Zbigniew Łagocki:

Photography

Crossing ‘certain boundaries’ is a frequent and important element in Łagocki’s work. It exists in different modes – knowingly or unknowingly. Directly or indirectly – symbolically. It has various meanings. It is a way of delving into knowledge, exploring the world with a desire to understand it, and also a desire to understand another human being. It is also a way of negotiating and crossing physical boundaries, or the boundaries of intimacy, an attempt to understand the world through oneself – one’s own vision, limitations, knowledge, and culture – all the way to ‘designing it’ in photography.

Zbigniew Łagocki considers the manner in which he photographs something the most important in his work; he calls it ‘my own commentary’. He constructs his photographs with black and white, using vertical and horizontal lines, complemented with diagonals and a whole range of greys, to bring out what he calls ‘the inner tension of the photograph’. These divisions are fitted into a geometric grid of their own – juxtapositions of biological and abstract forms.

The concept of the image crystallized as early as the moment when he became interested in some motif. At each stage of development it underwent both construction and deconstruction. This allows us to speak of Zbigniew Łagocki’s works as ‘designed photographs’.

The artist’s field of vision, narrowed down to observation through one eye only, limits but also, paradoxically, focuses the vision on what matters. The gesture of selecting a frame and fixing it on the negative was just a sketch in Łagocki’s case. The complete image was generated in his mind. That image would only become visible on the photographic print. In Łagocki’s own words: ‘the whole work and pleasure in photographing is the work you do in the darkroom. That’s where the final result is created: the final image.’ Imperfections on the negatives are much like mistakes in one’s life – errors that he corrected in the process of developing the print. He would amplify some elements while toning down others. When intervening into the photographic magnification, he would often leave an ‘error’ as a kind of testimony to his participation in an autonomous event.

The artist consciously deals with important and difficult issues, in which it is allowable to cross boundaries; any boundaries; certain boundaries. However, Łagocki’s photographs never seek to capture attention through graphic imagery. They are manifestos of beauty and humanism instead.

When an artist passes away, he takes with him his conceptions, plans, ideas. His limitations. Certain boundaries that are his only. His unique manner of expression, gaze, framing, interpretation. His delicacy. Sensitivity. What he leaves behind is a ‘closed’ archive.

The remaining archive provokes interpretations. When selecting photographs for this exhibition, I imposed a certain gazing discipline on myself. Decomposing and then putting together anew Łagocki’s ‘designed photographs’ provided opportunities for discovering and generating new meanings, mitigating and shifting the boundaries of vision. We can look at them without the content-related, visual or contextual influences: dates, individuals, or places of creation.

According to Umberto Eco, a work of art achieves its full existence only in the process of interpretation. The centre of gravity is thus shifted from the artist and the work itself to the viewer, who has to engage in an interaction with the art object…, so that a work of art become complete only in its reception.

‘Certain’ describes something categorical, fixed, decided, but also something indeterminate. ‘Certain!’ may confirm or negate something, be unobvious, indeterminate, unspecified. Puzzling. Enigmatic. A ‘boundary’ is something that encloses, limits, divides, it is a measure of value, of allowed reach. It is an end.