Jiri Turek - NewYork Exhibition

TRAVELLING TO NEW YORK CITY IN THE NEXT MONTH?
make a point of dropping in to the Leica Gallery at 670 Broadway where a first solo show of photographer Jiri Turek's work is in full swing until 6 January 2007.



CZECH PHOTOGRAPHY VII
JIRÍ TUREK
Fashion + Photographs
10 November - 6 January 2007
Reception: Thursday, 9 November, 6 - 8 pm

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This exhibition has been organized in association with the Czech Center New York.


“Me too, I have a still camera. As a matter of fact, I have two. May I borrow your eyes at least once a week, Mr. Turek?”
– Milos Forman

“I always love to work and laugh with Jirí. He cannot only impress and capture you by his photos but he also gives you a lot.”
– Helena Houdová, Founder and President of the Sunflower Children’s Foundation.

“His photos forever changed my view of New York by forcing me to personalize every passing stranger.”
– Clemenica H. Lujan, BCBG: Max Azria

“Turek’ pictures together make up the synesthetic, seductive, city symphony that is New York."
- Ariana Bernstein

“Jirí Turek’s fashion images challenge the very principle of anonymity… The tension between Jiri’s subjects and the rest of his city is beyond palpable, it’s operatic.”
– Jessica Borowick, The Administration of the City of New York


For more than two decades, Jirí Turek, a Prague native, has been in the forefront of contemporary photography, specializing in photojournalism, portraiture, and fine-art fashion images. A graduate of Silesian University, he resided in New York City for four years (2002-2006) during which time he maintained a photographic diary of his experiences in the city . In 2006, he returned the base of his work and his residency to Prague. During his years as a photographer, Turek has documented wars; worked as an editor; lectured at art schools and conducted photographic workshops. He was awarded the 1998 - 1999 Czech Press Photo Award First Place Prize in the Art and Fashion category as well as the 2001 Louskácek Advertising Photo Award.

Turek’s internationally-known portrait series includes images of the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Luciano Pavarotti, Lou Reed, and Sting. His fashion work – with its signature fine-art black-and-white images – has graced the covers of such publications as Elle, Premier and Oyster. Turek’s entertainment photographs have been used by Columbia-Sony Music, Universal Music, and Warner Music. Turek’s images are unique not only because of their strength and composition, but also because of his highly specialized technique of black-and-white lith printing. Of this method, the photographer himself says:

“Lith printing is much more about image interpretation than it is about image reproduction. This is the slowest, most time-consuming of all the silver silver-based wet processes and the most unpredictable – to the extent that one never quite knows how a print will come out. -The results are diverse in different hands, according to the choice of materials and the techniques used. Lith prints possess unique characteristics and properties and these can be exploited to get different effects, so it is a flexible, adaptable and therefore very creative way of printing. It is all to do with grain size. What drives this process and allows it to be so creative and variable is a property of lith developers known as ‘in infectious development’: The fine grains of early development are generally super-warm-toned, soft and creamy in texture, grainless in appearance -and low in contrast. The large grains of late development are colder in tone, coarse in texture, very grainy in appearance and high in contrast. In lith printing, this can be exploited by stopping the development when the balance of large and small grains (in shadows and highlights respectively) is as you want it. There is no right or wrong choice for this moment. The end result is that, to some extent, each finished print is unique unto itself.”

The Czech Center New York introduces this fall the “Czech Fashion Wave,” the first presentation of Czech fashion and ” lifestyle in New York. The “Czech Fashion Wave” is an exhibition in two parts: a fashion show at Milk Studios and photography exhibit at Leica Gallery. The fashion show will introduce the designs of Libena Rochová, Monika Drápalová, Hana Zárubová, and Denisa Nová. It is a benefit event to support Helena Houdová’s Sunflower Children’s Foundation, which helps disadvantaged children in difficult life situations with education and personal development. The fashion show will also present the hair designs of hair stylist Petra Mechurová and the fashion photography of Jirí Turek.

The exhibited photographs in Jirí Turek’s first solo show at Leica Gallery include a part of his fashion work for the “Czech Fashion Wave.” Of these images, Turek says: “I’ve always been fascinated by that moment when the beauty of a woman is in harmony with a constantly transforming fashion, elegance and sophistication. It is exciting to capture that instant of time when femininity is dominated by the creases of the dress and the pattern. I do not want the photos to depict a model as an object to hang clothes on, but I strive to portray a woman just like herself: a woman who men desire; a woman who is loved or a woman who men will never tame. Effortlessness and spontaneousness is impossible to achieve without craftsmanship. I find the technical work following the photo shoot just as exciting as taking pictures. Styles, colors, patterns, fabrics, fashion changes constantly, but the woman remains beautiful and exhilarating.”



To us, Turek’s images – whether fashion, portraits, or photojournalism – exhale the energy of transformation from the quotidian to the unique and even mysterious; a metamorphosis from the familiar into an uneasy and almost edgy beauty. Often his images lean to the surreal, waivering between reality and illusion, revealing Turek as the gate-keeper to a labyrinth not unlike that of Kafka’s castle; his technique reflects Kafka’s theology that “the form is not the expression of the content but only its power of attraction, the door and the way to the content… then the hidden background also reveals itself.” [Franz Kafka in Conversations with Kafka, Gustav Janouch] In so very many of Turek’s images some parts of the composition appear to fade, perhaps on their way to disappearance, while other elements appear to be bathed in a celestial light as if being rebirthed in a new infinite and eternal form. Perhaps not unlike the end of Kafka’s Metamorphosis: Gregor the beetle is no more and his sister “blossomed into a lovely and shapely girl… And it was like a confirmation of their new dreams…” [Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis as translated by Joachim Neugroschel]

It is our honor and pleasure to exhibit the work of this brilliant, young photographic artist, Jirí Turek.

-Rose and Jay Deutsch
On-Site Directors

Gallery
Leica Gallery / 670 Broadway / New York City 10012
212.777.3051 / Fax 212.777.6960 / leicaphoto@aol.com
Tues–Sat 12–6

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