(CV) Miloslav Kubeš (1927–2008) was born in the South Bohemian village of Bošilec. After graduating from a technical secondary school, he moved to Prague to study philosophy. He completed his postgraduate studies and went on to earn his habilitation and doctoral degree. Philosophy became his lifelong academic profession. Photography, which he took up shortly after the war, became his personal passion—a means through which he explored people and the world around him. In the 1960s he worked with a Flexaret camera in square format, later expanding his practice to 35mm film. His documentary photography of the human figure is often interpreted through a sociological lens. It was essential to him that his subjects appear natural—self-contained, absorbed in themselves, unaware of the surrounding world. As a philosopher, he would theoretically justify each photograph before pressing the shutter. He sought to reveal the contrasts embedded in the life of his time. The central themes of Kubeš’s work thus became loneliness within the crowd and boredom amidst entertainment, observed across the various stages of human life—from childhood to old age.
In a strikingly timeless and universal manner, Kubeš portrayed the figure of Homo Consumens—the individual absorbed by consumer society. In doing so, he subtly challenged the notion that “to have” means “to be,” that one’s existence is measured by possession. Through photography, he pursued his philosophical inquiry: can a camera, capturing a human face, relationships, and events in a mere fraction of a second, penetrate beneath the surface of fleeting moments to reveal enduring human values? Is it possible to capture traits such as envy, boredom, loneliness, malice, love, or hatred? He sought answers to these questions precisely in his photographs. Following the political changes of 1968, Kubeš was never able to publicly exhibit or publish his work. His photographs remained literally closed away in boxes, and most were not printed in exhibition formats for many years.
The rediscovered oeuvre of Miloslav Kubeš is highly distinctive. Its rawness, interwoven with poetic sensitivity, achieves remarkable artistic depth. Some of his themes were strikingly ahead of their time. Through images of everyday life, he captured the unrepeatable atmosphere of Prague in the 1960s. His work enriches the history of Czech photography. Kubeš’s contribution lies in demonstrating how brilliant, witty, and intellectually rigorous amateur photography can reach a truly professional level and become an integral part of a society’s cultural tradition.
In 2008, his photographs were published by Kant in the monograph “Man, Who Are You?” Since then, his work has been exhibited both in the Czech Republic and abroad.
MgA. Daniel Šperl, Ph.D., Curator
Daniel Šperl has given himself an exhibition for his sixtieth birthday. From the outset, he decided to set aside the photographs made during his stays in Japan, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, Mongolia, and Ghana, and to select exclusively from works created in various regions of the Czech Republic. For months, he produced hundreds of traditional darkroom enlargements—enough to fill the Galerie Rudolfinum or the House at the Stone Bell to capacity. Leica Gallery Prague, however, is more intimate in scale. Some time ago, together with the gallery’s director Míla Dubská, I had to endure rather painful moments persuading Daniel Šperl that not all of his finely crafted and meticulously framed photographs could fit within this space, and that some would have to be omitted. I understand all too well the mercilessness of such conditions. As I know from experience, the author’s decision about which photograph to exhibit and which to exclude can at times resemble the situation in Styron’s famous novel Sophie’s Choice.
In the end, however, everything turned out well. The result is an exhibition that is united—despite its thematic diversity—by a distinctive visual language and by the artist’s ability to uncover extraordinary, poetic, and at times almost spectral moments within everyday life. Many photographs not included here remain for what would surely be a truly comprehensive retrospective that Šperl undoubtedly deserves.
In both parts of the exhibition—whether in the selection of photographs made primarily in rural settings and small towns, or in the cycle Homo Pragensis—Šperl develops the tradition of humanist photography, which he came to know particularly well through his intensive contact with Jindřich Štreit during his studies at FAMU. His view of the everyday lives of ordinary people across different regions of the Czech Republic is, in most cases, empathetic and compassionate. It is no coincidence that he places at the beginning of his website a quotation by the renowned photographer Robert Frank: “The one thing that photography must contain is the humanity of the moment.”
At the center of Šperl’s interest are fundamental human values: expressions of joy and sorrow, love and friendship, loneliness and old age, the effort to preserve traditions, faith, relationships between parents and children, and the relationships of “ordinary” people to various social minorities—those in some way marginalized due to physical or mental disabilities or homelessness. In these photographs, the artist demonstrates profound empathy and an ability to gain the trust of those before his lens, photographing them from the position of an almost unnoticed observer. Within fleeting moments of everyday life, he discovers subtle, timeless metaphors and symbols, leaving their interpretation to the viewer’s active engagement. He finds them across a wide range of environments—from pubs and family celebrations to children’s games, folk festivals, and churches.
