Milan Svanderlik
Список книг автора Milan Svanderlik100 Faces of London
With 100 studio portraits, Milan Svanderlik celebrates, through the photographer's lens, the extraordinary diversity of people living in London.
London is truly an extraordinary place and what perhaps makes it most extraordinary is the people who have made their home here: they have brought with them an amazing diversity of traditions, cultures, and habits, of faiths, expectations and hopes, and these are reflected in the appearance of each and every one.
100 Faces of London features studio portraits of one hundred Londoners, reflecting the huge diversity of people who make up this great city. All photographed within a twelve-month period, mostly during 2010, the youngest sitter was 20 and the oldest 100, with every effort made to embrace a broad range of ethnicities.
From the outset, the aim was to invite only 'ordinary Londoners' to join the project (ie those who were not famous, not familiar personalities, politicians, or stars of stage and screen, all of whose faces would have been frequently photographed and exhibited). However, once the photography was completed, not one of the sitters, any of whom might have been seen around the capital, could have been described as an ordinary Londoner; they all proved to be quite extraordinary people and personalities.
This was an artistic, not a commercial project. All the sitters were volunteers and were photographed just as they were, or as they wished to present themselves. Clothing, hairstyle, make-up, and jewellery were left at the discretion of the sitter, with minimal influence from the photographer. The sittings often took several hours and the portraits were deliberately formal, revealing the character and spirit of those who illustrated the astonishing diversity that was the underlying inspiration for the project.
Londoners at Home:
A number of lives captured at a particular time creates a record that enables us to see just how the circumstances of Londoners are changing and evolving, though perhaps for the luckiest or unluckiest few, nothing ever seems to change very much.
In addition to addressing the question, 'WHERE do we live?', perhaps the most obvious dimension of Londoners at Home, the project goes on to consider, through 64 topics, 'WHO do we live with?', 'WHAT do we do?', 'WHENCE did we come?', and 'HOW are we different?' and a wide variety of sitters has contributed to the substantial commentary that now offers extensive and illuminating answers to these existential questions. However, Londoners at Home always aimed to comprise wholly non-judgmental observations of some of the denizens of our vast, capital city and the accumulated images and stories have, as was originally hoped, built into a fascinating tableau of the way we Londoners live now, in the second decade of the 21st century.
The Photographer, Milan Svanderlik, is a veteran observer of the extraordinary diversity and beauty of nature, people and life in general. Londoners at Home: The Way We Live Now is the final part of a major project, The London Trilogy. Part I, 100 Faces of London, was exhibited in central London in 2012, with Part II, Outsiders in London, following in 2015.
Gerald Stuart Burnett was born to émigré Scottish parents in a small Cheshire market town. Graduating from the University of Stirling, he went on to the University of Nottingham before pursuing a long career in the Education Service. Gerald's project role has been primarily as editor, painstakingly reworking the text of each 'story' into its current form.
Náčrtky z dětství
Milan Švanderlik, autor «Náčrtky z dětstí» se narodil v Československu 27. února 1948, v den, kdy komunistická strana svrhla jeho demokratickou vládu. Následující doktrinářský režim, oddaný spravedlivější a rovnoprávnější společnosti, se nejprve soustředil na demontáž buržoazního establishmentu a to, co bylo poválečné etnické čistky neslovanských národů, se proměnilo v pronásledování kohokoli, kdo nedokázal zastávat stalinismus – kdysi svobodní občané se brzy ocitli uvězněni v hranicích, které se zuřivě pásly ostnatým drátem a ozbrojenými strážemi. Milanovi čeští rodiče se narodili v Jugoslávii, kde jeho otec bojoval s Titovými Partizány za osvobození tohoto národa od okupačních nacistických sil. Po válce přesídlil svou mladou rodinu do severního Československa, kde hledal příjemný nový život mezi českými spoluobčany. Takové sny se rozplynuly, když se český komunistický převrat shodoval s rostoucí neústupností maršála Tita vůči Stalinovi: kvůli dřívějšímu spojení Milanova otce s Titem byl okamžitě podezřelý. Rodina byla ostrakizována a sociální vyloučení se rychle změnilo v několik let virtuálního domácího vězení; byli označeni za «nežádoucí» a nakonec byli v roce 1955 deportováni. Tyto Náčrtky, příběh dětství prožitého v bouřlivých časech, obsahují jak psané memoáry, tak asi 36 současných fotografií, které se podrobně zaměřují na období 1948 až 1956.
Spisovatel Milan Švanderlík se narodil v Československu, vyrůstal v Jugoslávii, krátce působil ve Švýcarsku a téměř 50 let žije v Londýně. Fotograf, umělec a spisovatel je zkušeným pozorovatelem mimořádné rozmanitosti a krásy přírody, lidí a života obecně.
