While looking at book titles by Gerry Badger recently, I came across a monograph of Czech photographer Marketa Luskacova.
Her life as a photographer began with a chance encounter. In 1965 she met with a group of pilgrims near Levoca, a town in Eastern Slovakia, and spent the following years recording the Christian peasant culture of Slovakia. In 1975 she moved to England, where she became absorbed in the immigrant communities of London.
The photographs are familiar, though I have never seen them before. The compositions are reminiscent of such great Magnum photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Koudelka, and Elliott Erwitt. With a photojournalistic approach she captures moments and makes formal portraits, showing people as they are - with all of their sadness, despair, humor and joy.
The eye is drawn to the qualities of composition, graininess and high contrast as the heart responds to the the vacillation between whimsical and serious subject matter.
- Luskacova's photographs can be found at Stills Gallery, Australia
- the artist's website: www.marketaluskacova.com
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