About:
Jiří Horák (*1940) ranks among the most distinctive Czech photographers of the 1960s to the 1980s, but despite countless awards, exhibitions, and magazine articles, his lifelong work is known only fragmentarily. By the late 1960s, Horák had established himself as a member of the legendary Brno group Epos, formed by students of K. O. Hrubý and Antonín Hinšt (J. H., Rostislav Košťál, František Maršálek, and Petr Sikula). The group brought a new approach to working with models into Czech photography, rooted in reportage but stylistically reflecting the onset of normalization.
Horák’s peak works, especially from the 1970s, combine psychological portraiture with the stark backdrop of panel housing and desolate public spaces. During the 1980s, his work softened—on the one hand into captivating, romanticized portraits, and on the other into several long-term documentary cycles (Orava, Strážnice, Greyhound Races). With his sense of composition, atmosphere, and psychological insight, Horák’s photographs remain to this day among the hidden treasures of Czech photography.
Hardcover, 176 pages, 169 photographs
Year of publication: 2024 (1st edition)
Editor: Pavel Vančát
Selection of photographs: Tomáš Pospěch and Pavel Vančát
