Info ang

Singularity, something that is singular (exceptional, unusual, peculiar). Something out of the ordinary (atypical, extraordinary, odd, peculiar, phenomenal, preternatural, rare, exceptional, uncommon, uncustomary, unique). Singularity (gravitational~ or space-time~) is a location in space-time where the gravitational eld of a celestial body becomes in nite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. A gravitational singularity as predicted by general relativity is at the center of a black hole. ... According to modern general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang, was a singularity. Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence.

Dofinansowano ze środków Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego

Among zillions of photographs which have come into being since photography was invented, there are many that we see as ordinary, even uninteresting; far fewer are those that have won the appreciation of history, depicting important persons and events, taken by great photographers or famous artists. Categorising further in this way, we arrive at photographs which attract our attention just because they are unlike most others and will not lend themselves to labelling: as products of chance, or plain mistake, or the work by some photographer fascinated with the miraculous quality of the state of things, people or places. It may seem that there aren’t many photographs like that, but it may well be an illusion stemming from a limited knowledge of existing resources – of amateur photography, for instance, the wealth of which sometimes reveals striking specimens to the trained eye of the collector. Singularity is a mysterious trait of some photographs; one’s eyes and thoughts gravitate towards them for no other reason. Singularity may be shared, but it is predominantly personal: it will not be documented, measured or pinpointed, even though all these actions are attempted in this book. It seems that singularity is something that vaguely arises, sometimes, in a dialogue between images and words; when an image achieves the status of subject and enters into conversation with the spectator.

For the purpose of this exhibition, about seventy photographs have been selected from among the thousands which comprise the collection of the Photography Museum in Krakow. Another few dozen were hand‐picked from the private collections of the writers Jacek Dehnel and Wojciech Nowicki. Together, they form a truly delightful assortment of baffling images, confusing as to the photographer’s motive in choosing that particular frame, or simply ill‐made. The majority are fruits of the work of error and chance, which, in photography, fully deserve our respect. Mistakes and shortcomings are not exclusively a question of aesthetics: they help to shatter the surface referential quality of a photograph, letting new meanings in, giving it the right to be an autonomous world. Time, too, supports this vein of thought. With the passage of years, as the dis‐ tance between the photographs and their moment of birth increases, they grow more and more fascinating by dint of strangeness, a result of being anachronous. In time, what is captured by the photographer’s lens becomes peculiar. A dog posing on a table was probably nothing out of the ordinary in the day of bulky cameras on tall tripod stands; a crinoline could form a woman’s dress into shapes which are shocking to the modern eye; and a man photographed a hundred years ago, when, for some reason or other, he was up in the air, appeals to our imagination, because he will stay up in the air like that, unchanged, as an ancient citizen of Pompeii encased in a sarcophagus of volcanic lava.

Singularity, something that is singular (exceptional, unusual, peculiar). Something out of the ordinary (atypical, extraordinary, odd, peculiar, phenomenal, preternatural, rare, exceptional, uncommon, uncustomary, unique). Singularity (gravitational~ or space-time~) is a location in space-time where the gravitational eld of a celestial body becomes in nite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. A gravitational singularity as predicted by general relativity is at the center of a black hole. ... According to modern general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang, was a singularity. Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence.

Among zillions of photographs which have come into being since photography was invented, there are many that we see as ordinary, even uninteresting; far fewer are those that have won the appreciation of history, depicting important persons and events, taken by great photographers or famous artists. Categorising further in this way, we arrive at photographs which attract our attention just because they are unlike most others and will not lend themselves to labelling: as products of chance, or plain mistake, or the work by some photographer fascinated with the miraculous quality of the state of things, people or places. It may seem that there aren’t many photographs like that, but it may well be an illusion stemming from a limited knowledge of existing resources – of amateur photography, for instance, the wealth of which sometimes reveals striking specimens to the trained eye of the collector. Singularity is a mysterious trait of some photographs; one’s eyes and thoughts gravitate towards them for no other reason. Singularity may be shared, but it is predominantly personal: it will not be documented, measured or pinpointed, even though all these actions are attempted in this book. It seems that singularity is something that vaguely arises, sometimes, in a dialogue between images and words; when an image achieves the status of subject and enters into conversation with the spectator.

