{"id":4640,"date":"2016-01-22T14:30:50","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T14:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/?page_id=4640"},"modified":"2016-01-27T20:15:29","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T20:15:29","slug":"a-sandor-szilagyi-photomagic-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/?page_id=4640","title":{"rendered":"Sa\u0301ndor Szila\u0301gyi: Photomagic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/?page_id=4622\">Return to Theme Table of Content<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/?page_id=1134\">Return to Issue Table of Content<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">This is the 4th essay in the threaded theme &#8220;On Photography&#8221; by Sa\u0301ndor Szila\u0301gyi.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4647\" style=\"width: 607px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-discharge-w.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4647\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4647\" class=\"wp-image-4647\" src=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-discharge-w.jpg\" alt=\"Kerekes G\u00e1bor Arh\u00edvum - KGA\" width=\"597\" height=\"637\" align=\"left\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-discharge-w.jpg 750w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-discharge-w-141x150.jpg 141w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-discharge-w-281x300.jpg 281w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4647\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kerekes G\u00e1bor: Discharge, 1994. Gelatin Silver Print,\u00a0 28X28 cm. \u00a9 G\u00e1bor Kerekes Archive<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>G\u00e1bor Kerekes does an extraordinary thing with photography. He does not tell stories or <iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 5px; float: right;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/152880351\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\ncite dramatic events, nor does he document his own emotions and moods \u2013 he <em>philosophizes<\/em>. He makes ontological and epistemological investigations; he probes the bounds of human cognition. Through photography, he seeks our place in the universe. He researches characteristics of the human sensory organs, particularly those that help us find our bearings: the eye, the ear, and the brain. But, above all, he explores the relationships between science and art.<\/p>\n<p>In one sense, it is as if he merely tried to recreate the cohesion of olden times \u2013 a unity that in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century, regrettably, disintegrated in both the artistic and scientific communities. Science fell apart into increasingly specialised fields and at the same time became ever more dehumanised. Art, likewise, became emptier and more self-centred as it lost contact with other forms of understanding the world \u2013 that is, from the experiences of everyday life and the sciences.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4648\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-elephant-foot-w.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4648\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4648\" class=\"wp-image-4648 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-elephant-foot-w-300x238.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Kerekes G\u00e1bor Arh\u00edvum - KGA\" width=\"300\" height=\"238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-elephant-foot-w-300x238.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-elephant-foot-w-150x119.jpg 150w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-elephant-foot-w-768x609.jpg 768w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-elephant-foot-w.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4648\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">G\u00e1bor Kerekes: Elephant Foot, 1991. Gelatin Silver Print, 28&#215;34 cm. \u00a9 Kerekes G\u00e1bor Archive<\/p><\/div>\n<p>From an artistic perspective, Kerekes expresses the rediscovery \u2013 also acknowledged by an\u00a0 increasing number of scientists \u2013 that intuition and reason belong together after all. And he, simultaneously, explores the ever-puzzling question: can the world be known? What can the arts, in this case photography, contribute to what we know about the world and humankind?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Role-play<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This may seem like a trivial approach but it is not self-evident, as Kerekes does not fulfil our expectations of how a photographer should act. Rather, his approach more closely resembles that of a 19<sup>th<\/sup>-century naturalist who happened to take photographs in the course of his research. That is to say, he uses the photograph like a scientist uses experimental equipment. An obvious indication of this is his penchant for photographing old paraphernalia such as test tubes, a lightning conductor, a dynamo, assorted measuring instruments and the like. Furthermore, he readily chooses the objectified results of the sciences (human and animal anatomical specimens, and fine examples of insect and mineral collections) as his subjects.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4651\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-SJudit-w.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4651\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4651\" class=\"wp-image-4651 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-SJudit-w-300x219.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Kerekes G\u00e1bor Arh\u00edvum - KGA\" width=\"300\" height=\"219\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-SJudit-w-300x219.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-SJudit-w-150x110.jpg 150w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-SJudit-w-768x561.jpg 768w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-SJudit-w.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4651\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">G\u00e1bor Kerekes: SJudit, 1997, Gelatin Silver Print, 8&#215;10 cm. \u00a9 Kerekes G\u00e1bor Archive<\/p><\/div>\n<p>But we should all be aware that this is simply <em>play<\/em> no matter how seriously its maker takes it, or how successfully he has managed to construct a coherent, independent visual world through this role-play. We should not be deceived by the <em>subject matter<\/em> of his photographs. Kerekes clearly deals with photography and not science.