{"id":92,"date":"2003-08-26T18:30:45","date_gmt":"2003-08-26T22:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/2003\/08\/26\/et-dixit-photographia-fiat\/"},"modified":"2003-08-26T18:30:45","modified_gmt":"2003-08-26T22:30:45","slug":"et-dixit-photographia-fiat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/2003\/08\/26\/et-dixit-photographia-fiat\/","title":{"rendered":"Et dixit: “Photographia fiat!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Staged photography is born out of boredom or dissatisfaction with the world. The photographer wants to see the world as a place where anything is possible-a place full of more beauty, more meaning, more play, more symbolism. In the face of Communism, these Czech and Slovak artists were escapists and surrealists-dreaming themselves into other realities and making photographic documents of them. Some of them say they are making pataphysical theatre–theatre of the absurd performed for the camera. <\/p>\n

\nStaged photography is one of the most creative uses of the medium. Everything comes from the mind of the artist and has to be constructed to be photographed-especially for those working in the studio who begin with a blank slate (there are no references to time or place). Because of the way the artists work, this kind of photography has ties to theatre and dance, sculpture, “happenings,” and literature. Photography is particularly well suited to producing narrative fictions because on some level we believe in them, and because they are always out of context-the viewer is invited to weave the “before” and “after” sections of the story themselves. In this way the artists are full of trust and openness-they ask you to engage with them, to follow them into their secret worlds. Even though each of these artists has a distinctive voice, they have many common goals-for instance they are interested in the human condition and our relationship to the landscape. Even at their most absurd or whimsical, they are searching for something honest, something that touches us all. They are truly alchemists-standing in the dark, swirling chemicals, searching for the philosopher’s stone-not to turn one metal into another, but to make the soul a more perfect vehicle for divine wisdom.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nHallado en Dublog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Et dixit: “Photographia fiat!” …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staged photography is born out of boredom or dissatisfaction with the world. The photographer wants to see the world as a place where anything is possible-a place full of more beauty, more meaning, more play, more symbolism. In the face of Communism, these Czech and Slovak artists were escapists and surrealists-dreaming themselves into other realities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1458],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ionstories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/240"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ionblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}