Tomasz Daniec — Landscape topography. Chemical photography.
Chemical photography has become the most radical form of documentation in my work in the field of visual art. The term "radical" in this context should, of course, be relativized. This is not a radical action in the sense that we encounter it in avant-garde movements since the era of great manifestos, because in such a comparison my actions are painfully conventional. Moreover, as time passed and I acquired the ability to consider what I was doing in a broader context, conventionality became one of the main, fully conscious determinants of my activity. You could even take a risk and call it the basic element of my current artistic strategy.
Radicalism therefore concerns neither form nor content, but the documentation possibilities created by this medium. After all, these possibilities are the essence of photography. There is a dizzying technological race taking place for this property, the goal of which, never the final one, is to capture ever more perfect images faster and faster, with unprecedented ease. Modern photographic equipment, which over the course of a decade has achieved image recording quality that exceeds the perception capabilities of the human eye, is an indispensable and basic tool in a culture dominated by visual media in almost all spheres of life. In the era of digital supremacy, despite its unexpectedly growing popularity, it remains an undeniable anachronism, opposed to digital technology. This will be especially visible when you realize that at the time when they were manufactured, analog cameras were, just like today, the pinnacle of engineering and then electronic design possibilities.
I often work with materials that are well past their use-by date. [...] It seems to me that in the era of domination of digital technology, photosensitive materials are becoming a valuable artifact and physical image carrier. Therefore, those that survived from the past should not be abandoned.
My photographs depict ordinary, prosaic places, suburbs, and urban landscapes. The photos are composed from very wide frames to almost macro-photographic details. They all show traces of human activity. Even nature, the photos of which can be wrongly interpreted as depictions of pristine nature, include commercial production forests, crops, gardens and wastelands, all of which have been created by humans (in fact, there are practically no untransformed places left in our geographical region). However, people as such, shown directly, are not visible. No figure, silhouette, group of people, crowd. This way of imaging immediately brings to mind the photographs of the creators of the New Topographics trend and their epigones. I fully consciously place my activities among the continuators of this aesthetic.
I often work with materials that are well past their use-by date. The oldest so far is a medium format Agfa Color 80S from 1977, which I exposed 44 years after its expiration date. I collect such films and gradually use them before they are completely degraded. It seems to me that in the era of domination of digital technology, photosensitive materials are becoming a valuable artifact and physical image carrier. Therefore, those that survived from the past should not be abandoned.
