Travelouge: Prague Spring 2009

Added October 2009

Sarah St. Lifer October 12th to October 24th 2009

Travelogue: Prague Spring 2009

Taking a term to study abroad in Prague heightened my sense of the temporary. With these photographs I fought the postcard picture and reveal what citizens of Prague see every day. I learned that Czech photographers find beauty within destruction. They bring to light ugliness that would normally be avoided. They are not ashamed of what is their own and accept reality in order to move forward. They see piles of debris, construction and abandoned homes as metaphors of potential growth. Czech photographers are anxious to address the simple and mundane; they search for energy radiated from objects.

The two series act as a visual journal of my semester in Prague. The Polaroids are of the neighborhood Nové Město (New Town) right outside of Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square), the Times Square of Prague. After class, I would walk home on cobblestone streets past sorbet-tinted buildings and small cafes.

Opposite the Polaroids are the black and white prints of Žižkov, a rough neighborhood mere minutes from the utopia in which I lived. Photographer Boris Mikhailov said, “[i]n my life there is dirt, things are broken… I needed to concentrate on what was real, what our life was about and to create an identity through that.” These photographs are not a flattering portrait of the city, but they are real.

I wanted to create a conversation between the two examples of city life within Prague. The colorful prints, which are very casual, create a tense conversation when facing the framed black and white images of an ugly area. The photographs of Žižkov are landscapes of once populated spaces that are now abandoned. I titled my exhibit Travelogue: Prague Spring 2009 to conjure the idea of a brief period of time where anything was possible.

Thank you to: Laurie Kobik, CET Academic Programs, Michael Lucerto, Liz Deschenes, Miroslav Vojtechovsky, Beacon Photography, Michael Cahoon, Chaz Horwich, Ham Poe, my parents and my Nanny Ruth – who advised me to keep a journal, this was the closest I got.