Tomasz Dobiszewski

Peripheries Balkan
[archival prints, AI, various dimensions] 2025

The frame of a photograph is categorical, concealing what lies beyond it. We can only speculate about what happens outside its borders, relying on clues contained within the original image. This project seeks to reverse that situation and explore the margins of famous photographs made durnig Balkan conflict by creating images that include the edges of the original pictures. The generatively created peripheries will, albeit not always successfully, evoke associations with the original in our memory. Meanwhile, what lies beyond the desired photograph does not exist—it has been generated, and only through it can we recognize the original images, relying on our collective pop culture memory. The project examines the crisis of representing reality and the fleeting nature of truth in the digital age. Using AI-generated photographs, it raises questions about the authenticity of images and the limits of perception in a world where reality and fiction are increasingly intertwined. The series of works is a tribute to the tragic conflict that took place at the end of the last century, a conflict that most Europeans experienced through the media.