This year's 9th edition of the Vintage Photo Festival was held under the theme of Observatory. The only such festival in the country has been attracting photographers and lovers of traditional, analog photography to Bydgoszcz for years. And this time the interest in the festival was huge, and unlike previous editions, exhibitions and accompanying events were held not only in the city of Foton, but also outside Bydgoszcz. The opening of the festival took place on 15.09.2023 at the Municipal Cultural Center.
During the opening ceremony, VPF Artistic Director Katarzyna Gębarowska presented awards to the Vintage Grand Prix participants, although the highlight was the presentation of the Golden Roller to Krzysztof Gierałtowski for lifetime achievement.
The gala featured, among other things, a slide show The unbearable lightness of being prepared by the online Fortepan Archive, whose Polish representative is Fotofestiwal of Lodz. For the first time, the presentation was accompanied by live music performed by Bydgoszcz musicians.
Very interesting was the exhibition Calling The Edward Hartwig show at the Bydgoszcz Art Center, and prepared by Marika Kuzmicz and Dariusz Mikolajczak of the Edward Hartwig Foundation. As we all know, the Master was extremely prolific photographically, so selecting a few dozen works from his vast archive to show the most important stages of Hartwig's artistic development must have been an extremely difficult task. The curators should be complimented, as the show is very interesting in terms of content and visuals. Mainly thanks to the originals - glass negatives and prints made by the artist's hand, or vintage. In an age of ubiquitous prints and projections, the opportunity to see "real" vintage photographs, and by such a master of darkroom work as Hartwig was, is a value in itself.
Festival slogan Observatory manifested itself not only in the collected exhibitions, but also in meetings, workshops and film screenings. The issue concerned not only the matter of the image in photography, but also social behavior, the study of the passage of time and change, and man's relationship with nature.
In traditional photography, we can see all the more the importance of "observation" on a physical medium that we can touch and discover the stories of people, but also of the cosmos, which in his exhibition Hello Darkness was introduced to us by Jason De Freitas. The vernissage and author's meeting with Jason De Freitas took place at the charming Palace in Lubostron. Jason comes from Australia and there he photographs the sky, or more precisely the heavenly bodies and what happens there. He records everything on negatives from small image to large format. In his own words, it gives him the opportunity to have a real contact with the cosmos. The registration of light coming from the cosmos is physically recorded on film, and it is the truest contact with the worlds he observes through astrophotography.
The main exhibitions of the festival were presented in the great exhibition space of the Bydgoszcz Financial Center. It was one of the new venues on this year's festival map, featuring works by: Monika Cichoszewska, Parallel worlds, Markus Kaesler, In between, Andrew Najder, Alienations, Agata Rząsowska-Grabicka, Observatory, Bartosz Korcz, Private Space, Iwona Suszycka, Without Algorithm, Andrews Rovenko,The Rocketgirl Chronicles, Maria Chrząszczowska, Gloriosis, Emilia Martin, The blue of the far distance, Agata Faszcza, Icons, Marcin Szpak, Observatory, Lech Wilczek and Maciej Musiał, Simona Kossak, Jacques Barbier and Élise Pic, Le commun des mortels, From popular photography... to the ready-made and Wetzel and Schuster - Supermodels.
Vintage Grand Prix 2023 was won by Andrew Najder for his observations/alienations. Second place went to Markus Kaesler with a cycle of In between, and third Monika Cichoszewska and her Parallel worlds.
Andrew Najder, Alienations
The photographs were printed on a graphic press and previously etched on copper sheets using the heliogravure technique, which is classified as a historical special technique. The images are symbolic, so they can be interpreted in many ways. They depict degraded matter, animate and inanimate, undergoing entropy, slowly being taken over by nature. The author leans into this process and its emanations as a witness and observer. The visualization of human decline sets a mood of nostalgia and prompts reflection, asking the question: in order to survive, shouldn't we live more in accordance with nature? When creating and constructing more epochal buildings, signs of the times, shouldn't we refer to heritage and keep more ratio in our activities? The same is true of interpersonal communication during the development of modern media - we are slowly moving away from traditional communication to modern instant messaging, which paradoxically means that we are not becoming closer to each other, but on the contrary, more barriers appear causing stronger atomization of individuals and we are emotionally overstimulated.
Honorable mentions went to: Wetzel + Schuster, Supermodels, Iwona Suszycka, Without Algorithm, Agata Rząsowska-Grabicka, Observatory and Bartosz Korcz for Observatory / Private Space.
