ETUDE "JERUSALEM"
NATION COMING BACK TO LIFE
The photographs for the JEROZOLIMA etude were taken in February 2020 just before the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic as part of the work on the DYNAMICS OF CITY - EXPRESSION OF PHOTOGRAPHY series. The basic method of creation used in this series is multiple exposures on 6 cm x 7 cm format diapositive plates. Electronic image processing tools were used at subsequent stages of creation.
The étude consists of six photograms. Four of them are juxtaposed into two diptychs made on a transparent substrate in the format of 100 cm x 70 cm each, with the image field measuring 85 cm x 60 cm, the remaining part of the photogram being a transparent passe partout. Two photograms (not included in the DYNAMICS OF THE CITY series) with formats of 150 cm x 75 cm each are panoramas of Jerusalem also photographed on film from the Mount of Olives. One is presented in natural colors, while the other is a graphed photograph of processed, unreal colors with a dominance of black and green.
The first of the diptychs also concerns a panorama of Jerusalem. The photogram with a horizontal frame, graphically processed with a dominant color scheme of browns and accents of blue, refers to the complex history of this city spanning thousands of years. The second photogram with a vertical frame (also graphically processed) is optimistic in expression through its greenish-yellow color scheme; it contains strong contemporary accents through the mast with the Israeli flag superimposed over the Dome on the Rock in the center of the frame and also fragments of entanglements visible in the left-bottom part of the frame.
The second of the diptychs is an irreversible combination of the motifs of the Jewish figures with the Western Wall. Completed with the method of multiple exposures, it merges these two themes into a single image. I happened to be in the plaza in front of the Western Wall during the celebration of Bar Mitzvah, an important day in the life of every religious Jew, when a boy turning thirteen and for the first time accesses the right to read a chapter of the Torah, thus assuming the rights and religious duties of an adult male. Witnessing these celebrations, I had the opportunity to juxtapose the images of the joyous, solemn celebration of young Jewish boys with the drama of the Western Wall in an intermingling manner. For greater expression, I gave one of the photographs a tonality of red - symbolically referring to the Holocaust, while in the other I enhanced the color blue as a symbol of hope. As in the first diptych, one of the photographs prominently features the Israeli flag flying over the square. With the introduction of this accent, I gave the image a dimension of socio-political topicality.
Perpendicular to the described diptychs, the exhibition axis includes two elongated panoramas of Jerusalem, unlike the other photograms - opaque. Their formal basis is classical photography. The first panorama was realized in real colors. The second is graphically processed and contains intense patches of black. However, black is not the dominant color, which role is played by a greenish-sleek color with accents of pink turning into amaranth. The graphic transformations and the large patches of black indicate the numerous dramatic events over the many thousands of years of Jerusalem's history.
Tomasz Sobecki 2023
The exhibition ETIUDA JEROZOLIMA - A NATION RETURNING TO LIFE opened at the Great Synagogue in Tykocin on August 25 and will run until December 12. We invite you to read a report on the opening. Tomasz Sobecki
SHORT ARTISTIC BIOGRAPHY
Dr Tomasz Sobecki - A photographer born and living in Torun.
Numerous solo exhibitions Poland and the world; in European countries:
UK (1983) - Liverpool, Coventry; Switzerland (1985) - Rapperswil, Finland (1990) - Äänekoski, Spain (2010) - Barcelona, Pamplona, Germany (2021) - Frankfurt (Oder), in Slovakia - Bratislava, Banska Bystrica (2023) and in Kazakhstan (2011) - Astana; USA - St. Louis (1991), Chicago (2013); Australia (2014) Sydney, India (2015) - Hyderabad. Also participation in international group exhibitions of Polish art in Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany and in a post-competition exhibition of photography in Japan.
Representative of Polish art invited by the Ministry of Culture and Art of the Republic of Poland to exhibit at the International Art Festival in Venezuela - Caracas 1991.
Art scholarships:
1990 - Artistic scholarship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Spain
1991 - 1993 artistic scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and Art of the Republic of Poland
2017, 2019 - art scholarship from the Fund for the Support of Creativity at ZAiKS
2017, 2021, 2023 - art scholarship of the Marshal of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship
In June 2013, defending his thesis IDEA PIRAMID, he received a doctor of art degree in photography from the Cinematography Department of the Łódź Film School - PWSFTViT.
The most famous photographic series:
PRAYER IN A GOTHIC CATHEDRAL 1981, GOTHIC - SHAPE AND LIGHT 1985,
CRUCIFIX 1983/2010, PERSPECTIVE 1987/2008, LIGHT SHAPE 1991,
CITY - YESTERDAY 1992, WIND COLOR 1996.
Photographer-Painter Dialogue: FACE - BY WITKACEM with the participation of Franciszek Starowieyski involving an exploration of the portrait - self-portrait relationship 2002.
CITIES-OTHERWISE 2005, CRAZY LOCOMOTIVES 2006, THE IDEA OF PYRAMIDS 2002/2012, WARSAW CITY OF SUCCESS 2014, MAGICAL TORUN 2007/2015,
CITY, CITY 2013 - 2017, CITY DYNAMICS 2014 - 2022.
Participation in Poland and abroad in symposiums of photographers and designers, as well as speeches at national and international academic conferences.
Publications in scientific publications, art and daily press and albums.
Works in public collections: Art Museum in Lodz, District Museum in Torun, Gallery of Contemporary Sacred Art in Kielce, Nadwislańskie Museum in Kazimierz-on-Vistula, as well as in private collections at home and abroad, including Great Britain, Finland, Kazakhstan, Australia, USA, Hyderabad - India.
He teaches photography at various times and ranges as an adjunct professor with students at universities in Torun, Lodz - also in English, and Bydgoszcz, as well as at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, WSB in Torun, Bydgoszcz Academy of Photography, and as a visiting professor at the Faculty of Design of the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad (India).