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PhotoIreland Festival Events @ CFCP
Zofia Rydet
1911 - 1997 |
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| Introduction |
| Living and working in Poland, Zofia Rydet was an active photographer for 45 years before her death in 1997. She came to be known for her surrealist imagery and metaphorical photocollages and also, later, for her social documentary work. Toward the end of the 1970s Rydet embarked on a momentual documentary project, titled Sociological Record, which she continued through the final years of her life. In a spirit similar to August Sander’s methodical documentation of different social and professional types in Germany at the turn of the twentieth century, Rydet photographed people in their homes in various regions of Poland, often in poor villages.
In terms of composition, Rydet forgoes the rigorous uniformity that has often characterized typological photographic projects—most explicitly in the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, although Sander also created a sense of regularity by closely and centrally framing his subjects. In Rydet’s case, the distance between the camera and the sitters, and where they are situated within the room, vary from image to image. What remains constant is the pose of her subjects, who sit calmly and proudly with their hands on their knees as this stranger enters their home to photograph them. As art historian Urszula Czartoryska observes, “the people seen within the frames of her photographs show no signs of discomfort. Their postures manifest their moral identification with their biographies and environment that apparently includes no secret zones, no undercurrent of panic.” |
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01 - 17.07. 2011
The Arc of Realism
Zofia Rydet 1911-1997
5 May 2011 was the 100th birthday anniversary of Zofia Rydet. It is a perfect occasion for reminding and commemorating this great Polish photographer. The exhibition is our attempt to interpret her enormous creative output. By building up on the tension linking the two most important stages of her artistic work, two great realisms – the surrealism of photomontages and pure realism of The Sociological Record – we want to show the thematic unity which dominates over the diversity of formal choices.
The title of the exhibition refers to the metaphorical curve of Rydet’s creative work. Starting from the realism of the 1950s, the line soars up to surrealistic photo-montages (1969-1979), to return to the purity of realism in the last stage of her career, as depicted in the monumental Sociological Record (1978-1995). In her document of over 30,000 negatives, Zofia Rydet is faithful to reality again, and to the trust in a photo frame. However, it is already a different kind of realism, read anew, personal, marked with the individual vision of photography and perception of the world.
In The Arc of Realism, the tight line of Zofia Rydet’s creative work, we notcie the dilemma of a photographer who wants to be a documentalist true to reality on the one hand, and aspires to become an artist, a visionary, creating a kind of synthetic over-reality, soaring above realism on the other. The final stage of her work shows that the artist overcame the dilemma and set out to retell the reality with total accuracy. However, it seems that for Zofia Rydet, a master of photo-montage and poetic creation, the decision was neither easy nor obvious.
The works come from the collection of Fundacja im. Zofii Rydet (Zofia Rydet Foundation).
Curators: Andrzej Rozycki and Karol Jozwiak |
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| Zofia Rydet Events in CFCP |
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30.06. 2011
Descriptive role of the exhibition
Aspects and concepts of the exhibition of Zofia Rydet
by Karol Jozwiak
7pm
Admission Free
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How to describe concepts through an exhibition, how to narrate a story of creativity? What is the role of an exhibition, is it just a mere composition of works, or has it got more creative task?
The exhibition of Zofia Rydet is an attempt to interpret her enormous creative output. By building up on the tension linking the two most important stages of her artistic work, two great realism's – the surrealism of photo-montages (60s and 70s) and pure realism of The Sociological Record (the end of 70s to the beginning of 90s) – we want to show the thematic unity which dominates over the diversity of formal choices. We want to tell a story of an artist, who is desperately looking for the way of preserving the vanishing reality. Is it possible to achieve it through an exhibition? I’d like to discuss it during my talk.
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02 & 07.07. 2011
Zofia Rydet
The Endlessly Distant Roads
02.07 - 12.30pm
07.07 - 7pm
Admission Free |
The documentary film about Zofia Rydet and her artistic output, made by her friend Andrzej Rozycki who is also a well known polish artist, film director and an art theoretician. Made with sensibility and artistic creativity, the film shows, in the simple and pure form, the enormous output of Zofia Rydet. Her own commentary gives an additional value to this film. Awarded on the international film festivals in Lodz and Cracow.
Directed by Andrzej Rozycki |
Photography by Stefan Nitoslawski |
36mm B&W film | Lodz 1990 | About 30' |
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02.07. 2011
The tensions of realism
on the output of Zofia Rydet
by Karol Jozwiak
1pm
Admission Free
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Zofia Rydet is known mostly from her enormous cycle of Sociological Record. It includes over 30 000 negatives, preserving a lot of places and people which are not existing anymore. She started this series at the end of 70s, photographing common people in their houses. But then the series has become a huge documentation of the Polish village. She photographed interiors and exteriors of the houses, walls full of the decorations, and first of all people.
This famous cycle was, though, the last stage of her artistic work. Before, in 60s and 70s she created a big series, known as The Word of Feelings and Imagination, which was a collection of surrealistic photo-montages. Thus, there is a tension between those two series which are totally different kinds of photography.
In The Arc of Realism, the tight line of Zofia Rydet’s creative work, we notice the dilemma of a photographer who wants to be a documentalist true to reality on the one hand, and aspires to become an artist, a visionary, creating a kind of synthetic over-reality, soaring above realism on the other. The final stage of her work shows that the artist overcame the dilemma and set out to retell the reality with total accuracy. However, it seems that for Zofia Rydet, a master of photo-montage and poetic creation, the decision was neither easy nor obvious. |
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