Not all the works in this exhibition depict people. We also encounter eloquent views of interiors that reveal much about their inhabitants even in their absence. Animals—and the relationship between humans and animals—are frequent motifs. It is especially in these unusual and surprising animal images that Šperl’s sense of humor becomes most apparent. Most photographs from the series Everydayness, installed at the beginning of the exhibition, were made in villages or small towns, where interpersonal relationships and traditional values remain preserved in a more crystalline form than in cosmopolitan metropolises.
Although the works from the extensive cycle Homo Pragensis were created in a markedly different environment, they share with the first part of the exhibition a desire to reveal the often uncanny, at times almost surreal moments that surround us—moments we frequently overlook because of their transience. They are also united by a refined visual presentation that draws upon contrapuntal relationships between motifs and parallel narrative threads, emphasizing subtexts open to a wide range of interpretative possibilities. Some images resemble carefully staged film stills, yet Šperl does not construct or direct his scenes. Many photographs are marked by a departure from explicit narrative and easily verbalized content, as well as by unusual compositions in which cast shadows play a significant role, often standing in for actual figures or objects. Much remains unspoken—only lightly suggested. The visual symbols and metaphors are never gratuitous; they often give form to the artist’s inner world, his experiences and emotions.
Vladimír Birgus, curator of the exhibition
Daniel Šperl was born on 12 April 1966 in Tábor. From 1982 he was a member of the photographic creative group Ekran in Tábor, with which he regularly exhibited. Between 1986 and 1990 he studied photography at the Institute of Fine Art Photography of the Union of Czech Photographers. In 1999 he completed his Master’s degree at the Department of Photography at FAMU in Prague. He completed his doctoral studies at the Institute of Creative Photography, Faculty of Philosophy and Science, Silesian University in Opava in 2019, earning a Ph.D.
Šperl works primarily in black-and-white documentary photography and remains faithful to the classical negative–positive process. He has prepared more than seventy solo exhibitions and participated in over sixty group exhibitions. He has independently published several photographic books, including …Without Borders, Everyday Celebrations, Japan, Homo Pragensis, and America. He is also active as a curator and has long been engaged in processing the negative archives of lesser-known Czech photographers, such as Miloslav Kubeš (whose work is currently exhibited in the gallery café) and Robert Riedl. He works as a television and film cinematographer and lives in Prague.
Vratislav Beleni was born in 1985 in Děčín. He came to photography gradually and relatively late, around 2021. In the early stages of his work, he was drawn primarily to landscape photography, but over time he became absorbed by the life of the street. His focus increasingly shifted toward people as the central subject of his interest.
In 2024, he became an aspirant member of VERUM PHOTO, where he began to systematically develop his personal photographic approach. He currently devotes himself exclusively to documentary photography, with an emphasis on authenticity and the human dimension. In his work, he seeks out ordinary people on the outskirts of towns and villages, exploring their relationship to society and their surrounding environment. He sees the greatest strength of documentary photography in its ability to tell stories.
In a forge near Český Brod, master blacksmith Petr Brožek is forging plate armor. His work is carried out with deep respect for traditions and techniques that have been known for hundreds of years. Every hammer strike is carefully considered and cannot be taken back. The Blacksmith’s Tao presents Petr Brožek of Přehvozdí, a specialist in the creation of plate armor. Thanks to his precision and respect for traditional craftsmanship, he is a sought-after master throughout Europe. The exhibited photographs capture the process of creating parts of the armor, forged between February and June 2025.
Kevin V. Ton
For the successful Czech architect Pavel Nasadil photography is an inner joy, indeed a necessity, through which he effectively counterbalances the restrictive rules and collective nature of his profession. Photography gives him the freedom of a personal approach to the subject, the possibility of deep emotional experience, and the chance to transcend the captured reality in meaning. This significantly contributes to the exceptional impact of all his thematic projects to date, which are fundamentally focused on people and their environment, whether portraying young prisoners in West Africa, life in the controversial Donbas region, the distinctive atmosphere of London’s Soho, or others.
