Lukáš Prokůpek
55
from the 55 series, 2008–2009, c-prints

55

Lukáš Prokůpek hails from a photographic family, and so tries all the harder to do things his own way. At Prague’s VŠUP he is one of the oldest students in the photography studio. The series titled 55 originates here, according to the studio’s assignment: to bring seven new photographs every week for eleven weeks that express the substantial from each day. Prokůpek approached this courageously: he decided to spend each night out somewhere, and to bring from these outings atmospheric scenes of an almost magical character. If he had company with him, spontaneously produced photographs of bizarre scenes often emerged. At the same time however we find isolated overexposed self portraits with backgrounds of upset skies or landscapes flooded with moonlight.

The overall atmosphere is as if returning to romanticism and decadence, to starry skies and to the very setting of rules. It is precisely the night-time nature scenes that give the artist the opportunity to relate outside of the common rules of city life and to create theatre that is often on the border of fantasy and madness. It is then only up to him to set the frequency, size and richness of his own, partially autobiographical film.

– Pavel Vančát

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