Plačky. In Search of the Crying Lady

Plačky (In Search of The Crying Lady)

by Tamara & Yoshi Kametani (IPG project)

Untitled from In Search of
The Crying Lady © 2011,
IPG project (Tamara & Yoshi Kametani)

Plačky [platchki] were professional mourners that used to be an essential part of the Slovak death ritual. They were hired by the family of the deceased and would start the mourning process by coming to the house where the body was laid out and lament until the day of the funeral. The ritual was seen to have magical powers that would secure a respectful and definite leave of the deceased’s spirit from the house and from this world. Plačky were usually older women – often widows that would perform in return for financial remuneration but also for beans or wheat.


In the summer of 2011 we set off on a search to find professional mourners in Slovakia. We found out that the tradition was no longer being practiced despite the insistence of locals that we spoke to along the way and the encouragement we received from ethnographers.

During this journey, we encountered paradoxes of psychology behind keeping old traditions. We also examined the subject of death, rituals, and mourning. In Search of the Crying Lady essentially became a search for the non-existent, extinct tradition that had died before anyone had realised. It had become a documentation of the road to failure.

prism se01 & se02 now available to DOWNLOAD

prism archival special issues se01:Polaroid & se02:PhotoIreland 2012 are now available to download free of charge from our dropbox account.

The best way to download files is to: 

1. go to our DROPBOX account
2. click on a file to view the document
3. you can now share or download document (top right corner)
4. ENJOY your digital copy of prism!

prism #00, #01 and #02 are also available to download. 

you can also visit our COVERS folder if you need any HQ cover of any issue of prism.

Should you have any problems downloading files please let us know on our email.

Everyday Selves @ Belfast Exposed (review)

Everyday Selves @ Belfast Exposed

October 26 – December 21 2012

Review by Ciara O'Halloran

Self –portraiture and voyeurism share many of the same traits. The photographer has the power to decide what can be seen and what is hidden from the frame. Since the development of the digital camera and the advancements in online technology self-portraiture had exploded as a means of self-representation online. These images create a visual diary of emotions and significant moments in time. Gerry Badger (The Genius of Photography) said that this diaristic mode is one of the most important developments in photography in the 20th century. 

Everyday Selves, Belfast Exposed. Photo by Ciara O'Halloran

Everyday Selves is a contemporary photography show at Belfast Exposed that presents the work of four photographers working within the realm of self-representation. Lorraine Burrell works with self-portraiture, her images are very striking and reflect the chaos and challenges that are encountered in domesticity. Wolfram Hahn and Gabriela Herman have created portraits that represent how people display themselves online. This act of taking solitary images online has increased dramatically over recent years with the development of social networking sites, photo sharing and Internet forums. Lisa Ohlweiler works with self-portraiture too, documenting herself in different domestic settings in obscure and unsettling ways.

Day of the Dead - Spencer Tunick

US photographer Spencer Tunick, best known for organising large-scale nude shoots, got over 150 volunteers to pose together to mark a Day Of The Dead (the 4th of November) at the village of Los Senderos, Mexico. Since 1994 he has photographed over 75 human installations around the world.

Here are few ghostly images he has recently captured:

Day of the Dead © 2012 Spencer Tunick

II - Tereza Vlčková

Two
by Tereza Vlcková

I. My other I. Reality or fiction? Each of us has our other I. Are we the same or different? Existence. That which often appears to be the same is really quite different. What is reality? A vision of ours, or what we want to see? Fiction is often interchanged with reality and vice versa. But what is fiction?

Untitled from "II" series © 2007-2008 Tereza Vlčková

Are we alone? Solitaires? Or could there be someone so similar to us, so alike, and not only emotionally (psychologically), but also physiologically? Someone, who is our soul mate, who “understands” us? The one, who holds our own mirror up for us. But is the reflection always ours? Doesn't it unknowingly just uncover internally pent-up fears which we have inside of us (and of ourselves)? Isn't it rather the corrupter of our persona and of our fixed notions? The quiet insinuator of latent, demonic spectacles in the form of scary patterns, of our hidden, turned away darker sides?

A Shimmer of Possibility - Paul Graham

Paul Graham 'a shimmer of possibility’ at The Douglas Hyde Gallery

Sarah Allen reviews one of Dublin's most anticipated photography shows in 2012

Paul Graham’s artistic practice unashamedly locks horns with tradition. Early projects such as A1, Beyond Caring and Troubled Land broke from the norms of photojournalism eschewing its archetypal monochromatic idiom. In later projects, including 'a shimmer of possibility', it is manifest that Graham is continuing to challenge established canons and parameters of the medium.

New Orleans, 2006, from the series a shimmer of possibility.
Courtesy of the artist, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
and Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris

Paul Graham, a shimmer of possibility, The Douglas Hyde Gallery,
Installation photograph by Rory Moore. 

Having moved to New York in 2002 Graham embarked on a road-trip across America which culminated in the publication of a twelve volume photobook entitled 'a shimmer of possibility'. The images included in this exhibition draw from that photobook and therefore only represent slices of a larger project.

prism #08

The new issue of prism Photography Magazine is now available online featuring fourteen carefully selected profiles of both established names and emerging talents from the international photographic scene + some amazing exclusive material!

#08 Featured photographers:

• Hana Knizova (IO),
• Sam Laughlin (MNEM),
• Philipp Spalek (Forgotten Tears),
• Ines Xavier Valente (Line Zero),
• Yannik Willing (Before Tomorrow),
• Lena Dobrowolska (Plateau),
• Jennifer Loeber (Cruel Story of Youth),
• Bram van Oosten (Nevel 201),
• Timothy Nordhoff (Hunting and Shooting),
• Natalie Krick (Natural Deceptions),
• Paul Graham (A Shimmer of Possibility)

+AM Projects part 2:

• Ester Vonplon,
• Aaron McElroy,
• Olivier Pin-Fat

+ 'a shimmer of possibility' by Paul Graham exhibition review
+ 'Everyday Selves' exhibition review

Enjoy!