Delta is the result of Nasadil’s journeys to the Mississippi River Delta and its wider surroundings—places where the blues was born, influencing the style and life paths of many great musicians including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and even Elvis Presley, and where the spirit of the American South still pulses today. It is a remarkable spirit shaped by a turbulent history formed by the original Indigenous inhabitants, European settlers, and above all by the hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans and their music as an expression of their lived experience.
Pavel Nasadil’s photographs capture the lives of ordinary people, the landscape, and the culture of this unique region, forming an emotionally charged visual essay, or even a poem, about a place that is more a state of mind than a mere geographical area. One is even reminded of the well-known saying of the Czech photography classic Josef Sudek when exceptional circumstances aligned for his photograph: “And the music plays…”
Daniela Mrázková, curator
I didn’t set out to document the Mississippi Delta in any formal way.
It began as a pull—quiet, persistent—toward a place I’d only heard about in music, in stories, in the undercurrents of American history.
The Delta is not just a stretch of land along a river; it’s a rhythm, a shadow, a memory carried through time. I crossed from one state to another and back again wandering through Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky, drifting from city to small town, chasing traces of stories both spoken and silent.
I met people who welcomed me into their lives—musicians, sharecroppers, pastors, farmers, the homeless, the hopeful. I photographed gospel singers wrapped in morning light, street corners heavy with silence, farmers lunching in corner stores, and landscapes that felt both forgotten and eternal. Each trip deepened my sense that I wasn’t just recording a place but tuning into its spirit.
Pavel Nasadil
Pavel Nasadil (Czech Republic, 1975) is an architect and a self-taught photographer focused on documentary practice. His work has long explored the stories of marginalized groups and individuals. In recent years, he has turned toward the diary tradition of personal documentary, developing his own approach to both individual images and cohesive narratives.
In 2018, he received the Czech Press Photo Award for his series Awaiting Trial, created in juvenile detention facilities in Sierra Leone, and in the same year was selected for the Nikon NOOR Academy Masterclass in Budapest. In 2020, he received the Maghreb Photography Award for Best Project outside the Maghreb region. In 2024, he was a finalist for the Goma Awards, and in 2025 he received the third prize of the Goma Award.
He is the founder of World Documentary Photography in Prague, a project inviting prominent documentary photographers for short-term residencies in Prague. Participants to date include Jan Grarup, Paolo Pellegrin (Magnum Photos), Pep Bonet, Viktor Kolář, and Markéta Luskačová.
Daniela Mrázková (Czech Republic, 1942) is a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy, a specialist journalist, and former editor-in-chief of the magazines Revue fotografie and Fotografie-Magazín. She is the author and co-author of 26 books on photography and photographers published in the Czech Republic and abroad and has curated more than fifty major photographic exhibitions presented in numerous countries.
She also curated the ground-breaking international exhibition What Is Photography? organized in Prague on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the invention of photography. Featuring approximately 1,500 original works from collections around the world, the exhibition presented the development of photography from its invention to the present day and, for the first time, placed the work of Central and Eastern European photographers into a broader historical context.
In addition, she is the author of film and television documentaries on photography, a recipient of the Kodak Fotobuch Prize in Prague, and a member of international juries (World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year, and others). She is the founder of the Czech Press Photo competition and for twenty years organized its exhibitions.
In recent years, she has also curated notable retrospective exhibitions such as Fateful Moments of Czechoslovakia – A Visual Story of a Century and The Year 1989 – The Fall of the Iron Curtain, presenting the drama of the end of communism in the countries of Central Europe.
Hynek Tvrdý (*1972) belongs to those photographers for whom photography gradually became a way of looking around – and at times also a way of looking a little deeper into oneself.
He was introduced to photography in childhood by his father, and from then on it has accompanied him through most of his life as an important counterbalance to his profession as a programmer.
In 2020 he held his first solo exhibition at the X-Foto gallery in Prague and subsequently took part in several group exhibitions. He is currently preparing his first monographic photo book “PLACE” which he plans to self-publish in the first half of next year.
In 2025 he became an aspirant member of the Verum Photo collective.
Kevin V. Ton
Some things are so obvious and so omnipresent that we gradually stop noticing them. One of these is the fundamental importance of what we tend to call “ordinary life.” Even the expression itself—created by us—reinforces the feeling that it refers to something insignificant. After all, what could be essential, interesting, or profound about anything “ordinary”? And yet, without this everyday life, which forms the foundation of everything, there would be no great moments, no historical milestones, no turning points that determine the further course of history.
