Midnight Walker

"Midnight Walker" immediately draws the viewer in as it takes an ordinary subject and manipulates its form to provide a captivating view. The long exposure creates a semi-transparent cast around the figure, highlighting the technical complexities of photography while emphasizing Chochola’s mastery of it. The photograph appears as an incomplete figure whose body is dominated by light. The streetlight in the background is just as significant to the composition as the figure and provides an opportunity to observe what lies beyond the photograph’s center of focus. There is a sense of solitude to the image, yet the figure is not alone because the photographer is there to manipulate the exposure. This is a simple subject with a unique composition, a perfect melding of Chochola’s background in journalistic photography and his interest in Surrealism.

[Abigail Bresler, wall text in "Suppression, Subversion, and the Surreal: The Art of Czechoslovakian Resistance," USC Fisher Museum of Art, March 9 - May 10, 2019.]