IMRICH VEBER

ABOUT THE BOOK HOMOURBAN

8. 4. 2013

Photographs from the discussion

Photographs from the discussion

“Who is a city person? Today, more than two thirds of Europe’s population lives in cities. A knowledge of the historic genesis and of the economical, social and legal changes that cities have undergone since antiquity to modern times – as well as of a city’s problems as viewed by contemporary sociologists – gives us a lot to think about, but it still will not teach us how to understand a city. In addition to verifiable data from statistical yearbooks and sociological research, Imrich Veber’s photographs offer an entirely emotive, feeling based reflection of the European cities he has visited. With no claim to verity, they offer a view that ought to resonate primarily with our experience. This view does not worry itself with sociological, nor at all with photographical postulation, about how to observe today a city through one’s soul. / The HOMOurban series developed during the years of 2007 and 2012. With its visual form, it is a continuation of the strong tradition of the snapshot, but also of Czech documentary photography from the seventies and eighties. Imrich Veber hovers around the unclear border between tendencies that are most often designated as social or subjective documentary; he does not use the technology of today, and so the form of his photographs point to an unanchored timelessness. We find here the crampedness of urban space, the solitude of an individual in the middle of a crowd, absurdity, melancholy, estrangement, an element of the miraculous – all of this – as what usually tends to characterize
similar city snapshots in the tradition of documentary photography. And we may even find something more. / Amid these pictures of European cities, what mindlessly piles up together are views of very diverse places – Prague, Madrid, Opava, Belgrade, Mikulov, Olomouc, Évora, Budapest, Moscow, Porto, Berlin, Paris, Nida, Venice, Corfu, Uzhhorod, London, Prešov, Rybaki, Lisbon… As is usual, we search for subtle differences: between the worlds of big cities, smaller ones and even smaller ones; between Western and Eastern Europe, or its southern and northern parts. Thus, according to slight indications, we more often differentiate. We would certainly not place these photographs next to one another. But in this way, Imrich Veber’s shots are provocative. By feeling, he forms them into collages of a shared identity. He traverses; he draws our eyes across regions so that we concentrate on what is being shared. In a way, he has created an image of the European community, a photographic dialogue between experience from his native Opava life and experience from other cities.” Tomáš Pospěcha malých měst, západní a východní Evropy nebo jižní a severní části, hledáme subtilní rozdíly, podle jemných náznaků spíše rozlišujeme. Rozhodně bychom tyto fotografie nekladli vedle sebe. Tím jsou ale záběry Imricha Vebera provokující. Pocitově v nich kolážuje společnou identitu. „Crossuje”, vede náš pohled napříč regiony, aby se soustředil na to společné. Vytvořil jakýsi obraz evropské komunity, dialog fotografií, zkušenosti svého domovského opavského života s ostatními městy.” Tomáš Pospěch


Imrich Veber

Born on September 10th, 1987 in Vítkov (Czech Republic). He currently lives and works in Opava and Olomouc. He is a student of the Institute of Creative Photography at Silesian University in Opava; and of the Department of the History of Art of the Faculty of Arts at Palacký University Olomouc. In addition to the series HOMOurban, he has been focusing long-term on the issue of people with disabilities and on societal conditions in general. / To date, he has published his photographs in his books Not One Life (Nejeden život, Opava, 2009), TRANSFORMATION (Transformace, Ostrava, 2010) and We Know About One Another (Víme o sobě, illustrations of Josef Veselý’s poetry and texts, Opava, 2011). / He publishes photographs in cultural periodicals; exhibits in the Czech Republic and abroad; and is an active theorist and curator of photography.


The discussion is held in Czech.


Reservation required at lgp@lgp.cz (limited space).
Thank you for your understanding.