František Fero Tomík - Negative Retouch

The work depicted in the photograph is a black-and-white original photograph entitled “Negative Retouch” (Negatívna retuš), created in 1980 by the prominent Slovak photographer, cinematographer, and educator Fero Tomík (František Tomík).

Information about the Artwork and the Artist

Artist: František “Fero” Tomík (1941–2020), born in Skalica, Slovakia. He graduated from FAMU, the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and worked as a cinematographer, a photographer at the Slovak National Gallery, and for many years as head of the photography department at the School of Applied Arts in Bratislava.

Technique and Style: During the 1970s and 1980s, Tomík devoted himself to experimental fine-art photography. He frequently explored unconventional analogue techniques, including retouching, re-photographing, and manipulating photographic negatives. These experimental approaches are reflected in both the title and the visual character of this work.

Artistic Significance: Other works from Tomík’s photographic practice, including photographs associated with the series From the Family Album (Z rodinného albumu) and My Father Was a Good Man… (Môj otec bol dobrý…), are represented in the collections of major cultural institutions, including the Slovak National Gallery (SNG) and the Moravian Gallery in Brno.