The photographs of Josef Husák, belonging to the tradition of subjective documentary, attempt to capture precisely this seemingly ordinary life—and its true extraordinariness. At first glance, some viewers might see them as “ordinary” street scenes. But they are far more than a simple documentary reflection of reality in the sense of “this is what it looked like then, and this is what we were like.” Something deeper lies behind them: the effort to reach the essence, to look beyond the visible. “I’ve always been drawn more to what is behind the scenes, behind the main action. From a photographic perspective, that is usually more interesting,” Husák says.
The author often works with subtle humour, visually surprising moments, and unusual contrasts—both between situations and between the objects and protagonists in the images. His photographs frequently feature multi-layered compositions: a single frame contains several seemingly unrelated events.
This is the author’s deliberate game with the viewer. We usually expect—and are conditioned to believe—that objects or people within the same frame must have a direct relation to one another. Otherwise, why would they appear together? But what if this assumption does not fully apply? The mind begins to search for relationships even where none are apparent, imagination is triggered, and viewers project their own interpretations into the image, creating new stories. “I aim for that—I’m glad when a photograph makes the viewer read into it,” says Josef Husák, who has the gift of noticing and capturing such moments.
Most of the photographs presented in this exhibition were taken between 1984 and 2025 on the streets of Prague, though a few also come from Paris, London, and Berlin. From the very beginning, Husák was drawn to the city and its visual poetry. “I am a native of Prague—born and raised on the Vltava river,” he explains, adding that the city and the street are his natural environment. “Of course, I like nature, but I feel more like a visitor there,” he says.
This is also why, as a member of the Vinohrady photo club, he was not attracted to landscape, still life, or nudes—but to documentary photography. It is therefore no surprise that in 1983 he was among the founding members of the photographic group City (Město), named by another lover of the city and its people, photographer František Dostál.
Many of the photographs from Husák’s personal work were taken during the years when he was already a professional corporate photographer, specialising in architecture, documentary, and reportage. He worked in this role for thirty years, yet he was always drawn back to the streets: after photographing for work, he would still photograph for himself.
“It’s my way of relaxing; it gives me fulfilment and a sense that I might not be entirely useless. And perhaps I’m creating something that could resonate with someone,” he says.
Tomáš Vocelka, journalist and photographer
Praha, London, Tokyo, Kyoto 2022–2025
Stanislav Kohout (*1993) belongs to the younger generation of photographers devoted exclusively to street photography. He perceives it as a dialogue between himself and the street, between light, people, and place – and at the same time as a dialogue with himself. His visual style is shaped through everyday observation of the streets. Photography is not his livelihood, yet – or perhaps precisely because of that – it has become his daily bread, his need, and his necessity.
As he himself says: “Get up in the morning, have breakfast, take the camera and head out into the streets to search for energy, emotions, and the authenticity of the street, the city, and its people. I know that when I am attentive, the street gives back. The search for and observation of stories has fascinated me since childhood.”
The series “Who am I? Where am I? I am here.” presents photographs from London, Prague, Tokyo, and Kyoto. Each city – just like the culture that shapes it – requires a slightly different approach, yet at its core it is always about searching in the street, and at the same time within oneself.
In 2024 he became an aspirant member of the photographic collective Verum Photo.
Kevin V. Ton
Czech photographer Tereza of Davle celebrates her 50th birthday with an exhibition of her fifty most significant photographs. The artist, who is exclusively focused on classic feminine beauty captured through analog techniques using only natural daylight, still enlarges all her prints by hand in the darkroom. The exhibition offers a retrospective view of her work.
Dear Tereza!
Your ask to pen a few sentences for the occasion of your exhibition made me happy. I only hope the happiness will go both ways. You told me you’d welcome words which don’t reek of kunsthistorical and curatorial routine. As a painter, I can relate in a way. I’ve experienced, along with many of my colleagues, the words of deathly serious and universally lauded art theorists. All the academic jargon and language wouldn’t feel out of place in a catalogue or someone else’s exhibition, so many pontifications about form and substance… Since this wasn’t your wish, I’ll pen your ask differently.
Should I start with form or substance? But it’s form that’s the substance of your work – I mean the form given to a woman at the expense of one male rib. Well, I thought of Adam, but really, it’s about Eve, about the many Eves born without a surgical intervention before your lens, or “objektiv” as we’d say in Czech. In your case, perhaps we should say “subjektiv”; your images are so personal, distinctive, so original and so “Teresa-esque”. The hint of decadence being rousing but never vulgar. Your photographs are beautiful, Teresa! I think being unafraid of beauty is bold in today’s age. And bold you are!
