Gabriela Gorączko
“zureta moment”
“zureta moment”
My inspiration in searching for errors in art was commemorative photography. As an admirer of photography, I have quite a unique approach to it: I take pictures of people very seldom as I always
feel as if I were violating their comfort zone doing it. In my work entitled “Someone Missing”, in which I use family photographs, the situation is similar. Being familiar with many stories concerning the persons in the photographs, I am not able to deliberately use a particular photograph for my own purposes. For me, this would mean some abuse of moments and emotions which were felt by these people then. Those depicted in the photographs certainly trusted the photographer and they expected the photograph to be used by him/her in an appropriate manner.
In the centre of my work, the silhouettes of my ancestors are visible; I eliminated their images from the pictures. This effect was achieved by a conscious and deliberate use of graphics software, and my objective was the generation of a kind of an error of digital image processing. The figures in the picture should have disappeared completely, yet some traces resulting from the imperfection of the
software were left. To intensify the effect of the picture I decided to make a print using a digital print. This technology helps maintain the photographic qualities, but above all, highlights the details. Therefore, I could afford emphasising all the imperfections characteristic for amateur photography of the past years.
The previously mentioned silhouettes are the most important element of the work, therefore I enhanced them using hot stamping to give the figures vitality. I am fascinated by the fragility and antiquity of old photographs. The Chine-colle method allowed me to gently stress the transience of these photographs, and the use of ecru-coloured paper helped to maintain the character of the prints. The particular stages of the work were very important for me since I focused not only on the printmaking technique but also experienced many emotions and thoughts that are difficult to verbalise. These emotions comprise some intimate personal relations overlapping the documentary character of the original photography. The entire process is to show my personal respect for commemorative photography.
feel as if I were violating their comfort zone doing it. In my work entitled “Someone Missing”, in which I use family photographs, the situation is similar. Being familiar with many stories concerning the persons in the photographs, I am not able to deliberately use a particular photograph for my own purposes. For me, this would mean some abuse of moments and emotions which were felt by these people then. Those depicted in the photographs certainly trusted the photographer and they expected the photograph to be used by him/her in an appropriate manner.
In the centre of my work, the silhouettes of my ancestors are visible; I eliminated their images from the pictures. This effect was achieved by a conscious and deliberate use of graphics software, and my objective was the generation of a kind of an error of digital image processing. The figures in the picture should have disappeared completely, yet some traces resulting from the imperfection of the
software were left. To intensify the effect of the picture I decided to make a print using a digital print. This technology helps maintain the photographic qualities, but above all, highlights the details. Therefore, I could afford emphasising all the imperfections characteristic for amateur photography of the past years.
The previously mentioned silhouettes are the most important element of the work, therefore I enhanced them using hot stamping to give the figures vitality. I am fascinated by the fragility and antiquity of old photographs. The Chine-colle method allowed me to gently stress the transience of these photographs, and the use of ecru-coloured paper helped to maintain the character of the prints. The particular stages of the work were very important for me since I focused not only on the printmaking technique but also experienced many emotions and thoughts that are difficult to verbalise. These emotions comprise some intimate personal relations overlapping the documentary character of the original photography. The entire process is to show my personal respect for commemorative photography.