<\/p>\n<p>This immediately becomes evident upon closer inspection of his pictures, many of which are in fact a result of his sleight of hand. What, at first glance, appears to be a planet bearing the scars of cosmic impacts is, in reality, a ball-shaped lightning conductor; the sunrise shot of a planet in space is of a tennis ball taken within the walls of a studio; the small planet surrounded by stars is a Starking apple, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>The illusion is perfect, and these are not mere comparisons. Kerekes is not saying that a lightning conductor is like a planet, and that a rubber ball or apple shot with the right lighting are like celestial bodies. Through the means of photography he <em>creates <\/em>these heavenly spheres. He imbues everyday objects with cosmic significance. This is not natural history, but the purest photography, indeed <em>photomagic<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The rediscovery of photography<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4649\" style=\"width: 246px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-frogs-w.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4649\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4649\" class=\"wp-image-4649 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-frogs-w-236x300.jpg\" alt=\"Kerekes G\u00e1bor Arh\u00edvum - KGA\" width=\"236\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-frogs-w-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-frogs-w-118x150.jpg 118w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-frogs-w.jpg 629w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4649\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">G\u00e1bor Kerekes:, Frogs, 1992. Gelatin Silver Print, 25X21 cm. \u00a9 Kerekes G\u00e1bor Archive<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Kerekes goes back to the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century not just in his subject matter, but also in the appearance and processing techniques of his pictures. In and of itself this is nothing special. Around the world \u2013 and here in Hungary, too \u2013 many people use the so-called historical, alternative, manual photographic techniques. Yet, Kerekes goes radically further than this: the whole point of his role-play is that he did not stop at the pictorialist aesthetic that almost automatically follows from the use of manual techniques. At the same time, he was not swept away by shockingly upsetting taboos, nor has he been carried away by the intoxication of the digital manipulation of pictures. With his particular archaizing of his prints, he has created for himself a very modern photographic language.<\/p>\n<p>His images of antiquated effect not only evoke the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century, but also the first half-century of the history of photography \u2013 an age characterized by the na\u00efve and functional use of the photograph <em>prior to<\/em> pictorialism \u2013 when photography was a novel discovery itself. He reminds us not only that it was used for geographical and scientific discoveries, as Kerekes indicates with his chosen subject matter, but also that photographers of that time had to discover the medium itself, its possibilities and limitations, and frequently even its fundamental techniques. No doubt, this is a kind of gesture of respect to our forefathers and foremothers \u2013 but it goes deeper than that.<\/p>\n<p>For one thing, together with the maker of these images we can relive all the charm of the first, hesitant steps of the birth of photography. It is not by chance that, despite his perfectionism, Kerekes almost provocatively accepts the flaws of photography \u2013 the blistering of hand-coated emulsion, the broken glass of the specimen of frogs\u2019 skeletons, a storage label spoiling a museum lithograph, the crookedness of the edges of the picture, and the streaking of astronomical images. These \u201cimperfections\u201d of his flawlessly executed photographs perfectly correspond to the form and content, the model, and what you see in Kerekes\u2019s photographs. Their role is to remind us of the <em>fallibility<\/em> of the world, of the medium of photography, of the artists creating it, and of the viewer taking in the sight. Leaving in the flaws, for Kerekes, is about visual philosophy and not pure aestheticizing.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The future of photography<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Besides this, the radical step back in time has another consequence in terms of the <iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 5px; float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/152880611\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> philosophy of art. Kerekes deliberately pushes aside the <em>lot<\/em>: today\u2019s, yesterday\u2019s, and the day before yesterday\u2019s art photography. He deliberately goes further back, precisely because he is seeking an idiom that he knows will be valid tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. That is why he does not stop at the pictorialist aesthetic although this once produced excellent results with manual techniques, which he, too, has used. However, Kerekes does not wish to indulge in nostalgia. As we have seen, for him the role of the naturalist is not immersion in the past, but rather an intellectual link to the most modern scientific endeavours. This is how the role-play, the subject matter arising from it, the chosen techniques, and the artistic self-reflection blend into a perfect whole within Kerekes\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, this creative gesture returning to the pre-artistic era of photography speaks of no less than the future of the medium. This is most simply expressed by a paradox: it is digital imagemaking that will truly turn traditional photography into art. And why? Because it will free it from a number of tasks foreign to art. Applied photography (the scientific, advertising, and press photograph) will sooner or later go over to digital techniques; digitization is also the future for snapshots, and the new techniques\u2019 independent artistic use is also developing \u2013 in multimedia and computer graphics.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, the traditional, chemical-based, manual photographic techniques (including the nowadays already and still most accepted silver gelatin process) will become more valuable primarily because they can only produce a photograph as <em>a work of art<\/em>.<a href=\"#_edn1\" name=\"_ednref\"><\/a> And obviously, it is also because there will be fewer and fewer people who know how to produce it, and thus the photograph will acquire rarity value.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4645\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-arm-w.