Martin Kollár (born 23 November 1971) is a Slovak photographer and cinematographer. He was awarded the Leica Oskar Barnack Award in 2014."Winner 2014: Martin Kollar ", Leica Oskar Barnack Award. Accessed 20 January 2017. Kollár has had solo exhibitions at the Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris; Le Château d'eau, Toulouse; Reiss Engelhorn Museum, Mannheim; Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava; Benaki Museum, Athens; and Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne.
Early life and education Kollár was born in Žilina. He studied cinematography in the Film and Television faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava."Authors 2010: Martin Kollar: Nothing Special ", Getxophoto. Accessed 20 January 2017.
Career In 2003 he joined Agence VU,"Fotokomora Martin Kollár", Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival. Accessed 20 January 2017 (which he appears to have left in late 2013Kollár appears in VU's list of photographers as archived by the Wayback Machine on 11 August 2013; he is absent from it as archived on 21 December 2013. (His profile and photograph selection as of 11 August 2013 are archived here.)). He worked on documentary and fiction films, including Autoportrait (director), Ball (producer) and as a cameraman for Velvet Terrorists, Cooking History, Across the Border: Five Views from Neighbours, 66 Seasons, Ladomirova Morytates and Legends, and the animated film In the Box.
His numerous photographs of everyday life in Slovakia are published in newspapers and magazines worldwide, such as Le Monde 2, Libération, GEO and Courrier International."Enfants du pays", Petit-futé Slovaquie 2012–2013, p. 73.
Slovakia 001, a survey of Slovakia in colour photographs, was prompted by a contest held by the Slovak Institute for Public Affairs. Kollár avoided looking for the exceptional and instead concentrated on oddities seen in everyday life.Eugen Gindl, "Exploring the exoticism of the everyday", Fotofo. Accessed 25 January 2017.Zuzana Habšudová, "Slovak woman in photographs", The Slovak Spectator, 16 February 2004. Accessed 4 February 2017. The photographs were exhibited and also published as a book.Marek Grygiel, "Martin Kollar: Raport o stanie kraju 001", Fototapeta. Accessed 25 January 2017.
Television Anchors is a series showing television news reporters in incongruous situations. It was prompted by the sudden cancellation of an assignment to photograph New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: although Canal Street had escaped most of the damage, it was the standard television backdrop thanks to its ease of access. Allowing more into the frame around the reporter than normally permitted by a television news broadcast presents a very different picture.Jordan G. Teicher, "Truth and fiction in television news", Slate, 29 April 2013. Accessed 4 February 2017.
In the series Nothing Special, begun around 2000, Kollár explored the environment of countries that had been in the Warsaw bloc. He traveled nearly 13,500 km, "looking for moments that portrayed the chaotic and often humorous moments"; examining "clashing cultures, tradition versus modernity, and sometimes situations that are simply perplexing". The photographs were all unstaged.David Rosenberg, "The wacky world of eastern Europe in the early 2000s", Slate, 30 March 2014. Accessed 4 February 2017.
In order to participate in the project This Place, launched by Frédéric Brenner, Kollár was expected to spend six months photographing in Israel. He based himself in Tel Aviv, and visited many sites made available thanks to much preparation and persuasion by his assistant, Talia Rosin."Martin Kollar in conversation with Charlotte Cotton", Tel Aviv Museum, Fall 2014. Accessed 8 February 2017. He concentrated on Israel's future rather than its past or even present, and thus on sites of preparation or prevention. security- and surveillance-related sites and activities in Israel. The book has no captions, and the photographs go unexplained.Jana Liptáková, "Kollár's time capsule of Israel is now on display at the SNG", The Slovak Spectator, 14 December 2015. Accessed 25 January 2017. "Every image in this Slovakian photographer's depiction of Israel is a photograph of unintelligible secrets," commented Alec Soth.Cheryl Newman and Livia Bonadio, eds, "Alec Soth: My top 10 photo Books of 2013", Telegraph, 5 December 2013. Accessed 24 January 2017. "At the end of [Field Trip] I'm more confused than I was at the beginning, making the book a wonderful example of photography's inability to be able to explain very much at all", wrote Mark Power.Mark Power, "Mark Power's Top Ten Photobooks of 2013", Mark Power's blog, 10 January 2014. Accessed 24 January 2017. A New York Times review of an exhibition of This Place praised Kollár's "color pictures that hop from subject to subject but are on edge or surreal", saying that there was no need for captions as the images "engross and unsettle on their own".Roberta Smith, "Capturing human moments amid chaos in Israel and the West Bank", New York Times, 18 February 2016. Accessed 8 February 2017. It was named one of LensCulture's favorite books of 2013.
