PHOTOBOOK OF THE YEAR

Book signings 

Libuše Jarcovjáková
EVOKATIV
Untitled Publishing
Prague, 2019
 
Libuše Jarcovjáková’s EVOKATIV opens quietly, with tangibly motile scenes of birds flying above Prague’s cityscape. As the book progresses, the artist shuffles in self-portraits in various stages of undress, before building out to include snapshots of apartment interiors, friends, lovers, and then even further out, images of Prague’s nightlife, its eclectically patronized streets and dance floors and secret crannies. Sawyer celebrates the unvarnished reproduction of these black-and-white photographs. “The grainy, full-bleed approach, prevents the images from becoming too precious.” One could be forgiven for missing the political havoc and oppression skulking just beyond Jarcovjáková’s lens: she took these photographs between 1970 and 1989, in communist Czechoslovakia, yet EVOKATIV indulges an honest, depoliticized subjectivity. “These images are really about the rawness of her experiences,” says Sawyer. “The book shows how people navigate and build a life of freedom even under difficult circumstances.”