Paris/Prague: Tales from Two Cities opening tonight!

Paul Ickovic, Czechoslovakia, 1990 (Lone Chambermaid), 16x20" Gelatin Silver Print.

There will be an opening reception for "Paris/Prague: Tales from Two Cities" at Panopticon Gallery on June 3rd from 5:30-7:30pm.

Two of the most iconic and classical cities in Europe are featured in this exhibition by photographers Paul Ickovic and Jason Landry. Working in the style of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Brassai, Ickovic’s black and white photographs are captive moments of the capital cities Paris, France and Prague, Czechoslovakia during the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Inspired by his own family heritage, Ickovic’s images have an autobiographical flair and tell much of his own story through the cities and the subjects he photographs; narratives from which a viewer can become engaged and relate to. Ickovic stands at a critical distance from his subjects: close enough to attract their gaze, while maintaining the eye of a voyeur — recording moments that are never staged nor cropped.

Landry’s counterbalance is what he describes in his series The River has Two Faces. Through his journeys over a five-year period to Paris, France, Landry strolled the banks of the river Seine as a contemporary flâneur, looking, seeing and documenting moments that resonated within him. The term flâneur comes from the French. It has no exact English translation, but is generally defined as ‘an idler or lounger, one who strolls.’ Through his photographs, he sought to capture the duality and split that divides us all. While walking the Seine, a bystander approached him and explained, “two banks divide the river Seine. The right bank is considered the financial and economic section of Paris. The left bank, for many years, has been referred to as the artistic/bohemian area of the city.” It struck him that this division of structure and culture, from businessman to an artist, was just what he had become. Landry states, “I am forever connected to the images, and through the image, a part of the place.”