Preparing for Photography

Vlado Martek

Publisher
Office for Photography

croatian / english

 

Texts
Sandra Križić Roban, Jelena Pašić

Editors
Sandra Križić Roban, Jelena Pašić, Rafaela Dražić

Design and layout
Rafaela Dražić

Translation to English
Marina Schumann

 

Print run: 300

Printed in Croatia, Zagreb, November 2018

ISBN 978-953-58679-6-8 // CIP 001011687

 

 

The publishing of the book was made possible by funds provided by the Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Group and ERSTE Foundation, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, and the City of Zagreb.

This publication, entitled Preparing for Photography, is completely dedicated to Martek’s work in photography, presenting the medium as a conceptual form. It gathers a series of the author’s works in the medium of photography, created in the period from the 1970s to today. According to the concept of the graphic editor Rafaela Dražić, the publication is divided into three separate booklets – a booklet with a text by Sandra Križić Roban, a booklet with almost hundred reproductions, and a booklet which contains an interview with the artist, providing a fresh insight into an extensive segment of his work and thoughts about art, mediums, text and meanings.

“In accordance with the tendencies of taking art as an open field, in which an artist could do whatever he thought he should be doing, and adopting the Fluxus principle of action in which there was no difference between art and life, and in which everyday life, routine, and banality were legitimate ways of artistic expression, from the mid-1960s Martek explored and experimented with various media. (…) Photography has a special place in his oeuvre, primarily because it is ‘closest to the words’, as he says, close to poetry and and automatic script (…). At some point, Martek started using photographs as finished poems, as hyper-content, accepting their volatile nature and their ability to function as background and an object, as a trace rather than evidence.” (from the text by Sandra Križić Roban)

This post is also available in: Croatian