Jerzy Lewczyński Negatives Found in New York, 1979 (2008)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Galerie Berinson (the front window) 3. - 30. April 2008
Auguststrasse 22 10117 Berlin
--------------------------------------------------------------
The first show of Negatives Found in New York, a set of photos
discovered in 1979 in NYC...
It is a warm morning of September 6, 1979. I leave the Artist's House
in Bethyne Street in New York, where the studios of the Kościuszko
Foundation are situated. I cross the threshold and see a heap of
rubbish in the street. Among the various materials I immediately
see scattered photographs, envelopes and papers. Overcoming my
embarrassement, I come close to it, search through the pictures and
see lots of envelopes of negatives. My friend, who knows about my
interests, encourages me to pick up my find. „This is a normal thing”
he says smiling. „They have again disposed of someone, of
someone's life”. I pack what I can to my back and go to the subway.
At home, I look through the negatives and see a bit of very private
America. I have no time to meditate, but I enjoy my precious treasure.
This is a step forwards in „the Found Photography” I practice! One can
hardly date the negatives; I suppose that they come from 1975-79.
Most were taken in the subsidiary room of a theatre, perhaps a studio,
or travelling through Europe. Featuring in the photographs are young
people, probably artists. My mind is haunted by a boy with distinct
lineaments. He is continually photographed in exhibitionistic
situations bordering on pornography. Some frame obviously come
from Europe. Did the heroes seek further adventures in other
continents? Or, perhaps on the contrary, did they come to seek
them in America. The privacy and intimacy of the situations seems
to me the most complete image of the strange world where
everything may happen. Nowhere else have I found so much of
the essence of America as in the accidentally found negatives,
descriptions of human situations.I keep trying to find something
more about the presented people. This requires enormous effort, but
I believe in the mystic power of photography and hope to reach the
truth. Then I am going the show you yet another installment of
„Negatives Continued”. Jerzy Lewczyński
There is a limit annihilating the difference between a negative and
a positive. A photograph, a piece of evidence of things past, has
some qualites of a document, a direct paticipant in the events.
A negative becomes the first, veracious witness in a search for
absolute truths. A contact with the past acquires a material form.
Jerzy Lewczyński, 1977
---------------------------------------------------------
The exhibition is presented in the framework of "Kronika's Alphabet"
(letter L is for Lewczyński), a curatorial project by Kronika, Bytom
(www.kronika.org.pl). The project ismade possible with financial
support by the Polish Institute in Berlin, Silesian Voivodeship &
Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
---------------------------------------------------------
organization:
center of contemporary art Kronika
co-organization:
The Polish Institute in Berlin
Cultural Institution Ars Cameralis Silesiae Superioris
Developed with financial support from the Minister of Culture and
National Heritage and the Silesian Voivodeship
---------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Galerie Berinson (the front window) 3. - 30. April 2008
Auguststrasse 22 10117 Berlin
--------------------------------------------------------------
The first show of Negatives Found in New York, a set of photos
discovered in 1979 in NYC...
It is a warm morning of September 6, 1979. I leave the Artist's House
in Bethyne Street in New York, where the studios of the Kościuszko
Foundation are situated. I cross the threshold and see a heap of
rubbish in the street. Among the various materials I immediately
see scattered photographs, envelopes and papers. Overcoming my
embarrassement, I come close to it, search through the pictures and
see lots of envelopes of negatives. My friend, who knows about my
interests, encourages me to pick up my find. „This is a normal thing”
he says smiling. „They have again disposed of someone, of
someone's life”. I pack what I can to my back and go to the subway.
At home, I look through the negatives and see a bit of very private
America. I have no time to meditate, but I enjoy my precious treasure.
This is a step forwards in „the Found Photography” I practice! One can
hardly date the negatives; I suppose that they come from 1975-79.
Most were taken in the subsidiary room of a theatre, perhaps a studio,
or travelling through Europe. Featuring in the photographs are young
people, probably artists. My mind is haunted by a boy with distinct
lineaments. He is continually photographed in exhibitionistic
situations bordering on pornography. Some frame obviously come
from Europe. Did the heroes seek further adventures in other
continents? Or, perhaps on the contrary, did they come to seek
them in America. The privacy and intimacy of the situations seems
to me the most complete image of the strange world where
everything may happen. Nowhere else have I found so much of
the essence of America as in the accidentally found negatives,
descriptions of human situations.I keep trying to find something
more about the presented people. This requires enormous effort, but
I believe in the mystic power of photography and hope to reach the
truth. Then I am going the show you yet another installment of
„Negatives Continued”. Jerzy Lewczyński
There is a limit annihilating the difference between a negative and
a positive. A photograph, a piece of evidence of things past, has
some qualites of a document, a direct paticipant in the events.
A negative becomes the first, veracious witness in a search for
absolute truths. A contact with the past acquires a material form.
Jerzy Lewczyński, 1977
---------------------------------------------------------
The exhibition is presented in the framework of "Kronika's Alphabet"
(letter L is for Lewczyński), a curatorial project by Kronika, Bytom
(www.kronika.org.pl). The project ismade possible with financial
support by the Polish Institute in Berlin, Silesian Voivodeship &
Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
---------------------------------------------------------
organization:
center of contemporary art Kronika
co-organization:
The Polish Institute in Berlin
Cultural Institution Ars Cameralis Silesiae Superioris
Developed with financial support from the Minister of Culture and
National Heritage and the Silesian Voivodeship
---------------------------------------------------------
