Photographs of textures, walls, tombstones and stones - Marian Schmidt's recent works are an endless series and herald a new stage in his work. His work has always been based on the base of a clean and clear image, brought to compositional perfection, capturing illusions impossible to invent.
Schmidt's photographs remained at the intersection of real reality and fleeting, imperceptible phenomena that would be invisible without photography. His new works are like a step further - towards an invisible emanation of reality purified of reality, full of spiritual values, multi-layered meanings and senses.
The photographs in this series are very important, as in Schmidt's oeuvre he appears in them already liberated from the influence of the great photographers, he is fully an individual in them. While the earlier photographs are important and significant in his photographic oeuvre, one senses in them the stamp of spiritual teachers, a kind of aspiration of the author to match and surpass the great masters of photography.
The last series is already a very individual piece. Of course, it can be compared to the photographs of Aaron Siskind, Minor White or the famous "f/64" group of American photographers. But Schmidt's photographs go further, they go beyond the presentation of the pure form of nature, they are far from playing with purely aesthetic sensations, similar to abstract painting. Schmidt's photographs have more layers of meaning and symbolism. In his photographs of textures, the images not only satisfy the expectations of aesthetic sensations, but above all, our imagination and even subconscious is activated. It's like in painting there is a difference between Piet Mondrian's cool geometry and Wassily Kandinsky's expressive paintings.
Through Schmidt's photographs of stone forms the viewer "pierces" with his imagination. He sees in them a world full of illusion, mystery and unguessed existences. The photographer can no longer be distanced from the photographed phenomena. He must come into full contact. All that is left of "decisive moment" photography is waiting for the light and the right time of day. Stone objects are eternal in the dimension of our existence, but transformed by Schmidt's photography, they take on the characteristics of living beings.
Marian Schmidt, Ostaš, Czech Republic 2002
Gelatin-silver print,
20 x 16 cm (30 x 24 cm)
Signed on the reverse
The article was published in No. 10 of "Kwartalnik Fotografia" in 2002
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