Imago Summer 1998 [antikvár]

We and They ' VT^^t ^S® Victoria and Albert Museum in London opened with great pomposity, in the presence 1 of Prince Andrew and numerous other celebrities, the Canon Photographic Gallery which will provide permanent space floor for photographic exhibitions on the ground floor of the main building. To that end, Mai-k Haworth-Booth, the chief custodian of the photographic collection of this museum containing some 300 thousand photographs, prepared the exhibition Photography - An Independent Art, in which he endeavoured to show the most prominent creative trends, personalities and works from the time of the invention of photography down to the present times. Today we write the year 1998 when no one can invoke inaccessibihty of information on art from behind the iron curtain and yet, the exhibition that aspires and claims to represent the development of photographic work has not a single picture on view by Alexander Rodchenko, Boris Ignatovich, Josef Sudek, Jaromir Funke, Jaroslav Rôssler, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Stefan Themerson and others, whose significance in the history of photography just cannot be overlooked. And Mark Haworth Booth, one of the best oriented historians of photography, could hardly be suspected of not being acquainted with their works. Why then has he decided to ignore the essential contribution of Rodchenko's original compositions and daring takes, Rossler's abstract photographs from the early 20s, or Witkiewicz's self-portraits which, by their study of changes in man's identity, anticipated by many decades Cindy Sherman's works, enjoying such popularity today? Why are not these works duly represented in that collection, although they rank among the most significant in the world, seeing they were available at auctions in commercial galleries? Apparently there still exist enough reasons for similar rankling questions in all who have hoped that after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovak or Hungarian photography (if we leave out notable Hungarian emigrants) would be more readily included within the worldwide context. Although, much has improved as regards knowledge and introduction of photography from countries of the former communist block and numerous photographs from this part of Europe may be found in the latest history of photography by Naomi Rosenblum, Jean- Claude Lemagny and André RouiUé, or Michel Frizaut, in the new edition of the encyclopaedia Contemporary Photographers, or the eucic encyclopaedia by the Auer couple on CD ROM, nevertheless, books steadily appear and exhibitions are put up that persist in a narrow Anglo-Saxon-French viewpoint. But does the blame for this reside uniquely with the history and curators of photography in Western Europe, the USA, Japan who, not even after a lapse of eight years following the fall of the Iron Curtain have found enough initiative, interest and time (or is it good will?) to become acquainted in more detail with the past and the present of photographic work in Central and Eastern Europe? The answer is a decisive no!. The fault equally lies with the totaUy inadequate care devoted to photography and its advertisement in practically all the post-communist countries. In none of these do we find e.g., an institution comparable to the Mission for Photographic Heritage of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication which, at considerable cost to the state, files archives of works deahng with the French state, legacies of prominent photographers and propagates them through exhibitions and publications. None of them has an analogy of the French National Fund of Contemporary Art which, since 1982 buys, besides pictures and statues, some 500 photographs annually and which this Fund not only stores, but also lends free of charge - just for the cost of postal charges - for exhibitions in France and abroad, and for decorating various state institutions. As far as I know, not a single of those countries has a photographic collection on a level that would achieve the standard of stocks kept in first-class museums of the USA Germany, Great Britain, or France, in none of them are photographs stored in accordance with all the relevant regulations in rooms with strictly controlled temperature, humidity and lighting, where they would be catalogued in current files, on microfilms and computers, but above all, where they would be made accessible to researchers and students. While in France in 1998, resources for the purchase of