Leakage

When looking at photography from a historical perspective it seems everything has been discovered and nothing new will be invented.

When looking at photography from a historical perspective it seems everything has been discovered and nothing new will be invented. Alex Katz, an American painter, said: "[Mental] image precedes a photograph". Therefore the limitation of possibilities in photography can only be established by our imagination. Each photograph imposes an inner dialogue on us, a discourse between imagination and representation.

The most recent piece of work by Anna Orłowska, “Leakage”, requires the viewer to be open-eyed and open-minded. The works are ambiguous, they do not show everyday reality. Seemingly static, but not at a standstill. Each photograph from “Leakage” determines its own set of concepts and its own time frame, which keeps our perception and understanding of the relations between particular images questionable. We come across a strange paradox: mechanical reproduction of reality, being a product of our civilization, mingles with mental image - a kind of a phantom. This is how a myth is born and becomes believable in Anna Orłowska`s images, thanks to her photography.

Grzegorz Przyborek