Man Woman Unfinished

Man Woman Unfinished

When does the moment come, when the gaze of two people looking at each other changes into a dialogue? When do looks stop being glancing and they become unique language, which lets them understand each other? In moments when intimity and mutual trust can toss away all words spoken up until then. Photography is well equipped with the power of silence and stillness; quality that the ManWomanUnfinished project by Aleksandra Vajd and Hynek Alt takes to the limits. ManWomanUnfinished is unusually speechless. Mute, as all there is to say is said in a look. In sophistically composed couples the authors present the viewer with their own communication without words. They excercise a dialogue which is not only unfinished (as we learn from the title) yet it also hasn't actually started. Because if words aren't needed, then neither beginning nor the end are necessary. The information stays undivided. There is nothing that comes first, nothing that comes later. One look says everything essential in an instant. Photography seems like the best "recorder" of this kind of communication. Since photography is not much more than just a look. The camera allows one to look in certain way, look at someone. And photography allows to reveal, what the photographer thinks about the one being photographed, how he perceives him, what they experience together. For him she is in a certain way, that is how he sees her, that is how he photographs her. And her part starts just by standing in front of the lens. The same applies to the pictures she takes.

Man Woman Unfinished presents a lucky collision of two codes. One code is an intimate dialogue of looks individualized to the maximum, This code is built upon coexistence of two individuals. The viewer sees it strong in its essence. The other code - generally accessible - is photography, which captures context and helps one understand the content of the individual code.

Through a good knowledge of the code of photography Aleksandra Vajd and Hynek Alt achieved to materialize something so transient as the talk of looks. Into photography they have translated the language that defines their proximity and relationship. Which is not a mere translator's job as they guarantee with their own relationship that their language will not turn into an empty staring.

Pavel Turek