Title: One
Subtitle: In the inability to see all, I observe more
Original title: One
Original subtitle: V nemožnosti vidět vše, pozoruji víc
Book language: Czech-English edition
Editors: Alena Kotzmannová, Karin Zadrick
Designed by: Kateřina Pravdová, Ondřej Mazanec, students of Graphic Design and Visual Communication Studio (AAAD in Prague)
Publisher: UMPRUM
ISBN: 978-80-88622-2
Selling price: 350 CZK
Binding: V4 Swiss
Formate: 170 x 240 mm
Number of pages: 172
"In the beginning was the word ONE. One plus one does not mean two. ONE has turned into an endless dialogue between the individual and the collective, between the moment and duration, between what is visible and what is hidden. One word became sentences, sentences became sentences. In the inability to see all, I observe more.[DR] ...
... Each photograph speaks not only of the present, but also of what transcends its boundaries. It shows that what is most important cannot be enclosed in a single moment. Chaos is always sticky and tempting, like an element.[LL] It is a process, a flow of energy, a search for connections, through the thick fog of uncertainty.[LL]
The photographs of the students of the F2 studio are not just single images, outputs of an assignment, they are the voice of the current generation. Letters from the parking lot.[OZ] They speak an urgent language, now I don't feel alive,[RD] which takes us beyond geographical and emotional boundaries, I float through the void, yet I am not free.[AT] Through photographs we travel into the privacy of homes and souls - please turn me inside out,[SCH] where personal stories intersect with collective themes..."
The very title and an excerpt from the introductory text of the art publication of the studio Photography 2 suggest the possibility of a wide perceptual field. It is a collage of texts by the authors of the concept, Alena Kotzmannová and Karin Zadrick, in dialogue with selected texts by F2 students, and thus indicates the basic principle of this publication: the process of sharing and teamwork, a mutual dialogue leading to an image synthesis in one publication. The final selection of photographs and texts, including the overall concept, is a shared process that drew energy “on the fly” from discussions during numerous studio meetings. The intention of the semester assignment was to reduce the selection of photographs to a given theme so that only one photograph would result. The themes were suggested by the students themselves, and each of them filled the space with their distinctive approach. The publication contains 123 photographs by 26 students of Studio F2 and is enriched by an extensive theoretical essay by Jiří Melzmuf, a student of the PhD programme of the Department of Theory and History of Art (AAAD in Prague), entitled “Matter and Photography”. Each copy of the publication contains a signed original author's photograph, resulting in 26 different covers of this publication.