Rising the Circle

Through his experimentation with multiple strobe exposure, Baňka found a means of documenting the passage of time. In this technique, the camera’s shutter speed is reduced, allowing numerous flashes to occur over the period of exposure. The result is a series of moments condensed into one image. Here, Baňka uses this method to capture his model moving from the bottom to the top of the picture between bursts of light. Each of the subsequent frames become layered on top of one another, creating a sense of movement in the composition. The blur of the model’s face encircled by the disc takes on a ghostlike quality. In a single photo, the artist both evokes the immediate past and projects the imminent future. Through exposure experimentation, Baňka was able to allude to both recollection and imagination simultaneously.

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