FILM ON PAPER: BETWEEN FICTION AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Observing through George Friedmann’s lens allows one to grasp the power of photography and the charm of artistic fusion. Eso que llaman amor (That Which They Call Love) highlights the beauty of what is carefully constructed yet retains the fragility of the unexpected.
The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) presents a selection of the Hungarian artist’s vast body of work—around 15,000 photographs. It is a black-and-white world from which emerge the colors of anger, apathy, astonishment, incomprehension, sweetness, bewilderment, desire, bravery, and disdain. And those colors unfold with elegance—the elegance of fiction.
Friedmann was a photojournalist, but his great passion was cinema. After fleeing Nazism and settling in Argentina, he devoted himself to producing photonovels for Idilio magazine. Published weekly, these served as a bridge between the literary and visual tradition of romantic serials and the predominant art form of the postwar era: cinema. The exhibition, curated by Facundo de Zuviría and Samuel Titan, brings cinema onto paper, revealing the interaction between photography, text, and graphic design.
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George Friedmann. Espectadores en el cine, ca. 1955. Cortesía del MALBA
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Eso que llaman amor
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George Friedmann. Esperando, de la serie Fotonovelas para la revista Idilio, c.1958, Gelatina de plata sobre papel, Vintage print, 58,5 x 49 cm. Cortesía del MALBA
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George Friedmann. Cortesía del MALBA
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Eso que llaman amor
Friedmann captures the precise moment of encounter—and of disconnection. He understands and materializes the intangible relationship between setting and character. One does not need to be an expert to appreciate the beauty of light in his photography, to admire the clever camera angles, to grasp the striking tensions within the frame, or to recognize his skill in capturing the decisive moment. George Friedmann seizes the fraction of a second that would otherwise go unnoticed.
That Which They Call Love is found in the eyes, in the deep, intense, lingering gazes of Friedmann’s images—lost, yearning, absorbed, profound. Each of them carries a story, for they belong to the world of the novel. These are intelligent photographs, composed in such a way that harmony emerges from tension. They play with the audience; there is a transfer between the people of the past century and the viewer, who completes the journey wanting more.
Though it may evoke a sense of distance, Titan explains that the photonovel “is one link in a much longer history”—one that remains relevant today: the history of serialized fiction. In a world oversaturated with screen-based series, MALBA offers a pause, an invitation to return to paper and ink, to revisit the art of a past that has so profoundly shaped our present.
That Which They Call Love will be on view until March 24 at MALBA, located at Av. Figueroa Alcorta 3415, Buenos Aires (Argentina).
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