Viktor Kolář: Ostrava 1963–2024

“I know what I’m not: definitely I’m not a documentarist” is how photographer Viktor Kolář defended himself in one interview from having his work assigned to a genre in which he took no interest. And this same stance is revealed again in the new book of photographs that he prepared for KANT Publishers following the success of his now hard-to-find volumes Ostrava (2010) and Canada 1968-1973 (2013). Kolář’s shots may speak with unusual eloquence about a specific place and its changes over time, yet they do so only indirectly. In reality, they concentrate on those moments of sudden and unique, sometimes even improbable “encounters” – precisely in the sense that this word was used by the Surrealists. These aesthetically powerful black-and-white photographs miss nothing of the indelible characteristics of Ostrava, a city of mining and industry, yet the resulting portrait of the city is imaginary, not a realistic description. As such, in the accompanying essays by Manuel Anceau, Jan Balabán, Martin Dostál and Jaromír Typlt, Viktor Kolář is discussed not only as a photographer but equally as a poet, using images in place of words.