For the purpose of this exhibition, about seventy photographs have been selected from among the thousands which comprise the collection of the Photography Museum in Krakow. Another few dozen were hand‐picked from the private collections of the writers Jacek Dehnel and Wojciech Nowicki. Together, they form a truly delightful assortment of baffling images, confusing as to the photographer’s motive in choosing that particular frame, or simply ill‐made. The majority are fruits of the work of error and chance, which, in photography, fully deserve our respect. Mistakes and shortcomings are not exclusively a question of aesthetics: they help to shatter the surface referential quality of a photograph, letting new meanings in, giving it the right to be an autonomous world. Time, too, supports this vein of thought. With the passage of years, as the dis‐ tance between the photographs and their moment of birth increases, they grow more and more fascinating by dint of strangeness, a result of being anachronous. In time, what is captured by the photographer’s lens becomes peculiar. A dog posing on a table was probably nothing out of the ordinary in the day of bulky cameras on tall tripod stands; a crinoline could form a woman’s dress into shapes which are shocking to the modern eye; and a man photographed a hundred years ago, when, for some reason or other, he was up in the air, appeals to our imagination, because he will stay up in the air like that, unchanged, as an ancient citizen of Pompeii encased in a sarcophagus of volcanic lava.

Singularity, something that is singular (exceptional, unusual, peculiar). Something out of the ordinary (atypical, extraordinary, odd, peculiar, phenomenal, preternatural, rare, exceptional, uncommon, uncustomary, unique). Singularity (gravitational~ or space-time~) is a location in space-time where the gravitational eld of a celestial body becomes in nite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. A gravitational singularity as predicted by general relativity is at the center of a black hole. ... According to modern general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang, was a singularity. Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence.

Among zillions of photographs which have come into being since photography was invented, there are many that we see as ordinary, even uninteresting; far fewer are those that have won the appreciation of history, depicting important persons and events, taken by great photographers or famous artists. Categorising further in this way, we arrive at photographs which attract our attention just because they are unlike most others and will not lend themselves to labelling: as products of chance, or plain mistake, or the work by some photographer fascinated with the miraculous quality of the state of things, people or places. It may seem that there aren’t many photographs like that, but it may well be an illusion stemming from a limited knowledge of existing resources – of amateur photography, for instance, the wealth of which sometimes reveals striking specimens to the trained eye of the collector. Singularity is a mysterious trait of some photographs; one’s eyes and thoughts gravitate towards them for no other reason. Singularity may be shared, but it is predominantly personal: it will not be documented, measured or pinpointed, even though all these actions are attempted in this book. It seems that singularity is something that vaguely arises, sometimes, in a dialogue between images and words; when an image achieves the status of subject and enters into conversation with the spectator.

For the purpose of this exhibition, about seventy photographs have been selected from among the thousands which comprise the collection of the Photography Museum in Krakow. Another few dozen were hand‐picked from the private collections of the writers Jacek Dehnel and Wojciech Nowicki. Together, they form a truly delightful assortment of baffling images, confusing as to the photographer’s motive in choosing that particular frame, or simply ill‐made. The majority are fruits of the work of error and chance, which, in photography, fully deserve our respect. Mistakes and shortcomings are not exclusively a question of aesthetics: they help to shatter the surface referential quality of a photograph, letting new meanings in, giving it the right to be an autonomous world. Time, too, supports this vein of thought. With the passage of years, as the dis‐ tance between the photographs and their moment of birth increases, they grow more and more fascinating by dint of strangeness, a result of being anachronous. In time, what is captured by the photographer’s lens becomes peculiar. A dog posing on a table was probably nothing out of the ordinary in the day of bulky cameras on tall tripod stands; a crinoline could form a woman’s dress into shapes which are shocking to the modern eye; and a man photographed a hundred years ago, when, for some reason or other, he was up in the air, appeals to our imagination, because he will stay up in the air like that, unchanged, as an ancient citizen of Pompeii encased in a sarcophagus of volcanic lava.

