Discovery of the Year
Eda Babák
The works of Eda Babák naturally oscillate between staged and documentary photography, and he manages to connect both these idioms into a visually coherent, personal language. Both genres come across as technically precise and unabashedly sharp without a trace of unnecessary noise. His images are direct and lack overt stylization while keeping a discernible identity and openness to improvisation, play and experimentation.
Artificial light plays an important part in his work and he uses it to create diverse effects and atmospheres. These range from an austere, deadpan flash aesthetic similar to the work of Juergen Teller, to post-digitally seductive, hyperrealist studio compositions referencing contemporary artists such as Philotheus Nisch. We can also note the influence of Mark Mahaney, the star of American editorial photography. In an even deeper sense, such inspiration can be understood to work from the context of the New Objectivity movement of the 1920s and 30s as well as avant-garde experimental photography.
Over the course of last year, Eda Babák produced visually striking images for a series of linen bags as part of Vogue Art Project. He also created a few cover stories for MILE magazine where fashion portraits meld with still-lifes (sometimes even in a single image). His experimental approach to product photography is also visible in his recent series produced for jewelry designer Anežka Juhová and Sofia Artemeva.
Original documentary is also part of his work and he shows an immense degree of quality and a consistent authorial vision. The simple nuances of the everyday are an important aspect of his work and he develops these into image narratives, for example in the documentary photographs for the Prague City Gallery created throughout last year.
Although Eda Babák is still a student of the Photography II studio at UMPRUM, he has already developed into a sought-after photographer and we can only expect that the circle of his clients will grow further, as will his repertoire of original approaches to applied photography.
Tereza Zelenková