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4645\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4645\" class=\"wp-image-4645 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-arm-w.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Kerekes G\u00e1bor Arh\u00edvum - KGA\" width=\"1000\" height=\"326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-arm-w.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-arm-w-150x49.jpg 150w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-arm-w-300x98.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-arm-w-768x250.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4645\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">G\u00e1bor Kerekes: Arm, 1993. Toned Gelatin Silver Print, 14&#215;35 cm. \u00a9 Kerekes G\u00e1bor Archive<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong><em>Alt-chemistry<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The proper form of appearance of multimedia and computer graphics is not the photograph as an object, the print, but a virtual picture displayed <em>on a screen<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Kerekes knows this very well, but he didn\u2019t calculatingly set out to learn the old techniques from books at the price of many hundreds of hours of hard graft and experimentation. Most importantly, his already mentioned <em>perfectionism<\/em> and the aesthetic considerations closely connected with it led him to such obscure processes as salted paper, albumen, printing-out paper and alike.<\/p>\n<p>This perfectionism consists of the fact that these old techniques are in numerous respects <em>more nearly perfect<\/em> than their more modern descendants in use today. Their resolution is higher, they render tones more subtly, and as they are contact rather than enlarging processes, that is the negative is as large as the finished photograph, they are sharper and somehow \u201cmore real\u201d than the raw materials of today.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4646\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-chemical-instrument-w.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4646\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4646\" class=\"wp-image-4646 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-chemical-instrument-w-204x300.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Kerekes G\u00e1bor Arh\u00edvum - KGA\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-chemical-instrument-w-204x300.jpg 204w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-chemical-instrument-w-102x150.jpg 102w, https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/sandor-chemical-instrument-w.jpg 545w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4646\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">G\u00e1bor Kerekes: Chemical Instrument, 1991. Gelatin Silver Print, 23&#215;18 cm. \u00a9 Kerekes G\u00e1bor Archive<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This in itself already has aesthetic consequences. In addition to this, salted paper \u2013 with only slight exaggeration \u2013 is like a living creature. As there is no binder, the picture develops on the paper\u2019s diaphanous matt surface, and under it every fibre of the paper almost palpitates, Or if we look more closely at albumen,<a href=\"#_edn2\" name=\"_ednref\"><\/a> it is subtle in a different way: it has a lustrous, shiny surface. Silver chloride printing-out paper also surpasses the capabilities of silver bromide enlarging papers in many respects. Moreover, we should remember the wonderfully deep, brownish black tones of all three photographic papers. This phenomenon is produced by immersing the photograph in a bath of gold chloride, as Kerekes the Grand Master is apt to do with them.<strong><em><br \/>\nUniverse<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So Kerekes does something exceptional: he philosophizes with pictures. He does not use them to illustrate complete tenets of philosophy or religious philosophy, such as those of Zen, but through them evolves a <em>personal visual philosophy<\/em>. He examines the universe. He tries to make it talk. He looks at the world around him as if from above, but not as if he imagined himself as God. He wishes to separate the significant from the insignificant to create <em>timeless<\/em> works. This is why he does not photograph people\u2014subjects that would only disturb the clarity of his vision with each person too incidental, minute, fallible. Like <iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 5px; float: right;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/152880790\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> this, the world is <em>cosmically <\/em>desolate. In this way, his work reminds me of the poetry of J\u00e1nos Pilinszky and the music of Laurie Anderson.<\/p>\n<p>Will Kerekes ever reach the point where he communicates with the world<strong>,<\/strong> and about the world<strong>,<\/strong> through the human face, through portraits? I for one would be delighted if he did, as I would interpret this as the world at long last being ripe for G\u00e1bor Kerekes to forgive it. And who would not want to live in a world like that?<\/p>\n<p>Translated by Christopher Claris.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">[A version of this text was originally delivered at the exhibition opening for the Nyitott M\u0171hely (Open Workshop) Gallery on 4 March 2002. It was first published in Hungarian in Besz\u00e9l\u0151, April 2002. G\u00e1bor Kerekes (1945\u20132014) is considered by many \u2013 including the writer of these sentences \u2013 as being one of the most important photo-artists of post-WWII Hungarian Art Photography. The illustrations are from the section \u201cYEARS &#8211; 80&#8242;- 2K\u201d of his website, http:\/\/w3.enternet.hu\/kgj\/images.html.]<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Return to Theme Table of Content \/ Return to Issue Table of Content This is the 4th essay in the threaded theme &#8220;On Photography&#8221; by Sa\u0301ndor Szila\u0301gyi. &nbsp; G\u00e1bor Kerekes does an extraordinary thing with photography. He does not tell &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/?page_id=4640\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88893,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4640","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2KsSU-1cQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4640"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4691,"href":"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4640\/revisions\/4691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vjic.org\/vjic2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}