ŠTĚPÁNKA ROČKOVÁ

BEYOND MIDNIGHT

4. 4. – 15. 5. 2012

“Night seduces me. It lures and tempts; it frightens me. I struggle through the forest, far, beyond midnight. The snow begins to glow, shadows sharpen, familiar places reveal aspects I’ve never seen. Pools of bright light glide through the forest with suprising speed. Then everything sinks suddenly back into darkness, clouds are flying in the sky.”
Though born in Prague, Štěpánka Ročková is most at home at Kvilda; she’s been a part-time dweller in the little mountain village since her childhood. She finished her Master’s studies in 1992, with a thesis on literary aspects of the book Šumava umírající a romantická (Sumava Dying and Romantic) by Josef Váchal. Váchal is still her great inspiration and quite a few of her works have originated in the Sumava mountains. She prints her photographs full frame and presents her pictures without modifications or retouching. Her macro-photographs and landscapes capture her immediate environment and reveal unique imaginary worlds. This project “Beyond Midnight” is a series of colour photographs in lightboxes of snow-covered forests flooded by moon light. The images were taken over a period of three winters near her home in Sumava on those rare cloudless winter evenings of the full moon.