Singularity, something that is singular (exceptional, unusual, peculiar). Something out of the ordinary (atypical, extraordinary, odd, peculiar, phenomenal, preternatural, rare, exceptional, uncommon, uncustomary, unique). Singularity (gravitational~ or space-time~) is a location in space-time where the gravitational eld of a celestial body becomes in nite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. A gravitational singularity as predicted by general relativity is at the center of a black hole. ... According to modern general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang, was a singularity. Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence.

Among zillions of photographs which have come into being since photography was invented, there are many that we see as ordinary, even uninteresting; far fewer are those that have won the appreciation of history, depicting important persons and events, taken by great photographers or famous artists. Categorising further in this way, we arrive at photographs which attract our attention just because they are unlike most others and will not lend themselves to labelling: as products of chance, or plain mistake, or the work by some photographer fascinated with the miraculous quality of the state of things, people or places. It may seem that there aren’t many photographs like that, but it may well be an illusion stemming from a limited knowledge of existing resources – of amateur photography, for instance, the wealth of which sometimes reveals striking specimens to the trained eye of the collector. Singularity is a mysterious trait of some photographs; one’s eyes and thoughts gravitate towards them for no other reason. Singularity may be shared, but it is predominantly personal: it will not be documented, measured or pinpointed, even though all these actions are attempted in this book. It seems that singularity is something that vaguely arises, sometimes, in a dialogue between images and words; when an image achieves the status of subject and enters into conversation with the spectator.

For the purpose of this exhibition, about seventy photographs have been selected from among the thousands which comprise the collection of the Photography Museum in Krakow. Another few dozen were hand‐picked from the private collections of the writers Jacek Dehnel and Wojciech Nowicki. Together, they form a truly delightful assortment of baffling images, confusing as to the photographer’s motive in choosing that particular frame, or simply ill‐made. The majority are fruits of the work of error and chance, which, in photography, fully deserve our respect. Mistakes and shortcomings are not exclusively a question of aesthetics: they help to shatter the surface referential quality of a photograph, letting new meanings in, giving it the right to be an autonomous world. Time, too, supports this vein of thought. With the passage of years, as the dis‐ tance between the photographs and their moment of birth increases, they grow more and more fascinating by dint of strangeness, a result of being anachronous. In time, what is captured by the photographer’s lens becomes peculiar. A dog posing on a table was probably nothing out of the ordinary in the day of bulky cameras on tall tripod stands; a crinoline could form a woman’s dress into shapes which are shocking to the modern eye; and a man photographed a hundred years ago, when, for some reason or other, he was up in the air, appeals to our imagination, because he will stay up in the air like that, unchanged, as an ancient citizen of Pompeii encased in a sarcophagus of volcanic lava.

Singularity, something that is singular (exceptional, unusual, peculiar). Something out of the ordinary (atypical, extraordinary, odd, peculiar, phenomenal, preternatural, rare, exceptional, uncommon, uncustomary, unique). Singularity (gravitational~ or space-time~) is a location in space-time where the gravitational eld of a celestial body becomes in nite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. A gravitational singularity as predicted by general relativity is at the center of a black hole. ... According to modern general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang, was a singularity. Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence.

