Photography Noir. Existence

15.03.2024 –
01.06.2024

Photography Noir. Existence

Miron Zownir, Alexander Chekkmenev & Rimaldas Vikšraitis

The exhibition title, Photography Noir. Existence, draws inspiration from Miron Zownir’s 2017 book, Berlin Noir, inviting reflection on its connection to the eponymous cinematic genre. Coined by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, the term “film noir” typically evokes alluring scenes of dimly lit settings with sharp shadows in smoke–filled bars with melodramatic and neurotic characters, detectives sporting fedora hats, gangsters, and femme fatales. However, it’s difficult to imagine something more distant from the oneiric, surrealistic worlds of film noir than the hardcore realism of the photographs by Alexander Chekmenev (Ukraine), Rimaldas Vikšraitis (Lithuania), and Miron Zownir (Germany).

Today’s world is extremely sensitive to the questions of ethics and still views the figure of a photographer as deeply controversial. They perceive them as predators, who are in a privileged position to what or whom they aim their camera at. But the question is — isn’t forbidding seeing and regulating visibility just another side of the same coin as trafficking images? Doesn’t it lead to the same result of shaping a comfortable bubble of privileged observers? Having the possibility of not looking is also a privilege. Therefore, this exhibition offers to test our capacity to see between the shutters, to reconstruct what is being omitted from the frame, not shown, and to avoid immediately imposing interpretations and criteria of right and wrong. The project also undermines the figure of the photographer, who is no longer an all-knowing observer, but a part of the same social margins they are depicting. They are not playing the roles of the Messiahs and have no illusions about the potential of photography alone to change society. But the shared experience of being pariahs makes staying silenced equally impossible for them.

Miron Zownir is a photographer known for his raw black-and-white images capturing the gritty aspects of urban life. His work focuses on marginalized communities, depicting scenes of abuse, despair, addiction, and sexuality. Zownir’s early years in West Berlin and London during the late 1970s influenced his documentation of societal gloom and the emergence of punk. Moving to the U.S. in the 1980s, he continued to explore the gritty life of New York. Inspired by Eastern European photographers and his Ukrainian heritage, Zownir expanded his pursuits to Russia, Ukraine, and Romania, capturing marginalized figures in a somber kaleidoscope. Despite the stark vulnerability in his subjects, Zownir's approach is not intrusive, as he captures scenes in public spaces with the subjects retaining control. His consistent use of black-and-white photography removes temporal markers, highlighting the enduring nature of suffering, desires, and fears. Zownir’s heroes often oscillate between unresponsive states and theatrical poses, revealing a longing to transcend the specter of death and manifesting the presence of the unrecognized and ignored in society.

Alexander Chekmenev focuses on establishing deep connections with the communities he photographs, particularly in his native Donbas, now occupied by Russian forces. Chekmenev’s work serves as a detailed archive of life in the region during the 1990s and 2000s. Unlike quick documentaries, he looks for empathy without judgment. The photographer’s approach seldom involves sneaking and taking covert shots; instead, he aims for mutual openness. Chekmenev painstakingly earns the trust of his subjects, with long talks, sharing meals, going to shifts in mines and working night shifts with ambulance crews. He directs the focus towards narrating the small, unnoticed private tragedies. While those tragedies may not be immediately visible in the images, the people in Chekmenev’s photographs exude such vitality and verve that compassion isn’t always the response they evoke. Yet, it is precisely this vitality that creates a bitter contrast when juxtaposed with the stark poverty of their living conditions. Chekmenev helps to convert the transiency of his protagonists for the agency, often making viewers uncomfortable by highlighting those who have found themselves on the periphery of contemporaneity.

Rimaldas Vikšraitis captures the periphery of Lithuanian rural life, documenting the decline of villages abandoned after the USSR’s collapse. Like relics of the past, lost and forgotten, inhabitants of those villages seek refuge amidst the haze of alcohol. In contrast to the romanticized portrayal of suffering in cinema noir, Vikšraitis portrays real pain in neglectedchildren, elderly pensioners, dirt, and animals. He diverges from the Lithuanian school of photography’s tradition, which explored the rural realm with humanist influences, by presenting the darker facets without veiling them. Despite his tough love approach, Vikšraitis maintains an affectionate connection with his subjects. While his images are sometimes described as surreal, he challenges this label, emphasizing the realness of the depicted scenes over enigmatic theatrics. Influenced by Fellini, Vikšraitis disrupts normalcy and challenges established assumptions about the world through his photography. The periphery, both metaphorically and literally, destabilizes and bleeds into the centre, returning a verdict to it.

The imagery crafted by Chekmenev, Vikšraitis, and Zownir is undeniably unsettling. These photographers, hailing from three distinct domains—urban, industrial, and rural—intrude upon the comfort of our self-assurance and the illusion of security, silently urging us to engage with their images. What emotions do they stir within us? Aversion? Curiosity? Compassion? Indifference? The periphery gazes back at us, testing our responses. These photographers, akin to tricksters, navigate the liminal space between the periphery and the centre, belonging to neither entirely. While their images are now historical artefacts, they remind photography is an ongoing collaboration involving the photographer, the camera, the subject, and the viewer. The act of perceiving photography remains an essential skill in contemporary society.

Text: Oleksandra Osadcha
Curator: Darius Vaicekauskas