Friday, February 20, 2009

What Garden Feels Like


Josef Sudek trained as a book binder, a profession he couldn’t continue after he lost his arm in the war, so he followed his little sister’s footsteps into photography. As a leader in his hometown’s (Czech) cultural scene he was known as the “Poet of Prague”. When he died, at 80, he was still working and planning on his future.
"Garden" here at the museum, shows an abnormally bright light shining in a doorway behind a tree, white outdoor chairs scattered around the deserted yard. It is not the photo I uploaded here, but it is similar.
Sudek was a surrealist, and according to some he made messiness, and chaos beautiful in photograph.
When I stand with "Garden" I sense something has gone terribly wrong, the something that took people away from a cloudless night into a house of such overbearing light. Something that even the chairs feel is wrong, as they sit stock still facing that doorway, stiff and hard and anything but comfortable.

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