from the Lost Places series, 2008, b&w photograph

LOST PLACES

“Places that get lost in light. What does light need in order to exist?”

Anna Gutová’s photographs in Ztracená místa (Lost places) are not connected by their time or place of origin; they come from journeys around various European countries. They are however linked in their freezing of time. The artist travels through these places, passes through them, stopping for a moment.

The landscapes of Anny Gutová’s photographs are devoid of people, however traces of human activity are visible. The expliciteness of the subjects is kept to a minimum; we do not know when and where the photograph was taken. The artist’s subjective input is the feeling of the solitary observer; a viewer who for a moment rests their eye on the section of the world around them. Personal experience of smoke observed on the horizon, a view of a resting cow, a slithering snake, or the flashing past of markers on the road; it is not limited by further detailed information about the time or place of origin of the photograph.

– Naďa Kovaříková