An Unsharp Museum Photograph is Best Avoided, 2020
An Unsharp Museum Photograph Is Best Avoided explores the conventions of museum photography. Gugała scrutinises traditional ways of documenting museum objects. The unorthodox images presented here, trigger numerous questions in connection to the role of visual representation in building the authority of museums. Gugała turns to amateur photography in search of a potentially more inclusive, richer visual language. By breaking different professional rules applied in this particular photography genre, such as the use of even lighting, plain, monochromatic backdrop, and an orderly central composition, the artist brings to light the complex decisions involved in the production of these seemingly straightforward images.
Museum objects are regarded as unique and invaluable, they are said to possess a special aura. This quality makes it easier to accept that public access to these objects is heavily restricted. Our relationship to them is mediated by museums which have a long-standing tradition of using photography to support the narrative of total control over their collections. Yet as we learn new facts about the past, we discover that the ties between museums and their collections are often quite ambiguous - a quality that conventional museum photography tries to undermine. In an effort to comprehend the limitations of conventional photographic documentation, the artist transgresses the usual modes of display of museum objects. A collection of cut out museum postcards urges the viewer to notice the plethora of shades and textures of original museum backdrops. Once the objects have been eliminated from the postcards, we are confronted with that which was designed to go unnoticed. That state of being on the verge of visibility is a central topic of Gugała’s research on photography as documentation.
An Unsharp Museum Photograph Is Best Avoided is an affirmation of photography’s paradoxical power to reproduce images and ideas in a professedly neutral style. The images and text presented here invite viewers to reflect on the relationship between museums and photography.