He Who Asks Doesn’t Photograph

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Art historian who gave up writing about art for the love of design, art curator, and minimalism lover.

is an artist, director, Doctor of Visual Arts. He composes images, constructs novels, and sketches essays. As he claims, "It's better than writing because photographs are faster than words." He studied at the Department of Cinematography and TV Production at the Lodz Film School, as well as art history at the University of Warsaw and Université Paris Sorbonne. He has 17 years of experience as a university lecturer. He has been photographing since the age of 13, and his series have been exhibited in Krakow, Warsaw, and Lodz, among others.

An anthology of out-of-focus photographs that became a masterpiece. An artist whose consistency predated the digital revolution by 50 years. An exhibition that was supposed to be a new opening and became a retrospective. Art historian Anna Diduch and artist Wojtek Wieteska discuss “Unseen”, an exhibition of Robert Frank’s work at the renowned gallery, C/O Berlin.

Anna Diduch: Robert Frank is a cult figure of 20th-century visual culture for me. But I am under no illusions that many people heard about him for the first time just one month ago, from the media coverage of his death. So I wonder seriously: who cares about Robert Frank these days?

Wojetk Wieteska: I think one answer could be as follows: I am a young photographer and I look around at what my contemporaries are doing (as they are the closest). Then I check out what my teachers or other professional artists are into. Then I look at some other, more distant photographer and then the next. Gradually, I widen the spectrum of my interest to other artists until, finally, I discover Robert Frank. I look about me and it turns out that I have scaled the Himalayas.

Przed wejściem do C/O Berlin - odbicie w lusterku jednego z plakatu promującego wystawę. — Przed wejściem do C/O Berlin – odbicie w lusterku jednego z plakatu promującego wystawę.

Z wnętrza wystawy - odbicie fotografii na stacji Zoologische Garten. — Z wnętrza wystawy – odbicie fotografii na stacji Zoologische Garten.

Wnętrze wystawy i fragment fotografii: Peru 1948.

And at that moment you decide that

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Ania Diduch:

Art historian who gave up writing about art for the love of design, art curator, and minimalism lover.

Wojtek Wieteska:

is an artist, director, Doctor of Visual Arts. He composes images, constructs novels, and sketches essays. As he claims, "It's better than writing because photographs are faster than words." He studied at the Department of Cinematography and TV Production at the Lodz Film School, as well as art history at the University of Warsaw and Université Paris Sorbonne. He has 17 years of experience as a university lecturer. He has been photographing since the age of 13, and his series have been exhibited in Krakow, Warsaw, and Lodz, among others.

Translation: Annie Krasińska

Publish date: 17.11.2019

Also read:

Ania Diduch:

Art historian who gave up writing about art for the love of design, art curator, and minimalism lover.

Wojtek Wieteska:

is an artist, director, Doctor of Visual Arts. He composes images, constructs novels, and sketches essays. As he claims, "It's better than writing because photographs are faster than words." He studied at the Department of Cinematography and TV Production at the Lodz Film School, as well as art history at the University of Warsaw and Université Paris Sorbonne. He has 17 years of experience as a university lecturer. He has been photographing since the age of 13, and his series have been exhibited in Krakow, Warsaw, and Lodz, among others.

60 years ago, Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank’s photobook The Americans was published in the US. A series of striking images shot on the road, Frank’s collection cut through the country’s supposed post-war prosperity to show a side of American society ridden with anxiety, despair and loneliness. Jack Kerouac, the Beat poet who wrote the introduction to The Americans, put it thusly: “To Robert Frank I now give you this message: You got eyes.”

He Who Asks Doesn’t Photograph

Also read:

The “Unseen” Photography of Robert Frank

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