The work of Bronislaw Schlabs is primarily associated with the photographic avant-garde of the late 1950s, with the innovative photography exhibition organized together with Jerzy Lewczynski and Zdzislaw Beksinski, which went down in history under the name "Antiphotography," and with abstract photographic compositions made without a camera - "Photograms." Meanwhile, virtually unknown are the photographs that Schlabs created before the period of photographic abstractions, and these are works that certainly deserve attention*.
Schlabs' first attempts with photographic material showed that he possessed the quality that is essential for building his own creative personality based on authenticity - talent, or, to put it much more simply, a "sensitive eye." Already in his first pictures from 1953 we can see his attempts to give individual characteristics to the reality "arrested" by the camera. Schlabs was only just forming his photographic language, and yet it was already possible to see that these works harbor potential that can be further developed by the photographer. That is, of course, if he chooses to deepen this passion, and Schlabs has consistently and persistently pursued development in this field.
Initially, he took purely reportage photographs, showing "street life," sometimes in a social-realist convention; he photographed the streets and architecture of the Old Market Square in Poznan (where he lived). He made these works shortly after he bought his first camera, which was in 1952. Most of them, of a rather conservative nature, did not stand out from the photography of the broad amateur movement. However, Schlabs pursued with vigor the development of his skills in this field (he was self-taught, having graduated from the Poznan University of Technology with a degree in engineering). To this end, he enrolled in the Poznan branch of the PTF (Poznan Photographic Society), which was headed by a photographic individual - Fortunata Obrąpalska, which was not without significance for the formation of the artist's creative personality. The mood in the PTF was conducive to improving and seeking new solutions in photography. In the art section, Schlabs "spread his wings" as a photographer - many of the photos taken by the artist at this time show some features of conscious creation, frames are composed more boldly, we find experiments with photographic matter. His works from this period no longer have anything in common with the souvenir or tourist photography initially practiced, characteristic of "naive" amateurs.
At the same time, we can see how the artist's photographs reached a higher and higher level from year to year. Schlabs perfected his technique and developed his photographic awareness. His photos of that time are characterized by a variety of motifs and means of expression used, which resulted from the artist's search for his own creative path and desire to test himself in various styles and themes. One of them was the category of picturesqueness, present both in reportage-like photographs (such as "In the Tunnel of the Viaduct" from 1953) and landscapes. Certainly the form of the latter was influenced by Bulgak's photographs in the pictorial convention, but Schlabs had no aspirations to create photography in this widely used aesthetic. He sought to find new possibilities of depiction through the photographic medium. The traditional theme of human labor and rural landscape, otherwise prescribed in the official trend of Socialist Realism of the time, was approached by the photographer in the series "Polish Landscapes" (1954) in a creative and revealing way. First of all, the human work was inscribed in the broader, dominant context of nature - the element of nature. Such an impression was achieved by the photographer thanks to the depiction of clumped clouds, which fill most of the frame. They definitely dominate the lower part of the photo, which gives the photographs an almost apocalyptic tinge, conveying a mood of anxiety.
Certainly Schlabs consciously built up the atmosphere of his photographs, at the same time it is worth noting that these works are also a kind of study of clouds. Schlabs' later landscape photographs, taken in 1955, show the artist's creative development, although he continues to use certain procedures, applied previously - surprising framing, distant plans, lowering the horizon line, using perspective shortcuts and experimenting with unusual shots (photographs of nature in winter, no title, 1955). Here we are dealing, as before, with the lowering of the horizon line, which leads to the depiction of nature in a way that we do not generally perceive reality. The landscape in such a shot seems unreal, fantastic. In addition, these photos were taken in winter, so Schlabs managed to perfectly bring out the qualities of the play of black and white, their contrasts, so that concrete reality takes the form of flat black-and-white planes. Using the medium of photography, the artist reveals to us new aspects of reality through the use of extensive plans and lowering the horizon line, which leads to its abstraction. What is, moreover, characteristic of the artist's landscape photography is the presence of the human figure - always shown in the distance, in the background, sometimes discernible only after a closer look at the photograph. Man in these photos seems to be only a part of the natural world.
Bronislaw Schlabs, from the series Landscapes
Schlabs, in the last phase of practicing realist photography before he moved on to creating abstractions, made images that imply a style called new objectivity or new vision. The return to the "concreteness" of photography that it promoted, the purification of this medium from the conventions of pictorialism and all marriages with plastic, the concept of pure photography, was reflected in the artist's work. This style also implied showing the world in an unconventional way, often verging on formalist abstraction, and was based on certain specific means of expression, and these included: procedures of "seeing from above", from an oblique angle, emphasis on the sharpness of the image, operating perspective abbreviations, close-ups, showing fragments of objects, introducing visual transformations and image geometry. Of course, some of these procedures had already been used by Schlabs, having no idea of the trend of new objectivity in photography. The artist created photographs that are reminiscent of the works of the leading representatives of this trend, although this, of course, does not mean that the Poznan artist copied their ideas, there is even no certainty that he was familiar with these specific shots, but certainly the general principles were known to him (especially since after 1955 the atmosphere in art began to revive - thanks to the changes that took place in Poland during the "thaw"). One of the works made in this convention is a photograph depicting a street fragment with small figures of several people (ref. 12/1955). This surprising shot presents us with everyday reality in a completely new way - captured from the top of a roof or balcony. This kind of gaze had the effect of transforming the image into a flat pattern, almost into an abstract composition (a similar photograph, titled "Stockholm," was taken by László Moholy-Nagy in 1930).