Among zillions of photographs which have come into being since photography was invented, there are many that we see as ordinary, even uninteresting; far fewer are those that have won the appreciation of history, depicting important persons and events, taken by great photographers or famous artists. Categorising further in this way, we arrive at photographs which attract our attention just because they are unlike most others and will not lend themselves to labelling: as products of chance, or plain mistake, or the work by some photographer fascinated with the miraculous quality of the state of things, people or places. It may seem that there aren’t many photographs like that, but it may well be an illusion stemming from a limited knowledge of existing resources – of amateur photography, for instance, the wealth of which sometimes reveals striking specimens to the trained eye of the collector. Singularity is a mysterious trait of some photographs; one’s eyes and thoughts gravitate towards them for no other reason. Singularity may be shared, but it is predominantly personal: it will not be documented, measured or pinpointed, even though all these actions are attempted in this book. It seems that singularity is something that vaguely arises, sometimes, in a dialogue between images and words; when an image achieves the status of subject and enters into conversation with the spectator.

For the purpose of this exhibition, about seventy photographs have been selected from among the thousands which comprise the collection of the Photography Museum in Krakow. Another few dozen were hand‐picked from the private collections of the writers Jacek Dehnel and Wojciech Nowicki. Together, they form a truly delightful assortment of baffling images, confusing as to the photographer’s motive in choosing that particular frame, or simply ill‐made. The majority are fruits of the work of error and chance, which, in photography, fully deserve our respect. Mistakes and shortcomings are not exclusively a question of aesthetics: they help to shatter the surface referential quality of a photograph, letting new meanings in, giving it the right to be an autonomous world. Time, too, supports this vein of thought. With the passage of years, as the dis‐ tance between the photographs and their moment of birth increases, they grow more and more fascinating by dint of strangeness, a result of being anachronous. In time, what is captured by the photographer’s lens becomes peculiar. A dog posing on a table was probably nothing out of the ordinary in the day of bulky cameras on tall tripod stands; a crinoline could form a woman’s dress into shapes which are shocking to the modern eye; and a man photographed a hundred years ago, when, for some reason or other, he was up in the air, appeals to our imagination, because he will stay up in the air like that, unchanged, as an ancient citizen of Pompeii encased in a sarcophagus of volcanic lava.

Singularity, something that is singular (exceptional, unusual, peculiar). Something out of the ordinary (atypical, extraordinary, odd, peculiar, phenomenal, preternatural, rare, exceptional, uncommon, uncustomary, unique). Singularity (gravitational~ or space-time~) is a location in space-time where the gravitational eld of a celestial body becomes in nite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. A gravitational singularity as predicted by general relativity is at the center of a black hole. ... According to modern general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang, was a singularity. Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence.

Among zillions of photographs which have come into being since photography was invented, there are many that we see as ordinary, even uninteresting; far fewer are those that have won the appreciation of history, depicting important persons and events, taken by great photographers or famous artists. Categorising further in this way, we arrive at photographs which attract our attention just because they are unlike most others and will not lend themselves to labelling: as products of chance, or plain mistake, or the work by some photographer fascinated with the miraculous quality of the state of things, people or places. It may seem that there aren’t many photographs like that, but it may well be an illusion stemming from a limited knowledge of existing resources – of amateur photography, for instance, the wealth of which sometimes reveals striking specimens to the trained eye of the collector. Singularity is a mysterious trait of some photographs; one’s eyes and thoughts gravitate towards them for no other reason. Singularity may be shared, but it is predominantly personal: it will not be documented, measured or pinpointed, even though all these actions are attempted in this book. It seems that singularity is something that vaguely arises, sometimes, in a dialogue between images and words; when an image achieves the status of subject and enters into conversation with the spectator.