Skizzen aus der Kindheit
Milan Svanderlik, Autor von «Skizzen aus der Kindheit», wurde am 27. Februar 1948 in der Tschechoslowakei geboren, an dem Tag, an dem die Kommunistische Partei ihre demokratische Regierung stürzte. Das darauffolgende doktrinäre Regime, das sich für eine gerechtere und gleichberechtigtere Gesellschaft einsetzt, konzentrierte sich zunächst auf den Abbau des bürgerlichen Establishments. Dann verwandelte sich die ethnische Säuberung nicht-slawischer Völker nach dem Krieg in die Verfolgung von Personen, die sich nicht für den Stalinismus einsetzten – einst freie Bürger befanden sich bald in Grenzen, die von Stacheldraht und bewaffneten Wachen übergeben waren. Milans tschechische Eltern wurden in Jugoslawien geboren, wo sein Vater mit Titos Partisanen kämpfte, um diesen Staat von den Besatzungsmächten der Nazis zu befreien. Nach dem Krieg zog er mit seiner jungen Familie in die Nordtschechoslowakei, um ein kongeniales neues Leben unter den Tschechen zu suchen. Solche Träume wurden zerstört, als der Putsch der tschechischen Kommunisten mit der wachsenden Unnachgiebigkeit von Marschall Tito gegenüber Stalin zusammenfiel: Aufgrund der früheren Verbindungen von Milans Vater zu Tito wurden sie sofort verdächtigt. Die Familie wurde geächtet und soziale Ausgrenzung verwandelte sich schnell in mehrere Jahre virtuellen Hausarrests. Als «unerwünscht» eingestuft, wurden sie 1954 endgültig deportiert. Diese Skizzen, die Geschichte einer Kindheit in turbulenten Zeiten, umfassen sowohl schriftliche Memoiren als auch 36 zeitgenössische Fotografien, die sich detailliert auf die Zeit von 1948 bis 1956 konzentrieren.
Der in der Tschechoslowakei geborene Autor Milan Svanderlik ist in Jugoslawien aufgewachsen, hat kurz in der Schweiz gearbeitet und lebt seit fast 50 Jahren in London.
Milan Svanderlik Photography:
Featured in this third collection of Milan's images are 99 striking examples of his intuitive and distinguished portrait photography, taken between 2010 and 2020. Milan commenced work in 2010 on what was to evolve into his vast London Trilogy: 100 Faces of London, Outsiders in London, Are You One Too? and Londoners at Home: The Way We Live Now. Though these projects alone offered Milan over 200 opportunities to capture the human face, his portrait work has also encompassed a variety of individual sitters, family groups, as well as a number of remarkable portraits taken for the sadly abandoned project, Artists in London.
For many of these portraits, Milan chose what is arguably old-fashioned, studio portraiture. This is an art form rarely practised nowadays, but Milan believes it creates portraits that are as much the creation of the sitter as they are of the photographer. His leisurely, studio-based technique engendered a closeness between sitter and photographer that seems almost tangible in many of the portraits. Echoing a remark of the great Irving Penn, Milan observed that a photographer working in this way cannot but help 'fall in love a little' with each of the sitters he observes through the lens. Often, in Milan's characteristic portraiture, the focus of the image is the sitter's eyes – it may be trite to observe that 'the eyes are the windows of the soul' but there can be little doubt that it is mostly through the eyes that we humans connect.
The Photographer, Milan Svanderlik, is a veteran observer of the extraordinary diversity and beauty of nature, people and life in general. Milan Svanderlik Photography: Portraits comprising photographs taken from 2010 to 2020, is the third of three volumes illustrating his work. Over the years, Milan's highly original and well-regarded photographs have been exhibited in a number of art galleries, both here in London and 'over the pond, in New York.
Milan Svanderlik Photography:
This volume illustrates the scope of Milan's approach to landscape, ranging from an eye for the tiniest details of plants, buildings or topography, to an exceptional perspicacity in capturing the great expanse of Nature's finest canvasses. His landscape work has accordingly drawn him to the magical intensity of an English forest, to the stark, otherworldly beauty of the Canaries' most striking volcanic vistas, to the lush richness of Scottish Highland scenery. Scotland also offered opportunities for recording the splendour of coastal waters in unusual repose, with northern light revealing exquisite maritime hues.
In some images, Milan captures the more conventional beauty of charming scenery: in his four images of Croham Hurst Woods (1976) long, night-time exposures give an English woodland landscape an almost magical charm. By contrast, we see the grandeur the almost barren, volcanic terrain of the Canaries, where the eye feasts not on sumptuous vegetation but on the remarkable form and colour of once superheated rocks, sometimes focussing on native plant life as it struggles to take hold amongst lunar landscapes.
