Vladimir Kabelik

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Vladimir Kabelik follow Canadian, born 1951

Lives in Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Projects/Portfolios

REMEMBERING PRAGUE

Introduction

I left Prague when I was thirty years old. In the 1960-70s it wasn’t the same vibrant city as tourists find it today. Under the communists Prague was dark and grey. I often joked about the likelihood of the mythical Golem jumping at you any time from any corner. But we were used to it and didn’t find it scary, perhaps a bit romantic…

When I past my teenage years I started taking my camera for long walks, wandering throughout the city and its suburbs, taking images of forgotten corners that I suspected would be torn down and replaced by boring communist architecture.

I was not a journalist and didn’t feel the need to interview people to learn more about their state of mind. I was a documentarian interested in capturing compositions that spoke volumes through their own mood.

The mood of the nation was as grey as my photographs and my own feelings. Perhaps I intuitively knew that my days in this city were already numbered…

URBAN LANDSCAPES

Introduction

Before our escape my wife and I spent months fixing up the house we were living in so everybody would believe that we loved what we had and that in no way were we planning to desert our communist paradise. Then one morning we packed the car, put our two young sons in the back seat and headed for the border - looking like tourists hoping to spend their holiday in sunny Yugoslavia. We never expected to see Prague again.

Our plan didn’t work out as we originally hoped and we were lucky not to end up in a jail. After a dramatic turn of events we eventually made it to Austria and later on to Switzerland. It took many more months before we reached our original destination and finally landed in Canada.

In Toronto I spent weeks crisscrossing the city, looking for a job. Everything was new and different: the language, the customs, the aesthetics. Possibly seeking some refuge, my eyes began to look for familiar objects and compositions. Strangely, Toronto had an abundance of them: back alleys, abandoned yards, old factory buildings. As a filmmaker, husband and father I was starting my second life; as a photographer I continued living my first.

NICHES

Introduction

NICHES is the word other people used when politely describing my work, so I adopted it. Later on the same folks usually became more specific and started talking about loneliness, nostalgia, darkness, flashbacks of bad times behind the Iron Curtain, grittiness, emptiness and/or depression. Even today some galleries see my pieces as “hard to sell” items…

Well, I don’t view myself as a melancholic person. To me the stillness of life in a single frame reflects the peace and quiet my soul so craves for. It contrasts greatly with the dynamic approach I apply to my documentary films. My movies are my calling cards and a source of my income, while photographs are my solitudes, my refuge from the madness around me, and my ticket to sanity. Nothing more and nothing less.

BLACK & WHITE BLUES

Introduction

In my early days black and white negative was the only choice I had. Kodak, Agfa or Ferrania color slide films were financially out of my reach. Considering the reality I was living in, black & white was the right choice.

Eventually I started experimenting with sepia toners. These chemicals were affordable and I liked the added shade and mood.

In Canada colour film was easy to get, so I started wondering when and how this would affect my vision and style. After a few years I actually thought I was starting to grow out of my B&W spell -- until I discovered Manitoulin Island…

Manitoulin is Northern Ontario’s hidden gem. It quickly became my mental haven and shooting paradise. Peaceful and wild at the same time, clean and well preserved, rich in heritage yet still low-key in appearance, friendly, romantic and most importantly also very picturesque.

I’m still only beginning to discover the island through my photography. However one thing has become clear: the cure for my black & white blues has been lost forever…

TALES OF SHORES AND WATERS

Introduction

When I landed in Canada, my mind was set on nothing else but sheer survival. My days were busy job hunting and my nights were often interrupted with the same recurrent dream: I am back in communist Czechoslovakia, looking for something totally insignificant - perhaps a toothbrush. Everyone is watching me suspiciously as I search and it is only a matter of time before the police knock on my door. Some mornings I felt like never waking up again…

Luckily, I soon discovered a remedy for such gloomy moments - walking along the endless shores of Canadian rivers and lakes. The empty piers, the misty air and the pristine sounds of water became my powerful healers. It is only now that I fully understand that these moments of comforting balance - coming from the enormous, beautiful bodies of water - helped to preserve my soul and made me the person I am today.

CHIMNEYS OF ANDALUSIA

Introduction

Veni, vidi, et cecidi in amore Hibera Architectura!

You don’t have to be Julius Caesar to utter these lines when visiting southern Spain.

I did when my originally brief European detour quickly turned into an obsession.

I came, I saw, and I fell in love with the architecture of Southern Spain!

The countryside around Málaga is speckled with mementos spreading from the Roman Empire to Moorish times. Crenellated arches, ornamental tile work and prominent chimneys invoking their Arab roots, nonchalantly occupy the rooftops of many local dwellings.