For the purpose of this exhibition, about seventy photographs have been selected from among the thousands which comprise the collection of the Photography Museum in Krakow. Another few dozen were hand‐picked from the private collections of the writers Jacek Dehnel and Wojciech Nowicki. Together, they form a truly delightful assortment of baffling images, confusing as to the photographer’s motive in choosing that particular frame, or simply ill‐made. The majority are fruits of the work of error and chance, which, in photography, fully deserve our respect. Mistakes and shortcomings are not exclusively a question of aesthetics: they help to shatter the surface referential quality of a photograph, letting new meanings in, giving it the right to be an autonomous world. Time, too, supports this vein of thought. With the passage of years, as the dis‐ tance between the photographs and their moment of birth increases, they grow more and more fascinating by dint of strangeness, a result of being anachronous. In time, what is captured by the photographer’s lens becomes peculiar. A dog posing on a table was probably nothing out of the ordinary in the day of bulky cameras on tall tripod stands; a crinoline could form a woman’s dress into shapes which are shocking to the modern eye; and a man photographed a hundred years ago, when, for some reason or other, he was up in the air, appeals to our imagination, because he will stay up in the air like that, unchanged, as an ancient citizen of Pompeii encased in a sarcophagus of volcanic lava.

Singularity, something that is singular (exceptional, unusual, peculiar). Something out of the ordinary (atypical, extraordinary, odd, peculiar, phenomenal, preternatural, rare, exceptional, uncommon, uncustomary, unique). Singularity (gravitational~ or space-time~) is a location in space-time where the gravitational eld of a celestial body becomes in nite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. A gravitational singularity as predicted by general relativity is at the center of a black hole. ... According to modern general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang, was a singularity. Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence.

Among zillions of photographs which have come into being since photography was invented, there are many that we see as ordinary, even uninteresting; far fewer are those that have won the appreciation of history, depicting important persons and events, taken by great photographers or famous artists. Categorising further in this way, we arrive at photographs which attract our attention just because they are unlike most others and will not lend themselves to labelling: as products of chance, or plain mistake, or the work by some photographer fascinated with the miraculous quality of the state of things, people or places. It may seem that there aren’t many photographs like that, but it may well be an illusion stemming from a limited knowledge of existing resources – of amateur photography, for instance, the wealth of which sometimes reveals striking specimens to the trained eye of the collector. Singularity is a mysterious trait of some photographs; one’s eyes and thoughts gravitate towards them for no other reason. Singularity may be shared, but it is predominantly personal: it will not be documented, measured or pinpointed, even though all these actions are attempted in this book. It seems that singularity is something that vaguely arises, sometimes, in a dialogue between images and words; when an image achieves the status of subject and enters into conversation with the spectator.

For the purpose of this exhibition, about seventy photographs have been selected from among the thousands which comprise the collection of the Photography Museum in Krakow. Another few dozen were hand‐picked from the private collections of the writers Jacek Dehnel and Wojciech Nowicki. Together, they form a truly delightful assortment of baffling images, confusing as to the photographer’s motive in choosing that particular frame, or simply ill‐made. The majority are fruits of the work of error and chance, which, in photography, fully deserve our respect. Mistakes and shortcomings are not exclusively a question of aesthetics: they help to shatter the surface referential quality of a photograph, letting new meanings in, giving it the right to be an autonomous world. Time, too, supports this vein of thought. With the passage of years, as the dis‐ tance between the photographs and their moment of birth increases, they grow more and more fascinating by dint of strangeness, a result of being anachronous. In time, what is captured by the photographer’s lens becomes peculiar. A dog posing on a table was probably nothing out of the ordinary in the day of bulky cameras on tall tripod stands; a crinoline could form a woman’s dress into shapes which are shocking to the modern eye; and a man photographed a hundred years ago, when, for some reason or other, he was up in the air, appeals to our imagination, because he will stay up in the air like that, unchanged, as an ancient citizen of Pompeii encased in a sarcophagus of volcanic lava.

Singularity, something that is singular (exceptional, unusual, peculiar). Something out of the ordinary (atypical, extraordinary, odd, peculiar, phenomenal, preternatural, rare, exceptional, uncommon, uncustomary, unique). Singularity (gravitational~ or space-time~) is a location in space-time where the gravitational eld of a celestial body becomes in nite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. A gravitational singularity as predicted by general relativity is at the center of a black hole. ... According to modern general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang, was a singularity. Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence.

