Page 10 - Katalog_náhled

Perhaps that is why photography accentuates the most fleeting happenings, piano stands in a damp old hallway. Regular shadows of brutalist architecture; water and
the subliminal solitude. the reflection of the sky on Cigler’s terrace over the Kampa Museum. Cars on the South
This is a map of a personal world which nevertheless shows the character of the times Connector reflect light like a nimbus around old frescoes; a mountainous landscape with
on a wider scale. Artists like Zdeněk Rybka, Jan Steklík, Václav Havel, Věroslav Škrabánek, frost and ice spread like a lace shawl and a hurrying horse; Nina with a clown pompom
Jiří Lacina, Bedřich Novotný, Josef Procházka and Pavel Brázda are portrayed. There is on her nose. Adamec’s photographs are never a second hand experience, as it’s
the famous picture of two Old Dogs with their paintings on the road under the castle; sometimes said of photography; the photographer is always involved in the act.
Vojmír Vokolek at Pecka; Krejcar‘s wedding; and Světlana Pavlíčková at Kuks at the Jaroslav The action is not observed from a distance; he is a participant and often a co-creator.
Jebavý exhibition. The participants’ ties were maintained by beer meetings at the railway As a humorous commentator he shows the ways that he understands the universe.
station restaurant with Jan Steklík, Václav Sokol, Martina Hozová and Pavel Šmíd. He does not take pictures either randomly or methodically, but he imposes meaning
Adamec was able to capture something very life-affirming in the atmosphere of on strings of beaded moments. To be able to do that, one must first become acquainted
the cities and their peripheries. Notable are the Polish cities, their differences in with the environment, to both perceive and accept it. The view through the camera can
similarity, but also London, New York or the Danube region. His romantic side is revealed encourage the understanding that comes in slow waves or sudden strikes.
by mountain landscapes, dreamy Carpathian Mountains, the beach and the road uphill Photographers usually consider themselves to be scientists or moralists. Scientists make
and downhill, and up the mountain hill. an inventory of the world; moralists focus on hard questions. Adamec is neither
Shop windows have appeared in Adamec’s work since 1975, as he was angry and upset a scientist or a moralist, nor a reporter; he does not report, but he is interested in what
by the concept of peace, when we had Russian missiles at our backs. is generally human. Adamec’s pictures occupy the space between information, story and
“Players” was born in several waves after 2001. poetry. The medium of expression is not the camera, but the human being holding it.
In the photographs taken over time we can see his relationship to the Parisian quarters Jan Adamec – as we can see from an overview of his photographs – is one of those
of Eugen Atget; in the surreal dimension of mundanity and the found object to Jindřich who were always proactive, who could not simply stand and do nothing, so they made
Štyrský; in the professionalism and humanistic attitude to the members of Magnum something happen. Throughout all the humorous and poetic moments, Adamec is the
Photos; surprisingly (for many) in the conceptually tuned processes to Iren Stehli. archivist of events of which little is known, because culture is never official but always
Jan Adamec focuses on indirect encounters, on confrontations with an icon, between arises within human fellowships, away from the attention of the media and institutions.
Pavel Šmíd and Federico Fellini or Karel Nedvěd and Salvator Dali. Typically, stories are left behind and sometimes there is nobody to tell them. Jan Adamec
Umbrellas flap in the air, a man sleeps in a place where he could easily fall, a polished is the narrator of those stories.

Martina Vítková

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