Lightcaptured third: Wide vistas
(Marijan Grakalić for the exhibition catalogue)
Coming from the vast and rich panoramic world that surrounds us, the photographer Janko Belaj presents himself through the original and unadulterated clarity of his photographs, which are important precisely because they strongly emphasize the simplicity and authenticity of artistic creation. The artistic event here unfolds on several levels: first through the photograph itself as an artefact, and second through its content (the frame and the view), in which the discovery of each individual panorama is recorded as something new, fresh, and previously untouched. There are no charming tricks here. When looking at Belaj’s photographs, we have the feeling of looking at a world as it once was, reduced in the light spectrum in order to express its strong vitality, permanence, and that sense of untouchedness for which the artist actually longs.
Belaj’s “photographic painting” in this cycle of photographs – as he likes to call his works, primarily because of his refined understanding and use of the mechanics of light – truly expands existing horizons, adding to the image composition the no less important dimension of inner lyricism, essential to the author’s aesthetic expression. What dominates is an exploratory, almost pioneering nature: a desire to emphasize what is primordial (or to reach it through photography), both within the frame itself and in the viewer’s experience. Each photograph in this authorial cycle was made with a slightly longer exposure, so that all, even previously invisible, plays of white light and the natural interplay of shadows could be reflected. In this sense, the photographer does not merely record the existing world and its panoramas, but at the same time also creates them – through skill, artistic experience, and the touch of light. Thus photographs emerge that are light and seemingly unattainable like visions, yet at the same time real, tangible, and new.
Belaj’s essentially simple yet distinctive artistic approach to the entire photographic process points to the fundamental essence of photography itself and its ability to become, beyond mere documentation, an artistic, painterly work, despite the transient nature of time in which everything changes and passes. That is why these images possess a precisely captured lyrical and memorial quality, making us feel as if we have seen them somewhere before, or at least wished to see them. This speaks of the author’s deep dedication, through which his works touch and reach important universal human aspirations, expanding a broader cultural, aesthetic, and social sensibility. Perspectives, within the aura of artistic gift, thus become a recognizable authorial signature (photographic writing), which we can observe from multiple angles, just as it awakens in us various associations, memories, and imaginations – familiar panoramas.