Black and White in Photography

This exhibition is the first sizeable retrospective of Radek Brousil (born 1980), graduate of the Studio of Photography at the Prague Academy of Art, Architecture and Design and winner of the Oskár Čepan Award. While it is anchored in the medium of classical photography, Brousil’s output also embodies a polemic with the technologies of the standard treatment of photographic image as regards the various aspects of capturing the dark hues of the human skin. Brousil develops this particular subject in a photographic series, in a style evoking inspiration by Josef Sudek, of sculptural portraits of black Africans by the distinguished Czech explorer and sculptor, F.V. Foit. The latest of these photographs, which will be shown at Prague City Gallery for the first time, exemplify a crossover to the medium of sculptural object, echoing not only the impact of the colonial era, but relating also to the Baroque statuary of Ferdinand Maxmilian Brokoff located along Prague’s Royal Route, passing by the Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace to Charles Bridge and beyond, to Nerudova Street.