In the Shadow of Photography

A drawn and handwritten work of non-fiction about the medium of photography, the photography world, and how the invention of photography influenced people’s thinking and behavior. It explores topics such as the camera’s wormhole-like capabilities, why being photographed causes stage fright, how the present is becoming a stage for the future, analog vs. digital photography, the relationship between the photographer and the photograph, and how we are losing the possibility of gaining an authentic memory of a moment from a photographic attempt to conserve it.

“A funny and delicate philosophical survival kit for a better understanding of the influential, omnipresent shadow of photography.” —Joan Fontcuberta “This work by Magda Stanová is a visual essay, not only because she works with numerous photographic reproductions (famous as well as completely private ones), but also and perhaps primarily because of how she thoughtfully contrasts technical perfection with simple drawings which eliminate everything accessory and show only what is essential, though not in the way a chart does, since even the drawings come alive here and lead their own cheerful life.” —Miroslav Petříček Magda Stanová is a multi-disciplinary artist and a senior lecturer at the Department of Theory and History of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. She is the author of Algorithms in Art (2016) and a co-author of The Pedestrian’s Venice (2017).