L. Vojtěchovský for rent
The photographs of Luděk Vojtěchovský are calm, light rays of fantasy.
He was returning from the National Photographic Exhibition in Olomouc (Moravia), where his photographs had won the category for photographers under the age of 25. He stood in the aisle of a packed express train talking to Vladimír Birgus, a contemporary expert on the theory of photography; „It´d be good idea if you applied to study at FAMU“ (the Academy of Arts´ Film and Television faculty)
„I don´t think so. I wouldn´t learn anything new there.“
Luděk Vojtěchovský´s answer was neither a rejection of education nor an arrogant attitude towards that prestigious school. It was simply the answer of an artist who had already resolutely embarked on his own path.
This would be confirmed many times in the years to come.
Towards the end of the 1980s he slowly began to abandon the documentation of the urban setting, its streets, courtyards and secluded spots. By the mid-1990s he had completely abandoned contemporary photography. He shut himself off from the present in a dark studio, completely ignoring fashionable and accepted trends in contemporary photography, creating his own intimate black-and-white world.
I keep having a persistent dream (says the photographer): I´m getting ready to jump off a bridge into the murky waters of a river… that´s what I experience in the darkroom: plunging into a different space, one that is limited to an A4 format piece of black card. The engine driving my work is the endless possibilities where dreams become reality and reality dreams. I want to explore them and come to know them intimately… they line my way forward through a contryside made of games that give sense and life.
As a document, photography is a part of everyone and everything captured in its picture. The photographs of Luděk Vojtěchovský are calm, light rays of fantasy.
- Pavel Šmíd -