Photography Empowers: Blaž Gutman with a project on dementia at Kranj Foto Fest

Blaž Gutman has been working on the project Seventy Years Ago Was Seven Minutes Ago for some time in close collaboration with his stepfather Janez, who is affected by the illness. Gutman explores dementia through therapeutic photography by examining his stepfather's memory and documenting the fleeting nature of his presence and the transience of time as part of life in his local home environment.

Memories can sometimes play tricks on our minds. What do we want to believe and what can we actually remember? Which of these memories are fact, which are fiction, and which are figments of the imagination? Is there a way to determine this in a mind affected by dementia? These are some of the questions that the photographer considers during his creative process.

The project aims to visualise the complexity of dementia while demonstrating that it can add meaning to life, not merely take it away.

Being selected as one of the 19 finalists of Kranj Foto Fest 2024 for his project gives Gutman the opportunity to work closely with the festival's curatorial team in planning the exhibition. This will allow him to present his work to a qualified audience that includes curators, photo editors, gallery owners and publishers from Slovenia and abroad. The award also includes the opportunity to participate in panel discussions, lectures and guided tours.

Blaž Gutman (1990) is a Slovenian documentary photographer of the younger generation. In 2022, he received his master's degree in photography from Ulster University, Belfast School of Art in Northern Ireland, under the supervision of Ken Grant and Donovan Wylie. He is currently working as a photographer for the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana (MGML).