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BOOKS

LOVE POEM

This is the first monograph by Tomasz Gudzowaty, presenting a selection of his iconic pictures which have won him numerous awards and international recognition, alongside previously unpublished material.

Photography as a New Kind of Love Poem contains two decades of work by Gudzowaty, who dexterously explores a wide range of genres and formats—from social documentary to portraiture, from wildlife to sport, from austere black-and-white pictures in the tradition of photojournalism to sophisticated color compositions.

In editing the book, Gudzowaty eschews chronological or thematic order for a sequence shaped by moods and relationships, all unified by his consistent and engaging investigation of the world and human condition.

CLOSER

Tomasz Gudzowaty became established as a wildlife documentary photographer in 1999, when he won the first of his World Press Photo awards in the nature category with a remarkable image of two cheetah cubs just about to take down their first prey. He has since traveled extensively through- out sub-Saharan Africa, amassing thousands of images of elephants, lions, cheetahs, wildebeest, zebras and other species. In 2008 Gudzowaty documented a remote emperor penguin colony in the Weddell Sea, a project he continued through his work on South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.


Gudzowatyís wildlife photography is characterized by a technical and aesthetic sophistication that is particularly visible in his depictions of large-scale natural spectacles, such as the annual wildebeest migration in Tanzania or the breeding season on the penguin rookeries. This book captures Gudzowatyís passion and deep knowledge of his subject: keenly observing both general patterns and minute details, he brings the viewer closer to natureís inner workings and beauty.

PROOF

This book by Tomasz Gudzowaty, a photographer otherwise known for impeccably crafted black-and-white images, is a bold and unexpected attempt to embrace the aesthetics of chance, hidden in what he once considered a byproduct of his artistic process. Polaroid Type 55 filmówhich produced instant positive prints in addition to negativesówas a cult favorite of photographers using large-format cameras until 2008 when Polaroid announced it would cease production of all instant film. Imperfect, over- or underexposed, scratched and sometimes barely legible, the positive prints were usually discarded or kept as rough proofs to aid the selection of negatives to print. Here, they stand as works of art all their own.


The practice of examining the instant contact sheets right after shooting a photo made me extra sensitive to the hidden potential of yet undeveloped images. And I also realized that imperfection is an essential part of photography, a price for faithfulness to the nature of the medium, which is, in a sense, a haphazard interpretation of a moment. The contact proofs are literally proof of that.

Tomasz Gudzowaty

BEYOND THE BODY

Beyond the Body is the result of an unlikely meeting between Tomasz Gudzowaty and Nan Goldin, who represent diametrically different personalities, sensibilities, and modes of artistic creation, yet both of whom stand behind stunningly clear, consistent visions. Goldin draws on Gudzowatyís rich archive to create her own narrativeódetached from its original thematic context and purpose to form a continuous flow of images that reaches a deeper, metaphysical dimension of sport. The people in the photographsóflying, floating, upside downóstrive to escape, to liberate themselves from corporeal limitations, and to transcend their physical boundaries in order to attain a mystical state of mind. As Goldin lucidly puts it: ìThey are breaking the rules of how we are bound to the earth.


Edited by Nan Goldin

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