vernissage on Friday, July 29 at 17:00, exhibition until September 4, 2022 / Klodzko Cultural Center, Art Gallery "pARTer", Pl. Jagiello 1
The photograph does not represent what you see
But what you imagine... [JL].
The photographs on display are the result of creative work in a new unexpected reality. A pandemic reality. Locked in a cage of constraints, I was put to the hard test of understanding the situation and presenting it in visual form. The presented photographic series are united by the time of their creation, coinciding with the global coronavirus pandemic. The creative process continues to be augmented by new material.
Barcodes
"The main application of the barcode is the automatic identification of products in logistics in the broadest sense." (Wikipedia) The incentive to make the exhibit "Barcodes". was an unforeseen event occurring during the analysis of thousands of photographs in my digital archive. Characteristic barcode stripes appeared on many of the photographs. In my works I often rely on chance, which provokes me to create another photographic reality.
"Codes" form photographs distorted by recording errors on magnetic media. They have not been edited in a graphics program and are the result of the "frailty" of the digital machine. Taken in the past, pulled from a personal archive, exhibited in numerous exhibitions. Selected works that make up my photographic reality.
My hope is that each work will provoke the viewer to "scan" the photograph. To meet this process, I am presenting in smaller formats alongside individual photographs Barcode Readings. In this way, I establish a personal relationship with the observer, in which the end result will be a qualitative assessment of the product.
SARS-CoV-2
The first works presented in this set were created during the successive phases of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus activity. The photographs were taken on classic black and white negative materials. While processing the materials, I was reminded of the times when my knowledge of classical photographic technique was not perfect, through, among other things, inaccurate supervision of chemical processes, errors in the development process, etc. Overthinking led me to the conclusion that with the help of digital photographic processing I could present my own vision of pandemic reality.
I also chose my archival photographs for the exhibition by "checking" what they might look like after a virus attack, but a computer virus. This is also a reference to the old days, when the regimes of photographic processes were not always preserved (See - effects on inaccurately fixed prints). I hope that these works will provoke the viewer to personal reflections on the fragility of our existence; to think about the condition of the modern world.
I have long defined photography as the creation of photographic reality. We can't depict real reality because it is changeable over time. We can only capture fragments of it. By compiling these fragments into cycles, I create my own "photographic reality." It is up to the viewer how he interprets it. It depends largely on his knowledge, imagination and sensitivity. Photography, in my opinion, is a mirror in which the viewer's sensitivity is reflected.
Jacek Lalak, Wrocław - Chodzież, 2022
Jacek Boguslaw Lalak - Born in 1948 in Gorzow Wlkp. Artist photographer, member of ZPAF.
Graduate of the Poznan University of Technology (Light Technology). He has been engaged in creative activity since 1971. Member of Poznan, Pilsen, Lower Silesian Photographic Society. Since 1974 he has lived and worked in Wroclaw.
He has participated in many competitions and exhibitions at home and abroad. He participated as a photojournalist in two pilgrimages of John Paul II in Poland. He cooperated with various creative groups, such as "Format", "Team 4+". The eighties of the twentieth century is cooperation with the Gallery "Foto-Medium-Art" in Wroclaw (among others, Plein Air at the Turow mine 1978). Member of the "Creative Team 4+" (exhibition Light - 1980, in Wroclaw Gallery of Photography, and in BWA Legnica).
From 1977 to 1992 he worked at the Didactic Center of the Wrocław University of Technology, making didactic films. He presented them at festivals in Katowice, Lodz, Ronda (Spain) 1989.
He took part in the "Gierałtow Workshop" and exhibitions: "Picturing Concepts" - 1994 (Foto-Medium-Art Gallery Wroclaw), 1995 - Slovak Cultural Center, Martin. Within the framework of the workshop he realized the theme: "Disappearance". The work from this series "Continuum" is in the Gierałt collection of Jerzy Olek.
In 1993 he participated in the 3rd International Photographic Conference "Non-presence in Nature", Wojnowice Castle - Oborniki Sl., Exhibitions: 1994 Wroclaw, Prague. In 1994 he presented for the first time the photographic installation "Touch" during the exhibition of Polish photography "Track of Me" at the Month of Photography in Bratislava.
He is the author of many solo exhibitions, the most important of which are the three-part "Traces" (Memory Touch-Exposure), "Barcelona 1926", "The Black Sun - Continuum", "Gardens of Earthly Delights - Notebook". In his creative activities he uses personally built pinhole cameras as well as the technique of bichromate rubber. He taught these attractive though difficult techniques to young people in classes at M. Kopernik's MDK in Wroclaw, where he worked as a photography instructor. He worked for many years at the Wroclaw Photographic Schools Pho-Bos, Afa. Wiesbadener Fototage: EGO - Fotografische Positionen zum ICH, Projektbüro Stadtmuseum Wiesbaden, Germany, September - October 2007 - participation with "Afa" students. In September 2016, he led a Polish-German photographic workshop "Breslau through the Hole", which ended with exhibitions at the Edith Stein House in Breslau and at the Ausstellungsraum des Anhaltischen Kunstvereins in Dessau. The summary of the project is the album publication "Continuum". He participates in the annual exhibitions of the Lower Silesian District of the ZPAF. Jazz Free Photo, photo plein-air during the 49th Jazz Workshop, Chodzież, August 2019. exhibition "Sense of being" - City of Gardens Gallery, Katowice July 2020. barcodes, May 2020. exhibition in the "e - gallery" on the website Jacek Lalak Artist (FB). E - vernissage in the form of a video conference on 15,16,17.05.2020. "F" (Barcodes, SARS-CoV-2 ) Klodzko Cultural Center, pARTer gallery, 2022.
Winner of the Award of the Marshal of the Lower Silesian Province (2011) for outstanding achievements in the field of culture, for a lifetime of creative work in the field of artistic photography. Awarded the Honorary Badge of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage "Meritorious for Polish Culture" (2017).
