Štefan Komorný - Photographs 1991-2003

The exhibition will last from September 3rd until September 28th, 2003
Opening hours: daily from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. except Mondays

Searching for Beauty, Harmony of Light, Shape and Colour

Over the past few years, in photographic creation we may note more and more authors inclining towards experimental photography in the domain of applied digital processing and computer-manipulated primary photographic recordings. Occasionally, it is an attempt at experimenting, at other times the author is carried away by the computer technique and manipulation. And creativeness stays in the background or remains but a manipulation. An enchantment by the possibilities of the computer. However, it is far too little for true creativity.
In order that an author might utilize the possibilities of new processes, new technique in manipulating a picture, he must also have a certain artistic training, experience with photographic work, must be a master of means of expression whether photographic or artistic. To the uneducated and the unprepared, even the most up-to-date technique will bring but heaps of formalist or showy consumer pictures that say just nothing.
As if a crisis has struck living, documentary photography (though I believe temporarily only). Work of authors is shifting into the domain of artistic, manipulated, staged - and other planes - of photography. It may be propicious if the author reached it through the process of his own production, view or expression. Such was the case in the past, so it is now and will certainly be also in the future.
The present-day generation, to which Štefan Komorný also belongs, is shifting the photographic image into the position of abstraction, artistic composition of the picture. It transforms concrete reality into his own creative statement with the aid of relations of geometric shapes, colour scale and structure. The image is not identical with reality, but creates subjective associations according to the perceiver and his emotional capacities.
Štefan Komorný's production derives from exact principles. His work may elicit different associations in different viewers. Exactness of IMAGES (I purposefully employ this term) - the dimensions of some of them reach up to 100 x 100 cm - is also given by the demanding procedure through which they originate. This implies application from the domain of scientific photography and cinematography. It involves a breakdown of light and its recomposition at a different place. However, the basis of the procedure is always the primary recording - hence, photography, whether in the form of a slide, a positive or a digital recording. This procedure gives rise to the names of the cycles "INTERFERENCES" and "TRANSPARENCIES".
Komorný does not give any titles to his works. These originated in the early 90s as "solitaries" - self-standing images: later diptychs and triptychs came to be added; these are included in cycles on which he currently works even for several years.
He termed his first cycle from 1991 Interferences. He creates pictures based on the principle of a symmetrical or asymmetrical multiplying or mirror-impressing of the picture. He works with a flat-form abstraction, expressive structure, a broad colour scale - from monochrome, pastel, up to deep colour tones. A characteristic feature is the static nature of the picture.
His further cycle Transparencies originated in 2001. It already made use of digital photographic recording and computer graphics. In this cycle the author sees to it that typical photographic elements of expression remain the principal creative elements of the picture. In contrast to the preceding cycle, here he uses concrete models taken with a digital camera. The cloud motifs create some sort of the fantastic into which the author inserts very concrete elements ( birds in flight, an aircraft leaving traces behind it). The polarity of the clouds, among which are set, in a very dramatic colour and shape execution, concrete elements SYMBOLS OF LIFE, CIVILIZATION AND THE UNIVERSE (the moon), imparts tension to the pictures. It is a completely new position in Štefan Komorný's production. From pure abstraction to the philosophy of the picture, to the author's statement regarding his view of the existence of the world. His creative play continues, but - figuratively speaking - it shifts from pure poetry into that of a picture in prose. Does it tend toward ----- ? hence, real photography? From abstraction to reality? The opposite of the procedure in current creative arts? And why should it not!
In the next photographic cycle Still Lifes (from 2001) he likewise photographs with a digital camera and here touches upon very simple shapes, works with light and shadow, variations with colour.
The author introduces works that did not originate randomly as computer products. He arrived at this artistic expression through his study at the film school at Čimelice which gave him solid foundations for mastering and applying the technique, technology and means of expression in photography. His subsequent study at the FAMU - Department of Camera Work in Prague - completed his training and his orientation. Work at the Department of Tricks in the Film Studio of Barandov and later at Koliba in Bratislava, only goes to prove the high professional quality of his work. Since 1995 he imparts his experience and knowledge to students at the Department of Camera Work and Production VŠMU, as lecturer. He works at Gbely, Záhorie (or the "Tramontane Region") and in Bratislava.
This exhibition introduces the original production of a modest author. Not any more of an artist "just experimenting" , but of an author who knows what he wants, what he is after and, we like to hope, one who will reach the stage where his work will be received as original. A modern photographic artistic production, in the true sense of the term, of the third millennium.

Mgr.Fero Tomík
August 2003.

Štefan Komorný

Born August 6, 1962
Studies:
1977-1981 Secondary Industrial Film School, Čimelice
1982-1988 FAMU Prague - Department of Camera Work
1988-1991 Film Studio Barandov Prague, Department of Trick Work
1991- Koliba Production & Services Bratislava, Department of Trick Work
1995- Lecturer at the Camera Department VŠMU Bratislava

I live and work at Gbely, Záhorie (Slovakia)

Exhibitions:

Solo:
1993 - Month of Photography, Gallery "Dielo", SNP Sq. Bratislava
1994 - Gallery "Ekoagrobanka" Bratislava

Group:
1998 - 2nd Meeting of Artists from Záhorie, the Záhorie Gallery, Senica
2000 - 3rd Meeting of Artists from Záhorie, the Záhorie Gallery, Senica
2001 - Month of Photography Bratislava, Digital Olympus - The "Artotéka" Gallery. Capucins' Square.