream the previous night, or at least the small fragment I remember, sitting in a railway carriage with a man reading a newspaper, suddenly clippings from my beard fall on his paper and I'm wiping them off, profusely apologising.. He tells me I should photograph it, but one problem is that I dream in colour, which makes it more complicated.]

What follows on screen is a powerful revelation. Seen large and with suitable music, presented one image after another, it impresses me much more than the smallish images on the wall.

There are two series based on crowds that I find particularly impressive, both in the imagery and in the amount of work that must have been involved.

Noami and Nina share their enthusiasm for the work with me, and I also find them very powerful, though rather disturbing.

A questioner asks him how he makes the images, and he says its just a matter of making the negatives and then combining them with the enlarger. He cuts masks and puts them on the printing paper. He says it is simple.

Later, at lunch I challenge Misha about this, suggesting there must be rather more to it. How does he avoid getting light or dark lines where the different negatives meet? He says it is just a matter of accurate cutting of the masks, and that you have to cut them with the knife at an angle, depending on which edge you are cutting and its position in the image. All of which perhaps explains why it can take him a month to make a picture.

As Misha starts signing catalogues, I leave to take a look at the pictures of Roma from Hungary by Judit and Gyorgy, as it was still being hung when I was at the school on Thursday.

The pictures of the Hungarian Roma are truly superb. So many fine pictures it is hard to know where to start and what to say. Among my particular favourites are three young girls in polka dot dresses, two the same height, the one at the left younger, standing on a tiled floor facing the camera. Another I particularly like has a young woman posing in a track suit in a urban caravan site, in front of a circus can, her t-shirt with the words 'worker generation ultra power extra ...' , a mother holding a baby, a young boy clinging to her other side in a bathroom, and a woman in lingerie in an uncomfortable looking pose on a striped sofa, a man sleeping on the bed at the right of the picture, his hand resting on his crotch.

I also have time to take a further look at the work by Jose Luis Raoto and his father, before checking back at what is happening in the hall and then deciding to take lunch. Which is fine, although it is hard to take seriously a restaurant that uses tomato ketchup as a sauce on its meat.

I run off back to the hotel to get the copy of the 2005 catalogue I had meant to bring with me to give to Kate, then slip back into the Maraton. I find Jose has already started his presentation, but I don't think I missed a great deal. What I do see are many fine images, particularly of horses and their riders.

In the exhibition I'd notice that in some respects Jose's work was often more or less timeless in its approach - and unless there were tell-tale subjects could easily have been taken at almost any period in photography. But his father's work much more often has a strong 1950's feel, with typical 'modernist' touches.

By the time I get back to the hall, Jose has started his presentation. He shows a lot more pictures than are in the exhibition, including what I thought were some rather better images of men and horses.

After this, my diary has a rather curious blank. Suddenly I realise it is my turn to perform on the stage. Surely I think there must be more happening first, but no, Misha is telling me it really is my turn now.

Its actually the hardest part of the festival for me to write about. Of course I had some stuff on paper, and also a Powerpoint presentation, but what I did wasn't really quite either of them.

When I was preparing my material for Bielsko-Biala, I'd thought a bit about the problems of translation, and the way that having to present things in two languages - English and Polish - slows things down.

I'd started by writing a lecture - in English of course. But later, when I'd prepared the visuals I had a better idea, which was to put much of the English text on the screen with the images. My Polish translator could then read and translate the points from the screen - but of course there would be no need for me to read out the English - as English speakers could read it while at the same time as the translator.

But that would leave me just sitting there trying to look pretty (hopeless task!) while the translator gave my talk. Well, no way am I going to sit there looking dumb with a microphone in my hand. So on top of the material on the presentation, I am going to make comments and additions (which are of course going to have to be translated into Polish.) Some of those comments will be from the printed text, but most will be off the top of my head.

Thankfully I have two interpreters, one who will translate the written material from the screen, and the other, Inez, who will try to cope with the extra stuff I add.

This is the one part where I don't have any of my own photographs to show it happening. It takes a little explaining to my translators what I'm going to do, but in the end I think it works out well. My contribution is entitled 'On English Streets' and looks a a highly select and personal choice of photographers who have worked photographing things on the street or similar public places, including a fairly long section on John Benton-Harris and ending with some of my own work from 'My London Diary'.

I will try shortly to make an edited version of this talk available on-line. The lights were a little too bright for me to really be able to judge how the audience were reacting, but it seemed to work quite well.

(continued on next page.)

FotoArtFestival Bielsko-Biala 2007 - Sunday

FotoArtFestival 2007

FotoArtFestival Diary 2007

Peter Marshall

Bielsko-Biala, October 18-28, 2007