Studio of documentary photography
Head: Markéta Kinterová
Assistant: Veronika Daňhelová
Studio od Documentary Photography, exhibition, Prototyp gallery in Prague
Documentary photography includes a broad range of interpretations and approaches, starting with an effort to capture reality, a focus on realism and subordinating the intention to a certain concept or ideology. Documentary photography has undergone huge development especially in the last century, and in the Czech conditionsit is based on truly significant milestones. It is essential to include this tradition among the resources, though it is rarely also included among the current starting points. It was already 40 years ago that,in relation to the photographic document or social photography, Allan Sekula warned of the failure of the aesthetics of realism which,paradoxically, can depict people as passive victims – something thatwe have become both used to and somewhat successfully resistant to,over the course of many decades of the media making us spectators andrecipients of such visual, image-based news. This aspect needs to be re-opened and reviewed while new ways of documenting events around us have to be found.
The works that originate within the studio are eventually intended to pose questions of a social nature, to critically oppose the problematic and pressing aspects of the status quo of contemporary society, and at the same time to look for new communication channels of presentation (ranging from an exhibition project or an artist’s book to publishing in the media, online publishing, and any other new forms).
