Polish National Film, Television and Theater School in Łódź
Faculty of Cinematography and Television Production, Photography
Tutor: prof. Grzegorz Przyborek
www.filmschool.lodz.pl
Redheads (2010)
The main reason for creation of the Redheads project was an attempt to face the notion of authenticity of photography. When studying this issue, it is easier to say what it is not, rather than what it actually is. It is not space, it is not time and it is not an object (understood as photography itself, not as a single “photo”). By definition, it can only be an imperfect attempt to reproduce the properties of space and time, to describe an object. Despite the listed features, in collective consciousness photography is still perceived as reproduction of the real. On the other hand, though, the this medium by default interferes in the structure of the image, manipulates it.
What influence does the viewer’s awareness have on the value of a photo if the viewer knows s/he’s being pushed by the photographer in a specific, fixed direction? Where does the border of “objective representation” begin? Does the awareness of image distortion lower “the desire for what is real”?
Redheads tries to answer the above questions in two sets of portraits of people whose hair is naturally red. These diptychs are a kind of metamorphosis. Lack of reference to reality results from the use of advanced editing and computer retouching. Even a seemingly natural portrait is only a subjective photo-representation of a given person. Hence, the second portrait is transforms an earlier transformation. Redheads depicted in the photos exist only in these images.
The series has been awarded the first place at the International Photography Awards 2010 (IPA2010) in the category Fine Art: Portrait.