For the 15th in its series of European Eyes on Japan: Japan Today, in which photographers cover Japan prefecture by prefecture, the EU–Japan Fest Japan Committee invited Kollár and Olivier Metzger to photograph Chiba. Kollár stayed in Japan for a month in spring 2013. The resulting work was exhibited in Arles as part of Marseille-Provence 2013 and published in book form."Photograph exhibition European Eyes on Japan / Japan Today vol.15 ", EU–Japan Fest Japan Committee. Accessed 24 January 2017."'Rester partir, le voyage impossible: Une exposition de la programmation coproduite par Marseille-Provence 2013", Voies Off. Accessed 24 January 2017.
Sean O'Hagan writes that "It is [a] state of impermanence that Martin Kollar sets out to explore in his latest book, Provisional Arrangement, which attempts to map out a psychogeography of uncertainty and stasis.Sean O'Hagan, "Provisional Arrangement by Martin Kollar review: Snapshots of stasis and uncertainty", The Observer, 2 October 2016. Accessed 24 January 2017.O'Hagan's article accompanies a page of photographs: "Road to nowhere: Martin Kollár's deadpan travel diary – in pictures", The Guardian, 26 September 2016. Brad Feuerhelm calls the book, with its "cinematically constructed images", "a work of soft genius".Brad Feuerhelm, "Martin Kollar: The post-Soviet cinematic detail", American Suburb X, 18 December 2016. Accessed 24 January 2017.
Awards Les Pépinières européennes pour jeunes artistes (stipend), Luxembourg, June–September 1999. Annual Country Report, year's stipend awarded by the Institute for Public Affairs, 2001. FujiFilm Euro Press Photo Awards, national level: 1st prize, 2001. Leica Oskar Barnack Award, 2014. Prix Élysée, Photo Élysée, 2016"Martin Kollar: Provisional Arrangement", Prix Élysée. Accessed 20 January 2017. Backlight Photography Ward (Finland)
Exhibitions Solo exhibitions Martin Kollár: Europe, Galéria Profil, Bratislava, October 2000.Richard Friedmann, "Martin Kollár – Europe", Fotofo. Accessed 25 January 2017. Slovakia 2001: A Pictorial Report on the State of the Country, Johann Pálffy Palace, Bratislava, 2001.Zuzana Habšudová, "Martin Kollár: The extraordinary behind the ordinary", The Slovak Spectator, 19 November 2001. Accessed 25 January 2017. 2001: Správa o stave krajiny, Dom Fotografie, Poprad, February 2002."Martin Kollár vstúpil v tichosti do Domu fotografie", Korzár, 4 February 2002. Accessed 27 January 2017. Martin Kollar: Raport o stanie kraju 001, Mała Galeria ZPAF-CSW, Warsaw, November 2002. An exhibition of Slovakia 001. Nothing Special, , Hamburg, August–October 2005."Martin Kollár: Nothing Special ", Freelens, 29 July 2014. Accessed 23 January 2017. Nothing Special, Batagianni Gallery, Athens, 13th International Month of Photography, October 2006.Hellenic Centre for Photography, "13oς ΔΙΕΘΝΗΣ ΜΗΝΑΣ ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΙΑΣ " (DOC file), in2life. Accessed 4 February 2017. TV Anchors, Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris, 2007 Nothing Special, Le Château d'eau, Toulouse, June–September 2008"Martin Kollar", Le Château d'eau. Accessed 21 January 2017. Tranzit, Tranzit Gallery, Bratislava, November 2012 – Táňa Hojčová, "New exhibition opening at tranzit.sk: Martin Kollár", Erste Foundation. Accessed 21 January 2017. Field Trip, , Vevey, March–April 2014."Martin Kollar ", Images: Festival des arts visuels de Vevey. Accessed 23 January 2017. Field Trip, Zephyr – Raum für Fotografie, Reiss Engelhorn Museum, Mannheim, March–June 2015."Martin Kollar: Field Trip ", Zephyr – Raum für Fotografie. Accessed 24 January 2017. Field Trip, Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, Budapest, September–October 2015.Szabolcs Barakonyi, "Martin Kollar: Field Trip", Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center. Accessed 23 January 2017. Martin Kollar: Field Trip / Exkurzia. Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, October 2015 – January 2016."Martin Kollar: Field Trip / Exkurzia", Art and Heritage in Central Europe. Accessed 22 January 2017. Field Trip, Athens Photo Festival 2016, Benaki Museum, June–July 2016.Martin Kollar, "Martin Kollar (SK): Field Trip", Athens Photo Festival. Accessed 24 January 2017. Provisional Arrangement, Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne, September–December 2016."Martin Kollar: Provisional Arrangement", Musée de l'Elysée. Accessed 23 January 2017.
Other exhibitions Report from the Country, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdów Castle, Warsaw, 2002"Martin Kollar", Prix Élysée. Accessed 20 January 2017. Ihmisiä itärajoilla = People in the Eastern Border Country, Imatra Art Museum, Imatra (Imatran valokuvataiteen biennaali 2003, the first Imatra Biennale of Photographic Art), June–August 2003. Together with András Fekete, , Boris Missirkov, Georgi Bogdanov, , Kati Koivikko, Lucia Nimcová, Marja Pirilä, , Sanni Seppo, ; Krisztina Erdei; ; Jindřich Štreit."People in the Eastern Border Country – The first Imatra Biennale of Photographic Art", Photography Now. Accessed 27 January 2017. Slovak Photography 1925–2000, Městská Knihovna (municipal library), Prague, March 2003.Jeremy Bransten, "What's doing in; Prague", New York Times, 9 March 2003. Accessed 8 February 2017. Parallele Avantgarden – Gibt es eine "europäische Fotografie"? Artspace, Vienna, April–May 2003. With Irena Blühová, Ladislav Foltyn, , , Marek Kvetán, , OHO, Tobias Putrih, Shirana Shahbazi, Janko Skerlep.Exhibition notice for Parallele Avantgarden, Photography Now. Accessed 27 January 2017. Stadt in Sicht. New Art from Bratislava, Vienna Künstlerhaus, Vienna, May–July 2003. With 19 other artists.Saša Petrášová, "So close, yet so far away", The Slovak Spectator, 12 May 2003. Accessed 4 February 2017. Check Slovakia!, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, May–June 2004. With Erik Binder, Cyril Blažo, Tomáš Agat Błoński, Pavlína Fichta Čierna, Bohdan Hostiňák, Ilona Németh, Milan Tittel, and Emőke Vargová."Young Slovak art travels to Berlin", The Slovak Spectator, 17 May 2004. Accessed 4 February 2017. Exhibition of finalists for the Oskár Čepan prize. Mirbach Palace gallery, Bratislava, May–August 2004. With Mário Chromý, Svätopluk Mikyta and Boris Sirka."Events countrywide", The Slovak Spectator, 17 May 2004. Accessed 4 February 2017. Fotografie aus Tschechien und Osteuropa, /Kunstverein Glückstadt, Glückstadt, August–September 2004. With Jindřich Štreit.Exhibition notice for Fotografie aus Tschechien und Osteuropa, Photography Now. Accessed 27 January 2017. Slowakei durch die Linse von Dokumentarfotografen, Fluss, Wolkersdorf, October–November 2004. With , , Alan Hyža, Martin Marenčin, Lucia Nimcová, , Jaro Sýkora.Exhibition notice for Slowakei durch die Linse von Dokumentarfotografen, Photography Now. Accessed 27 January 2017.