View four images by Jan Svoboda, listen to the audio descriptions and/or download the audio description transcripts below. These audio descriptions were produced by Caroline Dawson for a live Slow Looking event.
Jan Svoboda sought to redefine the language and perception of photography, deconstructing the process and form, playing with subject matter and presentation and considering the medium in relation to painting and sculpture, and within the traditions of Symbolism, Romanticism and Modernism. His self-reflective, speculative works paved the way for wider experiments with photographic appropriation and mark him out as a pioneer of conceptual photography.
The exhibition Jan Svoboda: Against the Light at The Photographers' Gallery (21 Feb - 20 Sep 2020) marks the first major UK presentation of Czech photographer, Jan Svoboda (1934–1990) since his first solo exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery back in 1982.
Caroline Dawson, an access and inclusivity consultant, has produced audio descriptions for one working print and three works by Jan Svoboda that were included in the exhibition Jan Svoboda: Against the Light. View the images, listen to the audio descriptions and/or download the audio description transcripts below.
Slow Looking is supported by the Vision Foundation.
Image 1 - Jan Svoboda, Untitled (Table), 1970s Courtesy Archive of Modern Conflict
Image 2 – Jan Svoboda, Table VI 1971, Courtesy Moravian Gallery, Brno © Artist’s Estate
Image 3 – Jan Svoboda, Picture That Will Not Return XXXV, 1972, Courtesy Moravian Gallery, Brno © Artist’s Estate
Image 4 – Jan Svoboda, Space For Pink Picture 1971 Courtesy Moravian Gallery, Brno © Artist’s Estate
