50% Grey at the Museum of Contemporary Photography

Hi, I’m Leif, a student of the A.P. Photography Program at Gallery 37. On March 4th, we visited the Museum of Contemporary Photography, owned and operated by Chicago’s Columbia College. We viewed a collection of images from both contemporary Czech photographers, as well as images donated by the Baruch Foundation. Many of these images faced danger of destruction in the late 60’s due to the Soviets who invaded Czechoslovakia, where they attempted to “normalize” the country, destroying many works of art in the process. Art dealer Jacques Baruch and his wife managed to save many pieces which we were fortunate enough to be able to see. The photographs in the contemporary section tended to concentrate on more simple subject matter, while the images from the Baruch Foundation tended to be more surreal and in my opinion, interesting.

Of the many interesting photos we viewed, one of my favorites was “Hand with Watch,” a gelatin silver print by photographer Emila Medkova:



The image has a cracked egg in a holder nestled in a nook and a large piece of bark, as well as a hand with a watch in the palm emerging from the top of a gap. The ragged, cracked texture of the bark alone matched with the interesting cream colored tone of the print serves as an interesting photograph in and of itself, not unlike something we might expect to see in the contemporary exhibit. The hand is nestled in a break in the bark, which provides a three-sided frame to this strange hand holding a watch. The watch looks more like an eye, peering at the viewer and warping reality. The egg in the holder matches the hand in both juxtaposition and composition, effectively creating a visually interesting, and conceptually stimulating image.