January 5th through 28, 2007
A Déli-sark (Antarktisz) kanadai fotóm_vészek szemével.
Pat és Rosemarie Keough
Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum
Hungarian Natural History Museum
Budapest, Hungary
The Hungarian Natural History Museum hosts the first of two major exhibitions of the Keoughs’ ANTARCTICA, tome and imagery, to be held in Budapest during 2007. The warm welcome given to the Keoughs’ photography in Hungary is particularly poignant for Rosemarie whose father, his siblings and grandparents left their family home in the Hungarian village of Bakonyjákó under duress in 1949 and immigrated to Canada. Rosemarie is the first of her family to return to Hungary, and she had a wonderful time!
From Pester Lloyde, the daily German language newspaper from Budapest: "Man überlebt nicht, wenn man Fehler macht" an Interview with Rosemarie Keough
From Press release:
The Canadian husband-and-wife team, Pat and Rosemarie Keough have been creating photographs and artists books for over 20 years. Their most ambitious project has been the nearly 20-pound volume ANTARCTICA, a leather-bound, limited-edition tome featuring their polar photographs taken during the seasons of daylight from 1999 through 2001.
The quality of the imagery and the book itself has lead to 21 prestigious awards for the world’s best photography book, world’s best nature photography, world’s best printing, outstanding book arts, etc. Critics and curators worldwide have acclaimed ANTARCTICA an heirloom for the next generation. At the Hungarian Natural History Museum both this hand-bound tome and a selection of 256 photos of the complete portfolio of 345 Keough Antarctic images are exhibited. In the showcase, a copy of the full leather-bound ANTARCTICA in its linen and velvet presentation box is exhibited. ANTARCTICA comes in a limited edition, featuring 950 copies with each book signed and numbered.
Antarctica is a harsh land of extremes … and of superlatives. It is the coldest, the windiest and the most isolated of the seven continents, as well the highest and the driest. Antarctica, a desert, ironically has over 70 percent of the world’s freshwater locked up by ice and snow in great polar ice cap which smothers nearly the entire landscape. The very whiteness of this continent reflects the sun’s warming rays, thus perpetuating its frozen state in spite of the fact that in summer Antarctica is the sunniest continent on earth.
The Keoughs portray the ‘white continent’ as a place of magnificent color. They have captured the myriad shades of white, blue, pink, purple, gold, and even green—colours which change throughout the long days at the whim of the weather and with the angle of the sun. While the Antarctic is magnificent on a grand scale, the Keoughs write that it is also hostile and unforgiving:
“Visually our world was reduced to the white expanse of the frozen plateau and the vast, blue vault of the austral sky. Together these two simple elements, snow and sky, utterly dwarfed our small party. We keenly felt the immensity of Antarctica and also a certain vulnerability. We were acutely aware that the nearby wall of ice fog could roll in or a blinding blizzard spring up, bringing with it bitter wind chill. In such situations people have perished when shelter only meters away could not be found.
Along with the challenges, Antarctica’s profound beauty and solitude constantly set our artistic senses to a fine tune, almost quivering. Through to this day, the enormity of the pristine polar world captivates and humbles us, harkening as it does to the ice ages of eons past. We are in wonder of the tenacity of life which thrives along the edge of the ice and sea—the penguins, petrels, seals, and whales. As well, we have gained great respect for the explorers and opportunists whose forlorn century-old huts and grave markers remain frozen in time as poignant memorials to a bygone age. Our photographs, many of which we composed together using one camera on one tripod, reflect our shared emotional response to what could be easily be construed as overwhelming stimulus.”
The Keoughs’ images are presented in the continuum visualized by the artists when they designed their behemoth ANTARCTICA from the warmth of their studio in British Columbia, Canada. They selected images to be paired as facing pages, then arranged the pairs as pleased their sense of phrasing with peaks of color followed by quieter hues; sometimes with sudden contrast of perspective; and other times with progression within a theme.
The desired visual effect and rhythm can be appreciated as a lengthy Chinese scroll more so than as pages in a book. The Keoughs’ exhibition of ANTARCTICA presents their imagery as this continuum to be experienced from beginning to end.
An exhibition of Pat and Rosemarie Keough’s ANTARCTICA is on tour in Europe and North America, including venues such as the National Library of Canada, Toronto Public Library (Canada), Chrysler Museum of Art (USA), 2005 Fotofo Festival (Bratislava).
Heartfelt appreciation is expressed by Pat and Rosemarie Keough to: Robert Hage, Ambassador of Canada to Hungary and Slovenia; Agnes Paust, Matyas Banhegyi, Judit Nagy, Tamas Papp, Enico Lantos, Katalin Csomo, and others at the Canadian Embassy. To Dr István Matskási, Director General of the Hungarian Natural History Museum; Anita Arva and so many other helpful people at the Natural History Museum.