In the light of mankind's enterprise to manage, manipulate, exploit and ultimately destroy most of the planet's richest natural environments, Milan has striven, in this compendium of some of his most striking nature photography, to capture the resplendent harmony of the natural world, celebrating all that yet remains unspoiled by the destructive attentions of humankind.
The Photographer, Milan Svanderlik, is a veteran observer of the extraordinary diversity and beauty of nature, people and life in general. Milan Svanderlik Photography: Landscapes, comprising photographs taken from 1976 to 2019, is the second of three volumes illustrating his work. Over the years, Milan's highly original and well-regarded photographs have been exhibited in a number of art galleries, both here in London and 'over the pond, in New York.
Milan Svanderlik Photography:
This volume contains examples of Milan's highly original work in plant photography and still life. Some of the early work dates from 1972 to 1976 and was originally exhibited at London's Photographers' Gallery, in 1977, with the later work dating from 2007 to 2016. In particular, Milan has been interested to explore those botanical structures that are often characterized by what at first sight might appear to be a random arrangement of spines, leaves or flowers but which, upon closer scrutiny, are actually revealed to be highly structured patterns and mathematically correct symmetries – even in the repetition of asymmetry, there is a regularity and natural order. By observing the tiniest details and enlarging them substantially, Milan found that there was often an extraordinary, almost abstract, beauty to be enjoyed. In a number of his stunning still life images, Milan has captured what is perhaps the more obvious and conventional beauty of plants and flowers, his 'table top' arrangements capturing for all time the innate stillness and richness of natural beauty.
The Photographer, Milan Svanderlik, is a veteran observer of the extraordinary diversity and beauty of nature, people and life in general. Milan Svanderlik Photography: Plants & Still Life, comprising photographs taken from 1972 to 2016, is the first of three volumes illustrating his work. Over the years, Milan's highly original and well-regarded photographs have been exhibited in a number of art galleries, both here in London and 'over the pond, in New York.
Sketches from Childhood
Milan Svanderlik, author of Sketches from Childhood, was born in Czechoslovakia on 27 February 1948, the day its democratic government was overthrown by the Communist Party. The ensuing doctrinaire regime, committed to a more just and equal society. Focussed first on dismantling the bourgeois establishment, and what had been the post-war ethnic cleansing of non-Slav peoples metamorphosed into the persecution of anyone failing to espouse Stalinism – once-free citizens soon found themselves imprisoned within borders that bristled fiercely with barbed wire and armed guards. Milan's Czech parents were born in Yugoslavia, where his father fought with Tito's Partizans to liberate that nation from the occupying Nazi forces. After the war, he moved his young family to Northern Czechoslovakia, seeking a congenial new life amongst fellow Czechs. Such dreams were shattered when the Czech Communist coup coincided with Marshal Tito's growing intransigence towards Stalin: because of Milan's father's past links with Tito, he was immediately suspect. The family was ostracised, with social exclusion quickly morphing into several years of virtual house arrest; categorised as 'undesirables', they were finally deported in 1955. These Sketches, the story of a childhood lived through turbulent times, comprise both written memoir and some 36 contemporary photographs, focussing in detail on the period, 1948 to 1956.
Born in Czechoslovakia, the author, Milan Svanderlik, grew up in Yugoslavia, worked briefly in Switzerland, and has lived for almost 50 years in London. A photographer, artist and writer, he is a veteran observer of the extraordinary diversity and beauty of nature, people and life in general.
Outsiders in London
The term 'outsiders' often has negative connotations: these are the people who are regarded as 'them' in contrast to 'us', the arrivals from distant provinces or foreign lands, those not quite belonging, those not exactly fitting in, those not conforming. Of course, there is another side to this coin: there are those who stand out quite deliberately, who choose to go against the grain, the ones who challenge established social, cultural or religious norms, who question the policies and orthodoxies broadly accepted by those of us who are of the mainstream, who are 'inside the tent'.
Outsiders in London, an artistic socio-political project exhibited in central London in Spring 2015, aims to reveal through fine photographic portraits and often touching, deeply personal life stories something of the lives of 41 individuals, who perceive (or have perceived) themselves as 'outsiders' in one way or another, and to celebrate both that they have survived and what they have achieved. It is also to be hoped that every one of us will recognise in some of these images, and life stories, a little bit (perhaps a lot) of ourselves or of someone close to us. They might be Londoners but the topics covered are universal.
The Photographer, Milan Svanderlik, is a veteran observer of the extraordinary diversity and beauty of nature, people and life in general and his previous project, 100 Faces of London, was exhibited in London in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics. Milan has also conducted and transcribed all the interviews with his sitters.
Gerald Stuart Burnett was born to émigré Scottish parents in a small Cheshire market town. Graduating from the University of Stirling, he went on to the University of Nottingham before pursuing a long career in the Education Service. Gerald's project role has been primarily as editor, painstakingly reworking the text of each 'life story' into its current form.