Andalusia is a photographer’s paradise. Interesting and beautiful, it feels like a surreal dream. In the blink of an eye it confronts you with its grandeur of the past being vastly greater than our neurotic present…

DREAMING IN COLOR

Introduction

I have aged but inside of me I’m still the same guy… except now I’m living a different existence in a different dimension. I’m happy with it, and I think it’s why my dreams finally let some color in (as Leonard Cohen would probably say)…

This newly gained acceptance enables me to see and depict objects and scenes differently. Consequently, it allows for alternative moods too. Dreaming in Color is a variation on Black & White Blues – this time in RGB spectrum.

I will never embrace the full color scale of postcards, wall calendars and wedding albums as my style of work. It’s mainly because I still have the same worries that I had in my youth about a story and its meaning fighting a losing battle with glamour and emptiness.

Therefore the shades of black & white and color now live in a strange symbiosis inside of me. Perhaps it’s weird, but I’m OK with a little weirdness. Weird doesn’t mean to harm, yet it refuses to compromise. Simply put, weird creations have no intention to please people by matching the size and color of the sofa in their living room…

Galleries

Artfinder, London, United Kingdom
Marcia Rafelman Fine Arts, Toronto, Ontario
Saatchi Art, Santa Monica, CA, United States

Publications

Vladimir Kabelik: Portfolio Contest Winner. George Slade. Black & White, Ross, CA, 2017
Vladimir Kabelik: PHOTOGRAPHY. V. Kabelik. V. Kabelik, Oakville, Ontario, 2016
Lenswork No. 59 July - Aug 2005. Interview with Stu Levy. Article by Hugh MacLeod. EndNotes by Bill Jay. Portfolios by Carol Golemboski, Vladimir Kabelik, and Stu Levy. LensWork Publishing, PORTLAND, 2005
Tales of Shores and Waters. V. Kabelik. Canadian Camera, Ottawa, Ontario, 2004
Discovering Piezography. V. Kabelik. PhotoEd, Toronto, Ontario, 2002

Statements

Artist Statement
As a young man I met some great photographers who enriched my life not only through their images but also through their life philosophy - straightforward and honest. Like these men I too am careful about artist statements, and try to avoid them whenever possible...

NICHES is the word other people used when politely describing my work, so I adopted it. Later on the same folks became more specific and started talking about darkness, grittiness, flashbacks of bad times behind the Iron Curtain, etc. Even today some galleries see my pieces as “hard to sell” items…

I don’t view myself as a melancholic person. To me the stillness of life in a single frame reflects the peace and quiet my soul so craves for...

Process Statement
The classic wet-darkroom style: so romantic - but I don’t miss it. I love the aesthetics of the silver halide process but I hate retouching…

Piezography: I enjoy fooling the printer by forcing it to think it’s outputting color while processing my black & white files. Carbon particles injected into acid-free mould-made paper make Piezo prints rich and permanent. It’s pure photography with a touch of hand-made graphic art…

Pigment based giclée printing: predictable, satisfactory although a bit boring. If my printer dies before me I will replace it with a smaller inkjet and contract an outside shop to handle my printing needs – although I already despair the hiccups and arguments that will come with it…

Biography

VLADIMIR KABELIK

Photographer - Filmmaker - Educator

• 1951 (Zlin, Czechoslovakia)
• Graduated from FAMU (Academy of Film and Television Arts, Prague)
• Published in Czech media and participated in numerous photographic activities
• First solo exhibit at the Czechoslovak Writers Gallery in downtown Prague
• Started his professional career as a writer/director for “Krátký Film” studio
• Produced mainly documentaries, some of them dealing with the subject of photography
• Awarded the Silver Pin by the Guild of Czech Photographers
• 1981 escaped from the Iron Curtain with his wife and two young sons
• Lived briefly in Austria and Switzerland
• 1982 landed in Canada
• Worked for PFA Film Labs and Avatar multi-image agency in Toronto
• 1983 started producing documentaries again, mainly for CBC, TVO and Vision TV
• 1984 Professor of film production at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario
• Recipient of numerous Canadian and international film & television awards
• An early adopter of the Piezography process
• Canadian solo exhibits include “Niches” (Limelight Dinner Theatre), “Black & White Blues” (Eight Elm Gallery), “Memories” (Cannington House Gallery) and “Suite 204” (Wallace Studios)
• Published in The Luminous Landscape, Canadian Camera, LensWork and PhotoEd magazines
• Principal owner of Willing Mind Productions Inc.
• Represented by Marcia Rafelman Fine Arts, Toronto
• On-line sales by Saatchi Art and Artfinder
• 2016 published “Vladimir Kabelik: PHOTOGRAPHY”
• Awarded the gold prize at the 2016 Prix De La Photographie in Paris, France
• 2016 Spotlight Award by Black & White magazine
• 2017 portfolio published in Black & White Magazine

Website

kabelik.com

Blog

kabelik.com/blog.html

Contact

For print inquiries, please contact any of the fine galleries below.

Artfinder, London, United Kingdom
Marcia Rafelman Fine Arts, Toronto, Ontario
Saatchi Art, Santa Monica, CA, United States

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