MICHAŁ JELIŃSKI – EVERYTHING THAT BREATHES

Michał Jeliński. Everything That Breathes

Michał Jeliński’s exhibition hosted by the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok is a recapitulation of the project carried out by the artist in the Białowieża Forest in 2009–2012. It consists of approximately fifty black-and-white landscape photographs and a documentary film showing the creative process.

The cycle of works displayed at the exhibition constitutes a small section of Jeliński’s creative output; it does, nevertheless, reveal the artist’s specific approach to landscape. The series of photographs is also consistent with the context of the region of Podlasie and one of its greatest treasures – the Białowieża Forest, one of Europe’s oldest forests highly valued for its unique history and natural phenomena. It is a rare opportunity to see a photographic exhibition or one dedicated to the nature of the region at the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok. To a certain extent, this exposition brings to mind the famous plein-air workshops Plenery Białowieskie, organized by the BWA Arsenal in 1965–80. Both, oil paintings created during those sessions, a considerable collection of which can be found in the storeroom of the gallery, and Michał Jeliński’s photographs originate in the open air.

Michał Jeliński’s interest in photography results from his fascination with nature and landscape. Born in 1973, the artist graduated from the Faculty of Forestry at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Initially, nature photography was his main concern. It was only when he became a photography student at the film schoolPWSFTViT and worked towards receiving his diploma under the supervision of Marian Schmidt that he discovered expressive photography and the work of Minor White and Paul Caponigro. Jeliński readily admits that he owes inspiration to the creative output of these two artists, which also serves to him as a significant point of reference.

The kinship between Jeliński’s works and the tradition of American photography, which the artist cites as a major influence – with preference given to the landscape trend represented by the two artists mentioned above as well as the classics of American photography such as, for instance, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams or Edward Weston, is striking already by the first viewing of his pictures. Importantly, the artist employs the traditional large-format analogue technique in the Zone System, which makes it possible for him to control the entire creative process and obtain desired tones of grey on prints. The turn towards history in connection with the artist’s working methods may be interpreted as going against the current, especially in an era of overproduction of digital images, for which unlimited opportunities of publication are provided by the Internet.

Although linked to a specific place – the Białowieża Forest, the photographs from the cycle Everything That Breathes are not directly associated with Polish landscape. They could be taken somewhere else; they seem to be suspended in a sort of different space. They have little in common with such artistic tendencies as landscape photography or photojournalism of the kind that we know from such magazines as, for example, “National Geographic”.

Why do Jeliński’s photographs appear almost unreal? Is this because of the colours – black and white as well as a broad range of refined tones of grey – so characteristic of “orthodox” classic photographers who prefer to express themselves in black-and-white rather than in colour? Or is this Jeliński’s unusual way of looking and depicting?

The artist believes that it is his interest in expressive photography, characteristic of the work of the mentioned Americans, that is the reason for this. Selected images of the Białowieża Forest are intensely dramatic, mostly because of strong contrast and the exposition of distinct natural forms and phenomena, including trees, water and light, and the obvious aspect of working in different seasons. However, the expressiveness of Jeliński’s pictures seems to remain hidden, as it is their visual facet that steps into the foreground – achieved by careful selection of objects to be photographed, a methodological search for an ideal composition and the very moment of releasing the shutter. Interestingly, the almost meditative process of Jeliński’s work has been recorded on digital colour film and constitutes an integral part of the exhibition.

Subordinated to the construction of seeing that the artist is carrying out with absolute consistency, Jeliński’s images show nature as an untamed and mysterious power. However, nature that escapes human control seems a mere pretext for presenting the expressive power of photography as a tool of interpretation, rather than of objective recording of reality.

Staged simultaneously, the exposition of Jeliński’s work and the exhibition by Natalia LL constitute part of the programme of the Białystok Interphoto festival, coorganized by the Arsenal Gallery.

Michał Jachuła

translated from the Polish by Monika Ujma

more about the artist: www.michaljelinski.com