The Joy of Photography, a new series by Piotr Uklanski (*1968 in Warsaw) is named after a Kodak handbook for amateur photographers, which equipped generations of enthusiasts with the techniques necessary for capturing that perfect shot. Today, in this age of the digital camera, the little extravagances recommended in the manual are rarely pursued. “The guy who buys a special filter in order to better photograph the sunset has disappeared,” laments Uklanski.
For this series, and taking this dying breed’s viewpoint into account, Uklan ski set out on a hunt for beauty. Exceptionally colorful and coolly artistic, the forty-one photographs are strangely vacant. They flirt with abstraction, often eluding definition and comprehension, yet despite—or perhaps because of—this, they remain fascinating. This volume is the first to present Uklanski’ snostalgic homage in full.
 

Exhibition schedule: Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg, October 25, 2007–March 3, 2008