Photographer Edgar Leciejewski (*1977) worked in Houston for several months in spring 2018. Using his constant companion, the camera, he approached the city before focusing on his main subject, the portrait. Leciejewski, who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig from 2003 to 2011 with Timm Rautert, Christopher Muller and Peter Piller, recently analyzed the classic subject of portraiture as well as the significance and methods used in contemporary photography. For his new portrait series, created in his temporary studio in Houston, Leciejewski used a large format camera to capture children from various social backgrounds. The young participants consciously staged themselves, chose their own clothes and handed over a personal drawing to the photographer. The finished portraits are framed together with the drawings and the clothes the children wore when photographed. The flat picture is transformed into a unique sculptural object. In his portraits, Leciejewski depicts questions of representation and reality. At the same time, the photographer undermines the potential of limitless editions.
In Houston, Edgar Leciejewski met the photographer Amy Blakemore (*1958) who lives and teaches there. Blakemore has been observing her surroundings with two medium format cameras for years. Her images use the familiar photographic themes: portrait, still life and landscape. Her works are narrative and show the artist’s subjective view. Her photographs, however, undermine the classic understanding of the medium, which is characterized by sharpness, perfect illumination, and real color. By using a lightweight and simple Diana camera, the artist can react quickly to situations and images. Her resulting pictures are unpredictable. The camera has its own peculiarities which embrace the coincidental moment and make experimental work possible. For example, the thin plastic lenses produce blurred, softened images. Multiple and partial exposures are possible. Amy Blakemore selects and prints the images in the darkroom. The coincidence of the picture meets technical perfection. In July and August 2018, the artist chose her subjects for the exhibition on site, in Leipzig. Her carry-on luggage contained her two cameras and a lot of films.
Opening: 24.10.2018, 18h
