Arthur is an ultra-subjective and uncompromising photographer; he recognizes only the traditional technique, i.e. analog, personal processing of the negative and the print. Each copy is made with his heart and mind, and the goal of his photographic activity is the expression of the inner self, of what is inside him and worthy of being revealed. It doesn't matter where he photographs, what matters is how and that he is the one who has total power over the final result, from the selection of the frame, through the entire darkroom, to the framing in passe partout, frames and glass. What comes out from under his hand is entirely his child, a finished work of authorship. He takes complete responsibility for the final result.
As he told me, the photograph is unnecessary great essays, it must defend itself. Therefore, it is best to just give it a voice.
The biggest difference is that technology and the internet has speeded everything up tremendously in just a few years. We take the instant transmission of photos and text for granted. As a photojournalist for 60 years, I well recall a different time when I would send packages of undeveloped rolls of film with hand written captions to editors all across the world. DHL and FedEx were vital for my international work, even the regular mail system on occasion. Then digital cameras and the internet came along, changing everything, and a lot more time had to be spent at the computer. Newspapers were the first to take advantage of the technology as they require a quick turnaround for news stories and photo quality was less demanding. It took longer for color magazines to adapt, the sort I worked with, who had to wait until digital photography improved. Online media didn't exist at all until relatively recently but it certainly didn't kill print media, as some predicted. These images of mine are a reaction to reality - he says. - It so happened that they originated in Asia, but it doesn't matter, it might as well have been, for example, the Biebrza or the Bieszczady Mountains. Unfortunately, I have not been there.
In doing so, he doubts that there is a large audience for his photographs. - Most people don't like my photographs. They are not interested in them (hmmm, or maybe are interested in derived from business?), but they are me. My stigma.
At my request, Artur Leonchuk also revealed a bit about how his unreal, fairy-tale images are created. - I thought about them for a very long time, or rather - I imagined them. Making the prints was even longer. Finding the right paper and preparing under the enlarger was tedious. One finished photograph took several days to create, and was usually selected from a couple of previous (also good) dried ones, but there was always something I didn't like. Applying masks precludes making two identical works. They are small, human format 24 x 30 cm and framed (all have passe partout and frames). Limited to 10 pieces per photo. I guess that's it.
We present photographs from three series. Here are the author's comments:
Illuminations
Is it the dazzle I experience sometimes looking at a gesture, a stone, a light on a wall, a face, situations...? Is it the rich ornamentation of old volumes? Or the knowledge of truths?
Mirrora, Out in the open
They lie sleepily high, high in the mountains. First you have to go by car, then on foot through the forest, into the clouds. Wisely "someone" did not build a road, so that curious eyes would not see them and themselves (in them). They are very, very old and "unearthly" expensive. Inherited from time immemorial. It is said that their great-father drowned in the first one. So says Echo.
Tessera hospitals
Memory Shells, mentioned by Gadamer in News beauty, specifying sharing half of a valuable souvenirs, the other leaving to myself to meet again after many years and combine them. So, too, I share some of the images I saw, to turn them into my reality, into my paintings and be able to show, share them now. Perhaps someday I will come across the traces left today....
Artur Leonchuk (1972) - by case a carpenter and furniture technician, unfinished lawyer at the UW, graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk in photography. Diploma in black and white photography under Jerzy Olek and Witold Wegrzyn. He deals with self-portrait and landscape. Generally absorbed exclusively in classic black and white photography, i.e. negative, enlarger, gelatin-silver paper. He makes collector's enlargements. A member of ZPAF from 2012-2019, he collaborates with the National Gallery of Art. Sensoryist working for Wedel Lotte.
Exhibitions:
Collective
1998 - Diploma Photography Workshop Hejber, State Art Gallery, Sopot
1999 - And Labyrinth, Klodzko Fortress
2002 - Medium as Medium, diploma, State Art Gallery, Sopot
2003 - Colors of Orthodoxy, Orthphoto, Bialystok, Sofia, Brussels
2004 - Homeless gallery, Katowice
2010 - Homeless gallery, Warsaw
2013 - What hides at the bottom of the eye, Wozownia Gallery, Toruń
Individual
2014 - Photographs Gallery Next to ZPAF, Warsaw
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AL
Thank you...AL