Most of the works at this year's festival, very pleasingly, not only had a narrative relating to the slogan of the entire event, but focused on presenting to the viewer the importance of family photos, souvenir photos and those we often find at flea markets. For a very long time, they were "pigeonholed" as images without much artistic value, which had no right to go into any gallery. With time, this has changed, and researchers, observers have made this type of photography not only valuable for historical, documentary reasons, but also as an artistic object and starting material for artistic treatments for contemporary artists.
One such artist at the Vintage Photo Festival was Marcela Paniak and her project Photographs of the Paniak family. About the project we can read: The family, whose main character is Marcela Paniak, is not ordinary. Although the portraits present ordinary images of related people, they all represent the author's contemporary point of view. Through the use of different ways of working with photography, she herself embodies all the characters to draw attention to the changing role of family photography over the centuries - especially in the context of truth and falsehood when presenting one's person. Both of these aspects have been present throughout the history of photography. Even now, living in an online society communicating mainly through images, what actually forms our individual and collective identity is important.
Referring to the theme of family, family photos could be purchased at the festival's Photo bazaar, as well as see a rather sizable exhibition of Le commun des mortels, From popular photography... to the ready-made. Another exhibition in the theme of family, memories are the works of three men: ZbyZiel, Zhuuk, Noniewicz, Analogies - Media Memory Notes. The opening was held in the very intimate 2B+L gallery, which is located on the "barge" houseboat LaMare Club.
One of the more outstanding works at the festival, by far, was the project The Rocketgirl Chronicles Andrev Rovenko. Colorful and in strong saturation, the photographs stood out from the entire festival. The project was also characterized by its cinematic narrative and sensitivity. The frames are very aesthetically pleasing, well-thought-out and have something that does not often succeed in photographic stories, namely they have a "deep content" even if it is a single photo. Such series carry a lot of poetics and space for a lot of metaphors, symbols which makes them impossible to watch quickly, in a "vernissage run". We can read about Andrev's photographs: In March 2020, when the world was shut down, Odessa-based and Australia-based photographer Andrew Rovenko and his daughter Mia set out on a one-of-a-kind adventure. Together they explored quiet city streets and empty parks, rode empty buses and found magic in mundane surroundings. The Rocketgirl Chronicles is a collection of memories of worlds explored and stories of a little astronaut. The project, which was born during the sixth lockdown in Melbourne, has received critical acclaim and worldwide recognition, published in Vogue and Rolling Stone, among others, and the author was named Australian Photographer of the Year 2021 by Australian Photography magazine.
A very interesting exhibition under the title Alchemy and scissors was held at the Museum of Photography. It was a photographic journey back in time to the classic photomontage that Jerzy Wardak was involved in. We could read about Wardak's works: The ways and consciousness of photographic imaging are changing at the blink of an eyelid. This is our reality, this is the image of modernity, a modernity that nevertheless draws handfuls of inspiration from the past. Alchemy and scissors exhibition, is a journey in time, to what can and should become a source of reflection on our condition, but also a source of inspiration for those who move in the world of photography. Jerzy Wardak, whose work and workshop we will recall during the exhibition, was a master of classical photomontage. The roots of this painstaking art go back to the interwar avant-garde, while he himself was a representative of the new avant-garde trends of Polish photography after World War II. The artist, who died in 2022, is one of the last members of the legendary "ZERO-061" group, which had a huge impact on the strategies of photography in the second half of the 20th century. After the artist's death, the Museum of Photography, acquired several iconic works from the heyday of the "ZERO-61" group, as well as many valuable artifacts and memorabilia, which will be on display. The exhibition, which is intended to commemorate the work of Jerzy Wardak, will also provide a better understanding of the artist's workshop. In addition to Wardak's great works, attendees at the opening could listen to stories about the author's artistic activities, including those little known with the digital medium, which have never been presented before.
The festival also featured screenings of such films as Luzia Schmid -. Reporters. Three women and war and Laura Poitras - All that beauty and blood. The festival did not lack legends of Polish photography. With his presence honored Krzysztof Bogdan Gierałtowski, who showed his photographs from the series Polish Artists.
The Vintage Photo Festival is growing every year, and it is definitely one of the most important photography festivals in our country, and because of its analog nature, it is unique and, in this day and age, thus unique and important. "Fotografia Quarterly" and all lovers of traditional photography, we keep our fingers crossed that the next editions will be even better and that vintage photography can have its place and life for all visitors to this festival.
