MESIAC FOTOGRAFIE

If there is anything special about our festival this year, it is the exhibition The Eyes That Were a Century from the Lola Garrido Collection. In the past, we have presented large retrospectives of Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Klein, Annie Leibovitz, and others, but we have never showcased the development of the medium with such complexity and on such a scale as in this year’s edition. 90 photographs by 64 authors offer a unique overview – one we have usually had to travel to Austria or Germany to experience. This November, however, we will have the opportunity to see it in Slovakia. The exhibition features exceptional works by artists such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Nan Goldin, Irving Penn, Walker Evans, Seydou Keïta, and more. The entire exhibition embodies the idea expressed by William Faulkner: “The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.”
This year marks six years of regular collaboration with La Gacilly – Baden Photo, a festival whose director, Lois Lammerhuber, has generously supported the realisation of the goals of the Month of Photography. His strategy of international cooperation, which takes into account our limited economic means, has made it possible for visitors in Bratislava to see works by Sebastião Salgado, Nick Brandt, and Martin Parr, among others. This year, the portfolio will expand to include works by Joel Meyerowitz, Anne Zahalka, and Bobbi Lockyer. His idea of a culture of solidarity allows us to present works that would otherwise remain inaccessible to our audience.
This year, a retrospective of the work of Joel Meyerowitz – a pioneer of colour photography whose credo is “life is colour” – will thus complement the extensive line-up of exceptional presentations by world-renowned photography figures. His exhibition invites viewers to journey through American cities, tracing their transformations over many years and revealing the spirit of the country and its people.
Two years ago, we opened the door to artificial intelligence in our programme. The conference, attended by Boris Eldagsen, Max de Esteban, Max Kandhola, and others, also explored the question of the ‘death of photography.’ No definitive answer emerged, but the fact that it remains at the centre of attention is evident in this year’s exhibitions by Carl de Keyzer and Andreas Müller-Pohle. Magnum Photos, the prestigious collective of which de Keyzer is a member, has stated that none of the AI-generated images from his series Putin’s Dream (on view at the Central European House of Photography) will be included in the Magnum archive. The author himself sums up the situation well: “With AI, the possibilities are extreme; the risk of manipulation is ten times higher, but so are the opportunities for creativity.”
Following previous showcases of photography from South America, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe, this year we turn our attention to Australia – not only through the works of its own artists, such as Anne Zahalka and Bobbi Lockyer, but also through an outdoor exhibition by Slovak traveller and photographer Anton Fiala. We aim to introduce a continent that is 150 times larger than Slovakia. In the exhibited works, viewers will encounter themes of identity, alongside depictions of the environment and stories unfolding on the edge of drama, black humour, fiction, and reality.
In the large block dedicated to Slovak photography, a central place is reserved for the retrospective of Tono Stano, a leading figure of the Slovak New Wave, hosted at Danubiana. The exhibition will present an overview of his work, rooted in staged photography and blending classical approaches such as portraiture with experimental series and conceptual photography. Other featured exhibitions will include works by Robo Kočan, Peter Župník, Noro Tappert, Viki Kolerová, Jana Šturdíková, and others.
As is tradition, this year’s programme also includes a variety of accompanying events. In addition to exhibitions, the section devoted to film and photography will feature screenings of six films. We have also prepared presentations of new monographs, discussions, masterclasses, and exhibitions in Budapest, Vienna, and Berlin.