Tender
Young Czech, Slovak and Polish Photography
Institut de Photographie Créative, Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic;
The photographs of this exhibition capture the sensibility of the individual human being and its universal spectrum of experiences beyond all the cultural differences and particularities. While reflecting on our daily life, our enormous strength as well as our vulnerability, the photographers reveal the complex nature of men.
‘Tender’ stands for sensitivity to pain or a mental injury, a kind of soft spot un-avoidable in human life that can be healed only by kindness and gentleness from someone else. In this context the photographers raise questions of a sense of identity, growing up and our tremendous mental transformation during a lifetime, the passage of time, personal loss, isolation and solitude in a modern society, as well as unconditioned love, great compassion and sacrifice. By exposing the fragility, they reveal the endurance of the human kind and its persistence.
The exhibition of the Institute of Creative Photography of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic, presents works of its current students, recent graduates, and also alumni who have already made their mark on the international scene. A large catalogue in Czech and English “25 Years of the Institute of Creative Photography” is available.
The Institute of Creative Photography is the second oldest university institution specialized in photography in the Czech Republic (and the third oldest in all European countries from Central and East Europe). It provides more than 200 students with instruction in a wide range of fields, training them for work as art photographers, commercial photographers, teachers at art schools, curators in museums and galleries. The exhibition presents a broad range of contemporary trends in photography, particularly Czech, Slovak, and Polish.