Jiří Suchý once sang “you are the most beautiful landscape I know”. I think of these lyrics often when I see your photographs, in which you again found the most beautiful aspect of a woman lucky enough to be your model.
Thank you, Tereza, for seeing and being able to capture so many of the most beautiful landscapes I know.
Martin
(CV) Tereza z Davle was born on July 26, 1975, in Hořice. She spent her childhood and took her first steps in photography in Davle near Prague, and today she lives in Český Krumlov. She has been dedicated to photography since 1996 and is entirely self-taught. She learns from books, from her fellow photographers, and above all through her own work. Perfect technique is neither her goal nor her means of expression. On the contrary, she finds greater charm in imperfection and in the possibility of capturing an authentic atmosphere.She focuses on figurative work, mainly black-and-white portraits and nudes. She works in traditional photography, using Pentax 6×7 and Canon cameras, and develops her own prints.
Selection of Exhibitions:
2025 FIFTY – FIFTY, Leica Gallery Prague, Prague
2023 Klientky (Clients), Czech Photo Centre, Prague
2024 Chladné formy (Cold Forms), Muzeoleum, Prague
2023 Klientky (Clients), Czech Photo Centre, Prague
2021 Neue Mädchen (New Girls), G4, Cheb
2020 G1, České Budějovice
2020 Dvě v jednom (Two in One), Strakonice Castle (Maltese Hall), Strakonice
2019 Dusík Museum, Čáslav
2018 Gluteus Maximus, Kamzík, Prague
2018 Grandhotel, Prácheň Museum, Písek
2017 Neue Mädchen (New Girls), Aleš South Bohemian Gallery, Hluboká nad Vltavou
2016 ART in Box (group exhibition), Prague
2015 Portmoneum, Litomyšl
2013 Grandhotel, Uffo Gallery, Trutnov
2013 Gallery of Sculpture, Hořice
2011 Grandhotel, Leica Gallery Prague, Prague
2010 Gallery of One Thing, Prague
2009 Mlejn Gallery, Ostrava
2008 Anabella, Lapidárium Gallery, Prague
2008 Smart Gallery, Prague
2005 Czech Embassy, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2005 Asunción, Yacht & Golf Club, Paraguay
2004 Solidní Nejistota (Solid Uncertainty), Prague
2004 Municipal Library, Most
2003 Novoměstský hrnec smíchu (Film Festival, Pot of Laughter), Nové Město nad Metují
2001 Zuzanka, Zlatý klíč Gallery (Golden Key Gallery), Karlovy Vary
2001 Solidní Nejistota (Solid Uncertainty), Prague
2000 Club EX, Jablonec nad Nisou
2000 Tea House U Božího mlýna (At God’s Mill), Prague
1999 Kamzík Gallery, Prague
1999 Solidní Nejistota (Solid Uncertainty), Prague
1998 Kamzík Gallery, Prague
1997 Kamzík Gallery, Prague
1997 Club EX, Jablonec nad Nisou
1996 Kamzík Gallery, Prague
(CV) Martin Němec is a musician, painter, and writer. Born on June 16, 1957, in Prague, where he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU). Bandleader and sole author of the music and lyrics of the rock groups Precedens and Lili Marlene. He has recorded dozens of albums and composed music for many films and theatre productions, receiving numerous prestigious awards. He has written screenplays for two films and three books of short stories. In 2025, Precedens released another of Němec’s authorial albums, Odstíny černé (Shades of Black). In recent years, he has given numerous concerts and held a series of painting exhibitions across the Czech Republic.
Restoring old steam locomotives is a demanding hobby—full of rust, soot, fuel oil, and hard work.
In the Hradec Králové depot, Mr. Turek’s crew has been working since the 1990s. But their time is coming to an end. Once they finish their work on the last locomotive, the depot doors will close for good. The final story of the age of steam.
Petr Machan, author
(CV) Petr Machan (*1982) is a contemporary, thoroughly independent documentary and artistic photographer. He came to photography by a roundabout way—through poetry. For him, photography is both a passion and a daily livelihood. His poet’s soul, no longer seeking words, gradually found expression in his visual language.
