Bogdan Konopka (born in 1953 in Poland) began taking photographs in the mid-1970s, first pointing the lens of his camera at the city where he lived and which had been – for the most part – destroyed in the World War 2; the city with double identity: Breslau – Wrocław. What interested him the most was the zone of shadows, both in the sense of its commonplace meaning, as well as the nature of photography itself. However, due to the unfavorable political climate of that time, those photographs were not meant to see the light of day for many years to come. Konopka continued to take photographs of cities where he came to live. First, it was Angers, later – Paris.
The cycle The Invisible City brought him an international acclaim after the exhibition at the festival in Arles in 1994, while another cycle, Paris in grey won him the European Photography Award, Grand Prix de la ville de Vevey, in 1998. At that time, Bogdan Konopka decided to return to Central Europe and embark upon a journey to seven countries of the former Eastern Bloc, which resulted in the cycle entitled Reconnaissance, in which the artist attempted to settle account with the fallen empire. Next, he traveled to China on five separate occasions, in an attempt to capture the centuries-old greyness of existence, now slowly disappearing. Konopka’s favorite subjects are photographs of the urban tissue and landscape, although he also deals with portraits. The best known portion of his oeuvre includes junctures from large-format 4×5 and 8×10-inch negatives, although the artist also uses medium- or even small-format cameras. In the last fifteen years, Konopka’s works could be seen in a number of countries. His grey, poetic, somewhat surreal miniatures are saturated with personal emotions and semi-mystical energies, making their author recognizable immediately upon the first viewing.
You can read in the French version of La Lettre, the article written by Emmanuel Grynszpan.
Bogdan Konopka: Ineffable
Jusqu’au 1er novembre 2011
Glaz Gallery
Malaya Ordinka, 23
Moscou
(459) 978 8840
