Galeria Sztuki A-1 zaprasza na wystawę historycznych technik fotografii w ramach realizowanego Projektu Artystycznego Bromography Known Unknown. Zapraszamy na finisaż wystawy 30.05.2025 (piątek) o godz. 17.00 do Galerii Sztuki A-1, przy ul. Kanoniczej 1 w Krakowie.
Autorką fotografii jest Lenka Lučenič – absolwentka Tomas Bata University in Zlin. Faculty of Multimedia Communications
Więcej: https://a1-galeria.pk.edu.pl/?p=1923
Author’s BIO:
Lenka Lučenič is a visual artist and photographer originally from Slovakia, currently based in Prague, Czech republic. Her work focuses on historical photographic techniques and experimentation with error, material, and technological processes. She has long been exploring the relationship between analog and digital photography, merging the two within her artistic practice – from the creation of the image to post-production and digitization.
She studied photography at the Faculty of Multimedia Communications at Tomas Bata University in Zlín, where she is currently pursuing her PhD. Under the supervision of Jan Jindra and Jiří Černohorský, her dissertation research focuses on bromography – a forgotten photographic reproduction technique that she explores in both historical and contemporary artistic and theoretical contexts.
Project Bromography Known Unknown
The exhibition Bromography: Known Unknown presents the outcome of a research-based artistic project focused on the rediscovery and reinterpretation of bromography—a historically widespread yet today largely forgotten photographic reproduction technique. The exhibition is part of the grant-funded project „Rediscovery of Bromography and Its Preservation for the National Cultural Heritage” supported by the Internal Grant Agency (IGA) at Tomas Bata University in Zlín, and is based on Lenka Lučenič’s doctoral research at the Faculty of Multimedia Communications.
The research draws on archival materials, experimental work with historical photographic processes, and collaboration with students enrolled in the course Historical Photographic Techniques. The central aim of the grant was to confirm bromography as a photochemical reproduction technique—one in which the image is formed in a light-sensitive emulsion, as opposed to traditional printmaking techniques where the image results from the transfer of ink. This conclusion was supported by comparative spectral analysis between historical bromographs and contemporary experimental reproductions.
As part of the research, photographs were created inspired by the works of František Drtikol, a prominent Czech photographer whose images were widely disseminated through bromography during the interwar period. The photographs produced during the project were reproduced using contact-based silver-bromide analogue process on various types of modern photographic paper. In parallel, digital raster negatives were created and processed using photolithographic printing technique. Comparing the outputs enabled not only technical evaluation but also visual reflection on the reproducibility of photographic images.
The exhibition intentionally distinguishes between authentic historical bromographs (presented on black backgrounds) and the research-based contemporary photographs (displayed on gray backgrounds), thus drawing attention to the contrast between historical originals and current interpretations. In addition to original bromographic postcards dating from the 1920s to the 1970s, the exhibition also includes photographs from the archive of Karel Podlipný, founder of the Bromografia company, whose legacy serves as a foundational source for the doctoral research.
This exhibition is not only a presentation of photographic works but also an expanded research platform. It explains technical terminology, reconstructs forgotten processes, and emphasizes the relationship between technological development and the cultural significance of the image. Bromography: Known Unknown also reflects on how images are disseminated, reproduced, and embedded in collective memory—and how they can be rediscovered through interdisciplinary inquiry.
Wystawę można oglądać od 15.05. do 30.05.2025!