Among zillions of photographs which have come into being since photography was invented, there are many that we see as ordinary, even uninteresting; far fewer are those that have won the appreciation of history, depicting important persons and events, taken by great photographers or famous artists. Categorising further in this way, we arrive at photographs which attract our attention just because they are unlike most others and will not lend themselves to labelling: as products of chance, or plain mistake, or the work by some photographer fascinated with the miraculous quality of the state of things, people or places. It may seem that there aren’t many photographs like that, but it may well be an illusion stemming from a limited knowledge of existing resources – of amateur photography, for instance, the wealth of which sometimes reveals striking specimens to the trained eye of the collector. Singularity is a mysterious trait of some photographs; one’s eyes and thoughts gravitate towards them for no other reason. Singularity may be shared, but it is predominantly personal: it will not be documented, measured or pinpointed, even though all these actions are attempted in this book. It seems that singularity is something that vaguely arises, sometimes, in a dialogue between images and words; when an image achieves the status of subject and enters into conversation with the spectator.

For the purpose of this exhibition, about seventy photographs have been selected from among the thousands which comprise the collection of the Photography Museum in Krakow. Another few dozen were hand‐picked from the private collections of the writers Jacek Dehnel and Wojciech Nowicki. Together, they form a truly delightful assortment of baffling images, confusing as to the photographer’s motive in choosing that particular frame, or simply ill‐made. The majority are fruits of the work of error and chance, which, in photography, fully deserve our respect. Mistakes and shortcomings are not exclusively a question of aesthetics: they help to shatter the surface referential quality of a photograph, letting new meanings in, giving it the right to be an autonomous world. Time, too, supports this vein of thought. With the passage of years, as the dis‐ tance between the photographs and their moment of birth increases, they grow more and more fascinating by dint of strangeness, a result of being anachronous. In time, what is captured by the photographer’s lens becomes peculiar. A dog posing on a table was probably nothing out of the ordinary in the day of bulky cameras on tall tripod stands; a crinoline could form a woman’s dress into shapes which are shocking to the modern eye; and a man photographed a hundred years ago, when, for some reason or other, he was up in the air, appeals to our imagination, because he will stay up in the air like that, unchanged, as an ancient citizen of Pompeii encased in a sarcophagus of volcanic lava.

Singularity, something that is singular (exceptional, unusual, peculiar). Something out of the ordinary (atypical, extraordinary, odd, peculiar, phenomenal, preternatural, rare, exceptional, uncommon, uncustomary, unique). Singularity (gravitational~ or space-time~) is a location in space-time where the gravitational eld of a celestial body becomes in nite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. A gravitational singularity as predicted by general relativity is at the center of a black hole. ... According to modern general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang, was a singularity. Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence.

Among zillions of photographs which have come into being since photography was invented, there are many that we see as ordinary, even uninteresting; far fewer are those that have won the appreciation of history, depicting important persons and events, taken by great photographers or famous artists. Categorising further in this way, we arrive at photographs which attract our attention just because they are unlike most others and will not lend themselves to labelling: as products of chance, or plain mistake, or the work by some photographer fascinated with the miraculous quality of the state of things, people or places. It may seem that there aren’t many photographs like that, but it may well be an illusion stemming from a limited knowledge of existing resources – of amateur photography, for instance, the wealth of which sometimes reveals striking specimens to the trained eye of the collector. Singularity is a mysterious trait of some photographs; one’s eyes and thoughts gravitate towards them for no other reason. Singularity may be shared, but it is predominantly personal: it will not be documented, measured or pinpointed, even though all these actions are attempted in this book. It seems that singularity is something that vaguely arises, sometimes, in a dialogue between images and words; when an image achieves the status of subject and enters into conversation with the spectator.

