Václav Chochola utilizes the medium of photography as the primary subject of this image. The camera not only functions as the tool that creates his body of work, it is his body of work. He toys with exposure and light techniques to manipulate the figures in his other photographs, yet in this piece, his subject is clear. Chochola saw the world through the lens of a camera and he chose to express himself through his work as a photojournalist. After Chochola began working with other photographers, his art became more stylized and representative of the uncertainty in the world around him. This image brings him back to the basics, and turns the lens on the viewer as the figural subject. His emphasis on light, characteristic of his other photographs, remains present, but there is no hiding of or mystery to what the subject is.
[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.]
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