Nuobodulio estetika: laiko sampratos kaita lietuvių fotografijoje

ENAt the end of the 70s some Lithuanian photographers (Vitas Luckus, Alfonsas Būdvytis, Vytautas Balčytis, Algirdas Šeškus, Milda Drazdauskaitė, Remigijus Pačėsa and Alvydas Lu- kys) were shooting city environment without changing its everyday appearance. Thus created images looked grey, accidental, with „nothing happening“ in them. Subjective seeing seemingly had withdrawn from photography, it was not even clear what was photographed. Such visually unexpressive photography has become the main tendency by the end of the 20th century. But at the time when it emerged, it was opposed by many critics. They commented that it was detached from important social issues, amateurish, evoking apathy and indiference, non photographic, boring. The new photography was received in this way because it was judged from the standpoint of modernist aesthetics, which was crucial to the so called School of Lithuanian Photography. One of the main stylistic features of the School was the attempt to photograph the „decisive moment“ as it was formulated by the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. This meant that a photographer tried to capture reality at such a moment, when its elements would have formed a clear image and relate a clear message. The decisive moment meant the culmination of an action, state of mind, drama. These were very intensive moments, where the past and the future were present. Time, constructed from such discrete moments is emotionally charged. Such a conception of time rejects the „empty“ moments - passages from one state to another, non-emotional, non-active.In the new photography time is constructed differently. The decisive moment is replaced by an „indecisive“ or „accidental“ moment. There is no place for drama. The photographs are also visually „motionless“ - the central figure is never emphasized, all elements are disconnected, important details occupy margins. The emptied space of the photographs seems to be also extended in time. Such an impression is stressed by prevailing horizontal structure or by representation of artifacts that are not affected by the flow of time. Also some photographers record tiny movements, as if to capture the time passing by the decisive moment. Such photography exposes what was not noticed of experienced before. The changed notion of time signifies different emotions being expressed in photography. The „decisive moment“ photography articulated „romantic“ emotions: idealization, sensitivity, the extotic, nostalgia for traditions. The new photography was a rebellion against the romanticism of photography. The rejection of decisive moments seemed to deny the observer’s involvement into reality, inference. Thus the slowed time indicates the presence of the „silent“ passion - boredom. In boredom time is conceived as passing by slowly, empty of meaning, not experienced. Photographers capture boredom which was absent in previous imagery, but by doing so they return the feeling of the flow of time, thus boredom is concealed by appropriating it. The new photography was a rebellion against the romanticism of photography.