25 Nov Roger A. Deakins: Byways/Bezdroza. Rondo Sztuki, Katowice

The photography exhibition “Roger A. Deakins: Byways / Bezdroża” was made opened on 25 November 2022 at the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice – Rondo Sztuki. Roger Deakings who was at the opening, best known as a cinematographer, was presenting more personal photos, different from the mainstream of his work.

“I like taking pictures, I don’t really like to be honest. Probably some of you took advantage of me already walking along the November roads of Katowice with a camera. the photos are very personal, they have nothing to do with what I do on a daily basis, and in fact they are very nice,” said Deakins.

Karolina Kula, the exhibition’s co-curator, said that Deakins shows the “everyday life on a farm in Beaford, snapshots of English fairs and festivals, seaside afternoons, London sunrises, artifacts lazily wandering among nature, or afterimages of a world that no longer exists.” She calls the exhibition as “a visual story about the world right next to you”.

“Deakins looks at the world with curiosity. He walks for hours, armed with a camera and as observer. He looks at places, people and events almost from hiding. there is a perfectly captured moment,” said Kula.

“As the artist himself admits, the very choice of an immortalised object, gives a lot of information about the photographer as everyone perceives reality differently. We are attracted to images that affect us on a private, intimate level. The presented photos allow us to see the simplicity and joy in everyday life, they are also proof of the artist’s ironic effect to the reality and resolution of English sensitivity,” added the co-curator.

Exhibition was based on the photo album “Byways”, published in September 2021 by the Damiani publishing house. There are also new, previously unpublished photos. Its curated by James Ellis Deakins, and co-curated by Karolina Kula. The exhibition is part of The Ars Cameralis festival.

The Ars Cameralis festival has been held in autumn for thirty years in the cities in Silesia, independently under the name “Upper Silesian Festival of Chamber Arts”. The organisers aim to present the most interesting phenomena in contemporary culture. The festival combines almost all fields of art, and thanks to its formula, interdisciplinarity and variety of genres, it has become one of the cultural showcases of the region.

Deakins,born in 1949, is a British cinematographer, known for many years of cooperation with Sam Mendes, Denis Villeneuv or the Coen brothers. Born in Torquay, Devon, he attended the Bath Academy of Art and the National Film School in Beaconsfield.

After college, Deakins branched out into cinematography – starting with documentaries to work out the plot. He was nominated fifteen times for the awards of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the awarding Oscar statuette – for the films “Blade Runner 2049” (2017) and “1917” (2019).

Among the most famous films that Deakins has photographed are “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), “Fargo” (1996), “The Big Lebowski” (1998), “A Beautiful Mind” (2001), “No Country to Compare People”. ” (2007), “Lektor” (2007), “True Grit” (2010), “Skyfall” (2012) or “Sicario” (2015). Empire of Light, a collaboration with Sam Mendes, will hit theaters soon.

Before Deakins went to the National Film School and contributed to the film’s cinematography, he spent a year in North Devon documenting life on a farm and in the Polish countryside. This experience strengthened his passion for photography, which was born while studying at the Bath Academy of Art.