Jitka Hanzlová: Forest
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Photography & Video
Jitka Hanzlová: Forest Details
Photographer Jitka Hanzlov's new series, Forest, here accompanied by a John Berger essay, continues her work in and around the village where she grew up, leaving the town and its inhabitants for the forest. Her stark prints explore the Moravian woods of her youth--and all the naturally-occurring corridors, courtyards, haunted houses and gilded ponds there--as a kind of visible, perceptible "unknown" in herself and the viewer, as a dark spring, as the unfathomed depths from which we emerge. Though many of us don't often go into the forest, we know that it is there, and we know that it is critical to both the way one imagines the world--light and dark, city and country, home and unknown territory--and to the physical processes, not least the manufacture of oxygen, that keep the world going. In this respect, Hanzlov's work is once again, as it has been so directly in Female, and persistently in Rokytnik, meaningful sociopolitically as well as aesthetically.
Reviews
FOREST is a book of color photographs. Though not all, many are taken in low light; because of this we see colors not ordinarily seen, we see colorlessness in instances where light will not emit color. Jitka Hanzlova photographs seasons, water, insects, trees, flowers, a smattering of the basics we could expect. Light, is well used to shape these images. It defines the compositions, it is often sparse, comes from behind, glows, reflects, creates linear compositions of branches, mutates color, and creates mood. Color is subtle, sometimes intense; it is in the grasses, weeds, sunlight and dark snows. She sees very well in color; it's truly a photographic book.What to say about the photographs? They are simple and experiential. They lack the sophistication we have come to expect of traditional landscape photography. And, they are all the better for that lack. The pictures are not artistically contrived nor edited to express a philosophical, environmental, or personal agenda. They are simply seen, simply shared by one very familiar here. They are very still images by a lone photographer. The book is not polished up nor finished off, it is open ended and continuing.Personally I found the introduction to be at cross-purposes with the images. The questions, the multiple enigmas expressed, seemed too very heavily philosophical an introduction to the sophisticated simplicity of the images. As I was not familiar with this photographer I would have liked more information on her photographic process and materials though that is not necessary for the enjoyment of this book.I've been back for a "look" many times. I found it a pleasure, delightful, and fresh.Nancy Gutrich