from the Artificial Light series, 2007, c-print

At first glance, Misetics’ photographs are captivating by virtue of their refinement, accomplished capturing of atmosphere and, despite their contents, a certain elegance. It will likely come as no surprise that as well as art Misetics works in advertising and fashion photography, in which he utilises the newest media and technological advancements, and proficiencies thus gained are then applied to his art.

Misetics’ photographs can be characterised as having an intensive interest in the contrast between night and artificial light (the latter being the name of one of his series), the experience of people in large cities and the traces they leave behind. The majority of his shots contain people, often arranged in certain positions according to the artist’s “directorial” plans, creating an unsettling image. The refinement of these compositions, especially those where the characters” faces cannot be seen, assault the viewer’s fantasies. In Misetics’ images the viewer will not find rich scenes of crowds, instead their attention is concentrated upon the individual, or to several individuals and the space in which they coexist. Similar images could be interpreted as the dirtying of the person in the current world, full of unnatural things and places, however this could be too one-sided an interpretation. Despite every technological advancement one feels in Misetics’ work a return to the figurative painting of previous centuries; the goal is a perfectly fabricated picture. Concepts often connected to photography, such as documentation, fiction, digital manipulation and so on, are in Misetics’ case irrelevant. With the use of contrasts of light and well considered sites for his scenes he constructs his own image code, which works even with a strong narrative element. According to the theoretician, curator and photographer Horst Kloever from Berlin, Misetics’ photographs are close to the aesthetics of film. We could add that particularly to the modern form of Noir films, full of atmosphere of latent tension and uncertainty.

– Helena Musilová

from the Over series, 2009, c-prints