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...must see
"Since 1977, I have been analyzing already existing photographic material. Selecting individual photos from group pictures and arranging them into compositions that create new situations allows for the analysis of individual close-ups." – This is how Jagoda Przybylak (1929–2023) described her artistic practice.
Indeed, her large-format collages, which could also be described as photographic installations, were always enlargements made from re-photographed "found" vernacular photos taken much earlier. These were group photos, probably bought by the artist at flea markets, perhaps found in attics or old albums. Through her practice of re-photographing and enlarging individual faces from these photos, Przybylak offered each person visible in them attention – hers and others', those who were to view their images as her own works exhibited at exhibitions. This included, for example, a class photo from a century ago showing children and teachers; a group souvenir photo from a trip to Wieliczka; a photo of a Warsaw demonstration from the period of partitions – in each of these cases, Jagoda Przybylak carefully brought out each individual from the crowd.
Why did she do this? Well, time makes our fates, even if dramatic or fascinating, eventually fade and become forgotten. Even photography seems helpless in such situations. Przybylak challenged this helplessness. By attempting to reverse the process of forgetting, she drew attention to individuals and small, seemingly insignificant details. She was able to carefully observe micro-tensions that are not visible when we look at people as a mass. This – fundamentally deeply humanistic – approach of Przybylak was paradoxically revealed through her method of work: rigorous, analytical, requiring systematicity, which the photographer adopted at the beginning of her creative path.
She then created a multi-element work called A Hundred Times the Grid, which consisted of photographic close-ups of various fragments of a fishing net. Each frame is a different image, because although they together form a whole, constituting one structure, each eye of the net is different from the others. It is very significant that it was the net, in the literal sense of the word, that Jagoda Przybylak chose as the theme of her first work. Her later activities were a search for and observation of mutual relations between people, connections, and dependencies between them; an analysis of the structure, thus the net, that we all co-create. However, it is worth emphasizing that the photographer's perspective was not only analytical but also tender. She said: "It is not enough to see, one must look."
Jagoda Przybylak
Photographer and architect. Born in Warsaw, she spent her childhood in the Eastern Borderlands. She studied architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. Gradually becoming more interested in photography, she abandoned her career as an architect. Her first works took the form of reportage, resulting from observations of social life. A decisive moment for the artist's further work was her meeting with Zbigniew Dłubak, who influenced her development. Her mature artistic debut was the exhibition A Hundred Times the Grid at the Warsaw Photographic Society in 1969. She collaborated artistically several times with other creators, including Janusz Bąkowski and Krzysztof Wodiczko, with whom she created numerous photographic and film works. In the late 1970s, she moved to the USA and settled in New York. From 1980, her Conceptual Photography Studio operated on Piwna Street in Warsaw, which during her absence was run by Bąkowski; currently, this place is cared for by artist Jerzy Dobrzański. Jagoda Przybylak passed away in New York on December 28, 2023.
The exhibition of Jagoda Przybylak, presented as part of the Vintage Photo Festival, was prepared based on materials stored by the artist in her studio.
Curator: Marika Kuźmicz, Arton Foundation
Collaboration: Adam Parol, Dariusz Mikołajczak
Display: Jerzy Dobrzański
Vernissage:
12.09.2024, 19:30
Opening hours
Tuesday, Thursday – 10:00-18:00
Wednesday, Friday – 12:00-20:00
Saturday, Sunday – 12:00-18:00