Talking 30 years later with the legend of Czech documentary photography about his return to the environment and people he photographed before the Velvet Revolution.
Author of dozens of photography books, around 1500 solo and countless group exhibitions, whose works are part of the collections of leading institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Several films have been made about Jindřich Štreit. He is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including the First Class Medal of Merit, the Jantar Award for Lifetime Achievement, and he was the first photographer in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to receive the title Doctor honoris causa from The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava.
Read moreIn his work, he is mainly devoted to documentary photography, especially depicting village life, portrait photography and themes of the life of minorities. He was arrested, imprisoned and given a suspended sentence for his work under the Communist regime. He spent four months in pre-trial detention and was not allowed to exhibit or publish until the fall of the regime. It was not until after the Velvet Revolution that Štreit became publicly active again ‒ unbroken. For over 30 years, he has been tirelessly passing on his experience to the students of the Institute of Creative Photography at the Silesian University in Opava.
The star of Jindřich Štreit, perched on the Amber Staircase of Fame of the Bolt Tower in the Lower Vítkovice area, proclaims his life motto: "If we combine love with art, we can be happy".