For the purpose of this exhibition, about seventy photographs have been selected from among the thousands which comprise the collection of the Photography Museum in Krakow. Another few dozen were hand‐picked from the private collections of the writers Jacek Dehnel and Wojciech Nowicki. Together, they form a truly delightful assortment of baffling images, confusing as to the photographer’s motive in choosing that particular frame, or simply ill‐made. The majority are fruits of the work of error and chance, which, in photography, fully deserve our respect. Mistakes and shortcomings are not exclusively a question of aesthetics: they help to shatter the surface referential quality of a photograph, letting new meanings in, giving it the right to be an autonomous world. Time, too, supports this vein of thought. With the passage of years, as the dis‐ tance between the photographs and their moment of birth increases, they grow more and more fascinating by dint of strangeness, a result of being anachronous. In time, what is captured by the photographer’s lens becomes peculiar. A dog posing on a table was probably nothing out of the ordinary in the day of bulky cameras on tall tripod stands; a crinoline could form a woman’s dress into shapes which are shocking to the modern eye; and a man photographed a hundred years ago, when, for some reason or other, he was up in the air, appeals to our imagination, because he will stay up in the air like that, unchanged, as an ancient citizen of Pompeii encased in a sarcophagus of volcanic lava.

Singularity, something that is singular (exceptional, unusual, peculiar). Something out of the ordinary (atypical, extraordinary, odd, peculiar, phenomenal, preternatural, rare, exceptional, uncommon, uncustomary, unique). Singularity (gravitational~ or space-time~) is a location in space-time where the gravitational eld of a celestial body becomes in nite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. A gravitational singularity as predicted by general relativity is at the center of a black hole. ... According to modern general relativity, the initial state of the universe, at the beginning of the Big Bang, was a singularity. Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence.

Among zillions of photographs which have come into being since photography was invented, there are many that we see as ordinary, even uninteresting; far fewer are those that have won the appreciation of history, depicting important persons and events, taken by great photographers or famous artists. Categorising further in this way, we arrive at photographs which attract our attention just because they are unlike most others and will not lend themselves to labelling: as products of chance, or plain mistake, or the work by some photographer fascinated with the miraculous quality of the state of things, people or places. It may seem that there aren’t many photographs like that, but it may well be an illusion stemming from a limited knowledge of existing resources – of amateur photography, for instance, the wealth of which sometimes reveals striking specimens to the trained eye of the collector. Singularity is a mysterious trait of some photographs; one’s eyes and thoughts gravitate towards them for no other reason. Singularity may be shared, but it is predominantly personal: it will not be documented, measured or pinpointed, even though all these actions are attempted in this book. It seems that singularity is something that vaguely arises, sometimes, in a dialogue between images and words; when an image achieves the status of subject and enters into conversation with the spectator.

For the purpose of this exhibition, about seventy photographs have been selected from among the thousands which comprise the collection of the Photography Museum in Krakow. Another few dozen were hand‐picked from the private collections of the writers Jacek Dehnel and Wojciech Nowicki. Together, they form a truly delightful assortment of baffling images, confusing as to the photographer’s motive in choosing that particular frame, or simply ill‐made. The majority are fruits of the work of error and chance, which, in photography, fully deserve our respect. Mistakes and shortcomings are not exclusively a question of aesthetics: they help to shatter the surface referential quality of a photograph, letting new meanings in, giving it the right to be an autonomous world. Time, too, supports this vein of thought. With the passage of years, as the dis‐ tance between the photographs and their moment of birth increases, they grow more and more fascinating by dint of strangeness, a result of being anachronous. In time, what is captured by the photographer’s lens becomes peculiar. A dog posing on a table was probably nothing out of the ordinary in the day of bulky cameras on tall tripod stands; a crinoline could form a woman’s dress into shapes which are shocking to the modern eye; and a man photographed a hundred years ago, when, for some reason or other, he was up in the air, appeals to our imagination, because he will stay up in the air like that, unchanged, as an ancient citizen of Pompeii encased in a sarcophagus of volcanic lava.