Jan Lukas

Jan Lukas is one of the few Czech photographers, such as Zdenìk Tmej (who documented forced labour during World War Two) and Josef Koudelka (who captured the Soviet-led intervention in Czechoslovakia in August 1968), who has created a profound, comprehensive testimony about the military conflicts in our country. He took photographs during World War Two, during the liberation in May 1945, as well as during the Communist takeover of February 1948. He was forced to flee to the USA in 1965, and was subsequently banned from publishing in Czechoslovakia for the next twenty-five years.
The portfolio of this Czech-American consists of twenty-five albums, not including translated versions, new editions, or his participation in group projects. Lukas’s pictorial testimony of the destruction of democracy and the rise of totalitarianism is assembled in the collection of 36 photographs entitled Prague Diary 1937–1965, which have been selected by Josef Mucha, the editor of the most recent Lukas monograph (published by Torst in 2003), from a total of 400 photographs. Even in exile Lukas remained faithful to his credo: “To watch what interests me and to keep it alive, in the hope that many others will also find it interesting.”

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