„In today’s world, sweating is taboo. Enter “sweat” into any search engine and you’ll find a multitude of ways to remedy it. The huge array of deodorants available commercially is an indication of just how unacceptable sweating is in everyday life. Sweat is embarrassing: a sign of poor hygiene. Body odor is ‘disgusting’. Faces cringe when confronted with it. Even as far back as the Bible, sweat was equated with hardship. When Adam was expelled by God, for example, he was condemned thenceforth to earn his daily bread By the Sweat of His Brow (Genesis 3, 19). Sweat may well owe a good part of its poor reputation to its anti-social stench, but it also has negative connotations due to its association with fear. A sweaty handshake betrays nervousness. When you wake up bathed in sweat at night, it’s more likely due to nightmares or anxiety than to faulty air conditioning. Photographer Reiner Riedler has discovered sweat as an artistic form of expression.Fascinated by the image captured by the sweat on his T-shirt after jogging – like a spontaneous self-portrait – he has used the sweat produced by others to create a series of images. In order to achieve this, he approached the renowned Fraunhofer Institute in Munich which provided him with a special sensory material that could be placed above or underneath his perspiring models. In doing so, Riedler used the sweaty body as a kind of rubber stamp to create life-size negatives. He then photographed these and transformed them into monochrome paper prints.“

- Vreni Hockenjos, Excerpt from the book

 

Photographs: Reiner Riedler Texts: Vreni Hockenjos Graphic design: Tapir Design / Ania Nalecka-Milach Publisher: Reflektor Year: 2019 Hardcover, linen, 104 pages Language: English Dimensions: 24 x 30,5 cm

ISBN: 978-3-9502450-9-7

Photographer Vladimír Birgus (b. 1954) has long been important on the Czech and European photography scene, where he played several roles, ranging from photographer and columnist to historian and teacher. A number of high-profile projects are connected with his name, in particular the comprehensive exhibitions and books Czech Photographic Avant-garde, 1918–1948 and Czech Photography of the 20th Century, which have, in a fundamental way, helped promote the works of many Czech photographers internationally. He has also helped to gain appreciation for the works of František Drtikol, Jaroslav Rössler, and Eugen Wiškovský. As a photographer, he has gained an international reputation, and has shown his works in dozens of exhibitions at home and abroad, and his photographs are in a number of important collections. Since the late 1970s, he has systematically expanded his series of photographs called Something Unspeakable, in which he organically links elements of socially concerned documentary photography with a subjective view. His photographs are enriched with many visual metaphors and symbols, whose psychological and emotional meanings are underscored by the symbolic use of color photography. His photographs include existential and dramatic scenes from the streets of big European cities against the background of everyday life and slowly moving history.

Photographs: Vladimír Birgus Texts: Danuta Kowalik-Dura, Adam Mazur Graphic design: Krzysztofa Frankowska-Piechowicz Translation: Monika Hartman Publisher: Muzeum Ślaskie – muzeum rejestrowane Year: 2017 Hardcover, 203 pages Language: English, Czech Dimensions: 28 x 23 cm

ISBN: 978-83-62593-87-3

This catalogue accompanied the first comprehensive overview of Božidar Jakac's photography, shown in 2014 at the Museum Modern Art in Ljubljana. Known as a printmaker, the artist sought creative outlets in new media even as a student. Giving prominence to the newly discovered photographs of his from before World War II II, the exhibition followed the chronology of photographs taken by the artist at significant stages of his life: in Prague (1922-23), Novo mesto (c. 1923), Paris (1925), Tunisia (1925), America (1929-1931) and with the partisan forces (1943-1945). It covered the first two decades of Jakac's involvement with photography, when his creative development in this medium was most intense and when he also matured as an artist and as a person. By including a number of his works in other media - drawings, prints, pastels and an oil painting - that represent the same experiential reality as the photographs, the exhibition showed that photography was indeed a new source of insight for the artist. Author of Photographs: Božidar Jakac Text: Lara Štrumelj Publisher: MG+MSUM Year: 2014 paperback, 130 pages Language: english, slovene Dimensions: 22 x 27 cm ISBN: 9789612061081