The artist was also preoccupied with the human figure, as evidenced by his portrait photographs (his fascination with this motif would return in the 1970s, when the artist began to create series of images of various esteemed people). Some of them he took of unknown, random people, such as "Portrait of an Old Man" (1953), "Old Woman" (1954). These photos have a reporter character, the people depicted in them were captured on film in the context of some situation, the released shutter release "caught" the expression on their faces. Here the photographer used a large close-up, which eliminates the situational context and focuses primarily on the faces of the figures. Schlabs often photographed his loved ones - he took many photographs of his daughters and his wife. He tried to show the portrayed people in an interesting and revealing way, for example in the works "Elizabeth and Jola, the artist's daughters" (1954) and "Portrait of a daughter" (1954).
The strong close-ups of the girls' faces, the elimination of background elements, their disheveled hair - the whole builds a certain atmosphere and mood of these paintings that is difficult to specify. These works affect the viewer, not allowing him to pass indifferently. Of course, not every photograph has this "something," but many, not just Schlabs' portrait photographs, are memorable. This "something'', which is difficult to specify, and which catches our attention and makes us not forget them, Roland Barthes called the punctum of a photographic image, which sends us beyond the photographic image given to us, so it is a kind of something subtle outside the frame, as if the image flips desire beyond what it itself allows us to see. Among other things, such a photograph, which can have a strong impact, is a photograph showing in close-up the eyes and a fragment of the nose of an unknown person (no signature). Here Schlabs has brought out strong chiaroscuro contrasts, through the short exposure time, deep blacks dominate the photo, and the image gives the impression of having been taken with a graphic technique. What catches the eye are the eyes of the portrait subject. There is something magical and mysterious about them. It seems that the artist also liked and appreciated this photo, after several decades he would use it in his "Images" series.
Schlabs' artistic experiments took a turn for the better in 1955-1956. From this period come self-portraits, each distinguished by its formal uniqueness. In "Self-Portrait II" (1956) we see the artist's face partially obscured by the photographer's hands. This is a rather unprecedented shot in the subject of a self-portrait, when the artist shows himself while partially obscuring his person (by resting his head on his folded hands and plunging parts of his face into shadow), as if to escape from his own image. A similar procedure was used by Schlabs' later close colleague Zdzislaw Beksinski in "Self-Portrait" from 1958, in which the author obscures part of his face with his hand. Also extremely interesting is "Self-Portrait I" (1955-1956), considered by some critics to be a landmark in Schlabs' work. It consists of two images of the artist: one depicting the photographer with black glasses - frontally, and the other being a print, left in negative. The artist also used the action with the negative for "Self-Portrait" from 1956, which, as before, consists of two photographs - one showing a positive image, the other, the same one - negative. This work is virtually unknown, although it deserves attention (it was not reproduced in any publication on the artist). Schlabs here for the first time used a combination of two negatives to produce a print. He superimposed them - one with his self-portrait (here we also have an interesting shot of the photographer's person, "from below") and the other with a shot of clouds. He then made a positive print, showing the perforation of the negative, and a negative print. The latter is an example of Schlabs' use of mechanical action on the negative for the first time. He must have spilled some substance on it, which created streaks, and then made a print. This is the first attempt to interfere with the negative using a "realistic" photograph. This experience would result in abstract works, as well as later (after a period of hiatus from art) realizations in which Schlabs combined the negatives into a single image. Thus, this is an extremely important work, which indicates the direction of further development of the artist's art.
It is worth noting that Schlabs' work, even before he entered the period of creating abstraction, was appreciated by critics of the time. According to Adam Dubowski's review, the artist's photographs were characterized by an interesting approach and interesting composition. Alfred Ligocki and Krystyna Lyczywek also spoke positively about Schlabs' photographs. The talent dormant in the artist was also noticed by Urszula Czartoryska: Recalling the Poznan exhibition, I return every now and then to the name of B. Schlabs, who is undoubtedly at the forefront of Polish photography, a photographer with exceptional sensitivity to motifs and situations - able to build images from these elements without a "miss" (...). It is pleasant - if only when looking at the photos included in old yearbooks of "Fotografia" - to observe the steady development of the talent of Poznan photographers such as Grazyna Wyszomirska and Bronislaw Schlabs.
Schlabs quickly grew from a budding amateur to a photographer aware of his activities and aspirations. He was helped by an innate curiosity about the world and a constant search for his own creative path. Hence his constant experimentation with the photographic medium and resorting to various conventions. His works also show an evolution in artistic level. Exploration and practice make the artist create more and more interesting photographs. What captivates is the artist's sensitivity to all currents, popular trends of the time, from which, however, he did not want to "passively" draw, but tried to creatively transform them. And although the discussed works make use of the basic feature of photography, i.e. its documentary nature, at the same time the artist is still looking for new means of expression, which will lead him to the experience of photographic abstraction and the creation of works thanks to which Schlabs came to be known in the history of Polish photography - "Photograms" created without the use of a camera.
The article appeared in No. 26 of "Kwartalnik Fotografia" in 2008