A photo exhibition by Gabriela Landa

“In my photo images, I create a world as I see it – full of symbols, free-floating and yet forming a harmonious composition to each other. There is a sense of de-fragmentation but also one of unity, which co-exist like in a breathing process”

What might sound paradox pressed in words, comes to perfect clarity in Gabriela Landa’s two-layered photographs, contrasting city impressions with seemingly opposite realities. Pulling out certain elements of their political, cultural or religious context, Ms. Landa forms a new abstraction, always skillfully playing with the viewers associations.

The Czech born, German raised and New York resident artist creates this carefully mixed blend using a method of over-layering two or more images. Unlike many contemporary photographers Landa builts both images within the SLR camera so no post-production like photoshop is needed. This decision allows the artist to „leave room for the accident“ and „suggests a new way of seeing, instead of controlling the viewer“.

Gabriela and her family immigrated to Germany when she was two and settled in Bayreuth, Bavaria, the home of the famous Wagner Festival, which she describes as her “university”:

“If there had been nothing else in Bayreuth at that time, and there was nothing else, Wagner’s operas were worth living there. Over a period of 15 years Wagner’s oeuvre taught me about mythology, legends, mysticism, and psychology as well as the world’s best singing.”

After studying in Munich, Prague and Vienna, Landa also traveled between, exhibited and lived in Berlin, Los Angeles, Miami, and Guatemala: “In Guatemala with all its time, color, and spirit, I feel like painting. Los Angeles inspires me to sculpt. New York is a media city, perfect for photography, and Europe is a mix of those things”

In 2001 Landa moved to New York, finding Times Square one of her favorite motives. To her it represents “a contemporary idea of modernity” though being comparable to “an ancient market place”.

Through her New York photomontages, Ms. Landa tried to “catch the moment of diffusion in all the energy and movement happening in Manhattan.” She then layered many of the photos with pictures of Prague, France, Italy, and elsewhere, “to create a common language between those places,” and was struck by how the cultural differences were easily bound together in one image. In other series, she combines Times Square images with icons of religious, ethnical or personal background and creates tension of contemporary meaning.

A sensation one can share, learning how natural contrasting and at the same time completing each other to a “play of global elements” can be. (Interview: Jo Ann Cooper)