For years, he shared his work through a street photography blog and has worked—and continues to work—on a range of thematic projects, whether independently or in collaboration with fellow members
of Verum Photo, a photography collective of which he has long been a member. Together, they published an extensive book of photographic essays.
At times, he passionately explores alternative techniques in the darkroom; at others, he returns to
the roots of analog photography. Then again, with just a small digital camera in hand, he roams
the landscape, recording his thoughts in an almost diary-like form.
The themes of his series evolve, but they never remain superficial—they invite the viewer to look more deeply, challenging them to reflect on how they themselves tell stories. In his photographic series Broken, he reveals the genuine emotions of today’s women from Central and Eastern Europe. In The Last Men of Steam, he follows the traces of a world that is slowly disappearing.
Kevin V. Ton
The leitmotif of the exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of Libor Fára’s birth is the setting of his studio in Prague’s Vinohrady district—a place where the artist felt most at home, where he listened to jazz, and where he worked until his death in 1988. In its time, it was a renowned location, visited by prominent Czech and international photographers who portrayed Fára there or simply captured the atmosphere of kindred spirits meeting and creating. Many friendships and professional relationships—often extending beyond the visual arts—were formed or deepened in this space. Among them, we should remember theatre director Jan Grossman, who was born in the same year as Fára and whose centenary is also being commemorated this year.
Libor Fára had great respect for photography; he used it in his work and shared a deep passion for the medium with his wife, the photography theorist and historian Anna Fárová. One could say that photography spreaded his studio through both literally and figuratively. This brings us to another key aspect—one that made this unique exhibition possible. In the age of analog photography, it was customary that if you visited someone and took their picture, you would later give them prints of those photographs. From such encounters, a tangible memento in the form of physical photographs remained. The present exhibition is composed of exactly these kinds of mementos—original prints by the respective photographers, so-called vintage prints. This explains the wide variety of formats and the visual character of the enlargements on display.
— Josef Chuchma
400 ASA refers to the sensitivity of film material, but for the members of the eponymous group of documentary photographers, the name symbolizes above all a sensitive approach to capturing reality. The photographers Karel Cudlín, Jan Dobrovský, Alžběta Jungrová, Antonín Kratochvíl, Jan Mihaliček and Martin Wágner present a selection of their documentary series in the collective exhibition 400 ASA.
The photographers’ work does not aim for immediate effect. The authors sensitively follow the fates of people and places whose stories often differ fundamentally from our everyday reality. They return, trace the changes and stay with their subjects for decades. Their photographs capture key moments and subtle stories of everyday life. In a world overwhelmed by images and the accelerated consumption of information, such an attentive approach is rare—which is why it feels so urgent.
Their inspiration comes from the humanist photography of legendary groups such as Magnum Photos, as well as from the powerful tradition of Czech documentary photography, which has been a global phenomenon since its beginnings. Each artist presents photographs that reflect their long-term interests, offering visitors a glimpse into different parts of the world and our recent history.
A special part of the exhibition is a curatorial project by Martin Wágner, who in recent years turned his focus to archival work. His series Negatives from the Dumpster rescues anonymous photographs from the 20th century, materials found at flea markets, in estates, or even discarded. For this exhibition, he has compiled a selection of these images from across decades of Czech history, which symbolically opens the exhibition. In doing so, he creates an image of memory—both personal and collective—that captures a century that witnessed the rise of photography.
Marie Kordovská
Karel Cudlín (*1960) is a legend of domestic documentary photography who has systematically captured the changes in society and life in Bohemia, Eastern Europe and Israel since the 1970s. His photographs are marked by empathy and a poetic sensitivity to ordinary moments.
Jan Dobrovský (*1960) grew up in a dissident family persecuted by the communist regime, which made him all the more involved in the restoration of democratic society after 1989. He worked in media and business before returning to documentary photography after 2000. His photographs often explore the transformation of rural and urban areas after the fall of communism, as well as the fate of socially and medically disadvantaged people.
400 ASA | Karel Cudlín, Jan Dobrovský, Alžběta Jungrová, Antonín Kratochvíl, Jan Mihaliček, Martin Wágner
Alžběta Jungrová (*1978) spent nearly a decade as a photojournalist in crisis and war zones including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Gaza. Alongside her documentary projects, she has developed a strong body of original work, always emphasizing raw emotion and a distinctive artistic vision.
