Anna Fárová Bücher

Der Künstler Josef Sudek, die Schlüsselfigur des Verständnisses der tschechoslowakischen Photographie in unserem Jahrhundert, hat ein grossartiges Werk geschaffen und ist zu Lebensweisheit gereift. ..

Iren Stehli (geb. 1953) hat sich mit ihren fotografischen Essays aus Tschechien einen Namen gemacht. Während Jahrzehnten begleitete sie die in Prag lebende Roma-Frau Libuna durch die Wechselfälle ihres Lebens – eine einzigartige Langzeitstudie, bei der die Fotografin nicht nur aussenstehende Beobachterin blieb, sondern auch zur Freundin und engen Vertrauten wurde. Neben diesem 2004 veröffentlichten 'Lebenswerk' hat Iren Stehli aber seit 1974 auch viele weitere Projekte realisiert, die sich durch eine besondere Mischung aus Faszination und Anteilnahme auszeichnen. Mit sensiblen Bildern hält sie fest, wie Menschen ihren Alltag und den politischen Umbruch bewältigen, wie sie wohnen und ausgehen, wie sie Freude und Trauer teilen oder ihre Einsamkeit überwinden. Iren Stehlis Ausdrucksformen gehen immer über das reine Dokumentieren hinaus: sie reichen von der subjektiv gefärbten Reportage bis zur konzeptuellen Studie – so etwa in einer grossen Serien über Prager Schaufenster. Spontane, dynamische Momentaufnahmen und statische, fast minimalistische Kompositionen treten in eine spannungsvolle Beziehung zueinander.

This survey of Iren Stehli's images from 1973 to 2001 captures Czech life over an intense three decades. The artist, born in Zurich in 1953, studied photography in Prague in the mid-70s. In the late 60s, her adopted country had begun to stir under the hand of communism--and been punished for it. By the middle of her career, in 1989, the embattled communist government resigned, passing power to playwright Vaclav Havel in the Velvet Revolution. The swift changes that followed have brought what is now the Czech Republic into the European Union. Stehli's human stories of that era alternate with conceptual series, both of which share a characteristic poetry and humor. The thematically arranged chapters of Iren Stehli offer a compact overview of her oeuvre, and subtle, compelling testimony to the last decades of Czechoslovakian socialism and the transformation into a free-market democracy. Her previous book is A Gypsy's Life in Prague.

In a career that spanned nearly seven decades, Josef Sudek, one of the masters of twentieth-century photography, created his own solitary world of shadow and light, of theme and variation. The more than 100 images in this monograph convey the spirit of Prague as well as the spirit of Sudek.

From the mid-1920s until his death in 1976, Czech photographer Joseph Sudek shot Gothic and Baroque architecture, street scenes and still lifes--usually leaving the frame free of people and capturing a poetic and highly individualistic glimpse of Prague. The still lifes are the best known aspect of his oeuvre; indeed, his graceful depictions of drinking-glasses and eggs are familiar to those who don't necessarily even know his name. Acceding to his reclusive nature, Sudek began The Window of My Studio series in the 1940s. It allowed him to capture street scenes without going outside and helped him discover a particular fondness for how glass refracts light. The still lifes emerged from the informal arrangements Sudek would make on his windowsill, and occupied him for a number of years. Depicting a range of quotidian objects with a marked artfulness--some were made in homage to favorite painters like Caravaggio--the series deserves a deeper look. This volume is the first in-depth study of Sudek's still lifes and also explores his creative use of carbon printing--a pigment process on rag paper not often used photographically--which lent so many of his images such extraordinary depth and warmth.

Fotografie Evy Davidové zaznamenávají životní situace československých Romů a zahrnují všechny námětové okruhy, které patří k této etnické menšině.