SPOTLIGHT: IVANA VOSTRAKOVA—PORTFOLIO CONTEST WINNER

In a statement on her website, Ivana Vostrakova recalls “the sense of enchantment” that she felt when, under her grandfather’s tutelage, she observed the world through the lens of a camera for the first time. She was four years old.

Enchantment is also an apt word to describe the effect that these otherworldly photo collages have on receptive viewers. One might also throw in such terms as enigmatic, intriguing and, in the best sense, disorienting.

Into various darkly satiric scenarios Vostrakova inserts an anonymous, solitary everyman that confronts some kind of existential challenge or crossroads: A soccer player trapped within a sphere considers his options while suspended in an obscure, formless void. A strolling man in dark overcoat and hat (shades of Magritte’s oft-recurring figure?) is faced with navigating an imminent gravity-defying junction. Yet another cipher, back to camera, has nowhere to go at the terminus of a bizarre, impossible horizon.

Without giving too much away, Vostrakova says that this body of work is her way “of showing the world from an unexpected perspective. It is built from fragments of reality, recomposed into new images. By this I mean using pieces of the real world that I take out of their original context and place into new ones. I’ve been working with collage almost from the beginning. It came naturally and quite quickly. I felt the need to change reality in my own way, not just capture it.”

There’s an analog weight to the images. Yet Vostrakova works digitally, albeit skillfully enough, to produce an organic effect. “This comes from my background in painting,” she says. “I avoid too much sharpness and realism. I like working with texture and grain, combining seemingly incompatible elements, and playing with perspective.”

The images are deliberately spare and uncluttered, providing just enough information to create evocative tableaux that allow their surreal undertones to emerge with clarity and impact. “I use a simple and clean visual style because it helps the main idea and the feeling of the image to stand out,” she says. “In some works, I combine seriousness, existential themes and subtle humor. In others, I focus more on strong emotion, or on silence and calm, and on connecting these feelings with the viewer. It is not a fully planned process. I intuitively look for a point where the image becomes slightly unsettling, yet still retains a sense of lightness.”

Those familiar with Czech avant-garde photography circa 1918–1948 might place Vostrakova in the lineage of artists like Karel Teige, Eugen Wiškovský, Jaromir Funke and the like, at least spiritually and thematically. While she greatly admires their work, “especially their minimalist compositions, and their use of light, shadow and contrast,” she doesn’t draw direct inspiration.

“My main inspiration is the world around me. Interesting people and the energy they carry within them. I am also inspired by places with a certain soul, and by the stories they hold. Often, stimulation comes on its own, unexpectedly. I love letting creativity flow through me freely.”

Abstract visual art—in any medium—can often come across as cold and clinical, yet one of Vostrakova’s goals with this work is to provoke an emotional response in viewers. Of course, we will never literally find ourselves in such impossible situations as Vostrakova has contrived photographically, yet we can empathize with the larger questions they pose. Which is one reason why she makes these collages narratively open-ended rather than unequivocal.

“I don’t want to give one clear meaning, but to open space for personal reflection,” she states. “I want to help viewers connect more with themselves, their feelings and their emotions. If the images also lead them to more philosophical questions about their place in the world, I am happy.

“I hope viewers take away not only a visual experience, but also a moment of immersion within themselves. A moment when nothing else exists but them and the photograph.”