Antonín Kratochvíl (*1947) went into exile under the previous regime, where he became a renowned war photojournalist. He recorded conflicts and humanitarian crises on several continents and won many awards for his groundbreaking, rawly expressive images, including several World Press Photo awards.
Jan Mihaliček (1965) took his first photographs in Prague’s anti-regime underground movement before the Velvet Revolution. Immediately after the opening of the borders, he took his camera out into the world: he participated in the first humanitarian trips to wartime Yugoslavia or Nagorno-Karabakh. To this day he still photographs key social and cultural moments in the Czech Republic.
Martin Wágner (*1980) uncovers forgotten stories of both the present and the past. His photographic work focuses on the post-Soviet space – he repeatedly travels to remote areas of Russia and Ukraine, where he captures the everyday life of local people outside the media’s attention. At the same time he has been building a unique archive of old photographs in the project Negatives from a Dumpster. For more than two decades, he has been collecting and preserving old negatives found at flea markets or among discarded belongings, piecing together a visual memory of the 20th century.
400 ASA refers to the sensitivity of film material, but for the members of the eponymous group of documentary photographers, the name symbolizes above all a sensitive approach to capturing reality. The photographers Karel Cudlín, Jan Dobrovský, Alžběta Jungrová, Antonín Kratochvíl, Jan Mihaliček and Martin Wágner present a selection of their documentary series in the collective exhibition 400 ASA.
The photographers’ work does not aim for immediate effect. The authors sensitively follow the fates of people and places whose stories often differ fundamentally from our everyday reality. They return, trace the changes and stay with their subjects for decades. Their photographs capture key moments and subtle stories of everyday life. In a world overwhelmed by images and the accelerated consumption of information, such an attentive approach is rare—which is why it feels so urgent.
Their inspiration comes from the humanist photography of legendary groups such as Magnum Photos, as well as from the powerful tradition of Czech documentary photography, which has been a global phenomenon since its beginnings. Each artist presents photographs that reflect their long-term interests, offering visitors a glimpse into different parts of the world and our recent history.
A special part of the exhibition is a curatorial project by Martin Wágner, who in recent years turned his focus to archival work. His series Negatives from the Dumpster rescues anonymous photographs from the 20th century, materials found at flea markets, in estates, or even discarded. For this exhibition, he has compiled a selection of these images from across decades of Czech history, which symbolically opens the exhibition. In doing so, he creates an image of memory—both personal and collective—that captures a century that witnessed the rise of photography.
Marie Kordovská
Karel Cudlín (*1960) is a legend of domestic documentary photography who has systematically captured the changes in society and life in Bohemia, Eastern Europe and Israel since the 1970s. His photographs are marked by empathy and a poetic sensitivity to ordinary moments.
Jan Dobrovský (*1960) grew up in a dissident family persecuted by the communist regime, which made him all the more involved in the restoration of democratic society after 1989. He worked in media and business before returning to documentary photography after 2000. His photographs often explore the transformation of rural and urban areas after the fall of communism, as well as the fate of socially and medically disadvantaged people.
400 ASA | Karel Cudlín, Jan Dobrovský, Alžběta Jungrová, Antonín Kratochvíl, Jan Mihaliček, Martin Wágner
Alžběta Jungrová (*1978) spent nearly a decade as a photojournalist in crisis and war zones including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Gaza. Alongside her documentary projects, she has developed a strong body of original work, always emphasizing raw emotion and a distinctive artistic vision.
Antonín Kratochvíl (*1947) went into exile under the previous regime, where he became a renowned war photojournalist. He recorded conflicts and humanitarian crises on several continents and won many awards for his groundbreaking, rawly expressive images, including several World Press Photo awards.
Jan Mihaliček (1965) took his first photographs in Prague’s anti-regime underground movement before the Velvet Revolution. Immediately after the opening of the borders, he took his camera out into the world: he participated in the first humanitarian trips to wartime Yugoslavia or Nagorno-Karabakh. To this day he still photographs key social and cultural moments in the Czech Republic.
Martin Wágner (*1980) uncovers forgotten stories of both the present and the past. His photographic work focuses on the post-Soviet space – he repeatedly travels to remote areas of Russia and Ukraine, where he captures the everyday life of local people outside the media’s attention. At the same time he has been building a unique archive of old photographs in the project Negatives from a Dumpster. For more than two decades, he has been collecting and preserving old negatives found at flea markets or among discarded belongings, piecing together a visual memory of the 20th century.
