Czech photographer and pedagogue (born 1946) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jindřich Štreit (born 5 September 1946 in Vsetín) is a Czech photographer and pedagogue known for his documentary photography. He concentrates on documenting the rural life and people of Czech villages. He is considered one of the most important exponents of Czech documentary photography.[1]
Jindřich Štreit in 2007.
Štreit began taking photographs in 1964, during his studies at the Pedagogical Faculty of Palacký University in Olomouc. Following his graduation he worked as a teacher in Rýmařov; later he became director of the school in Sovinec and Jiříkov.[2] In addition to his profession, Štreit actively participated in public life. As a local chronicler he documented the everyday events and life of Czech villages under the communist regime. The photography theorist Antonín Dufek identified him as "a continuer of the tradition of old village teachers, propagators of culture and progress".[3]
Since the 1980s, Jindřich Štreit has regularly organized exhibitions, concerts and theatrical performances at the Sovinec Castle.[4] The photographer is sometimes nicknamed 'Jindra from Sovinec'.[5]
In the late 1970s, Štreit's approach to photography began to change. He studied at the Institut výtvarné fotografie (Institute of Art Photography) in Brno, led by K. O. Hrubý and Antonín Hinšt.[2] He graduated from the Institute with a cycle of theatrical photography. At the same time he continued expanding his cycle of everyday life of the villages in the foothills of the Jeseníky Mountains. Additionally, he helped organize cultural life in the region; he participated in organizing exhibitions and concerts.
In 1981, during the general elections in the former Czechoslovakia, Štreit documented the official course of the elections. In some of his photographs made during the meetings of the local authorities, the portrait of the President of Czechoslovakia appeared on photographs in very "unlikely and absurd places".[2] A year later, in June 1982, Štreit agreed to display his works at the exhibition Setkání (The Meeting) organized in Prague by the graphic artist Alena Kučerová. After several hours, the exhibition was banned by the state police and Štreit was arrested and accused of defamation of the President and the country.[6] He was sentenced to ten months' imprisonment with a suspended sentence of two years.[2] As a consequence, he lost his job and was forced to earn a living at a state farm in Rýžoviště. He was banned from taking photographs, but he never respected the ban and returned to photography immediately after his release from the prison.[2] The photography theorist Anna Fárová managed to include his works in the exhibition 9 + 9, visited by Henri Cartier-Bresson, who documented Štreit's installation and published his photos in the French newspaper Le Monde.[2]
In 1989, after the Velvet Revolution and subsequent democratization of Czech society, Štreit was rehabilitated and allowed to take photographs without limitations. In 2009, he was named Professor of Applied Arts by the President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus.[7] As of 2010, Štreit works as a teacher at the Institut tvůrčí fotografie (Institute of Creative Photography of Silesian University in Opava).[8]
Štreit, Jindřich. Japonsko: Lidé z Akagi / 日本 赤城村からの人々. Opava, Rychnov n.Kn., 1996. ISBN80-85879-48-4(in Czech, German, English, French, and Japanese) Photographs of Akagi in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. With a preface by Vlasta Čiháková-Noshiro (in four languages but not German) and a biography and information about Štreit (in four languages but not Japanese).
Štreit, Jindřich; Dufek Antonín. Zabavené fotografie / The Confiscated Photographs. Brno: Moravian Gallery, 1999. ISBN80-238-4236-6(in Czech and English)
Štreit, Jindřich; Cousin, Christophe; Wagner, Jean-Jacques. A coeur perdu / Touches of Heart / Doteky srdce. Belfort: Musée d'art et d'histoire de Belfort, 1999. ISBN80-238-4544-6(in Czech, English, and French)
Štreit, Jindřich. Cesta ke svobodě / The Road Towards Freedom / Weg zur Freiheit. Bruntál: Okresní úřad, 2000. ISBN80-238-4954-9(in Czech, English, and German)
Štreit, Jindřich. Brána naděje / The Gate of Hope / La porte de l'espoir / Tor der Hoffnung. Olomouc: Arcibiskupství olomoucké, 2000. (in Czech, English, French, and German)
Štreit, Jindřich; Wawrzacz, Jiří (text): Lidé Třineckých železáren / People of Třinec Steelworks / Die Menschen die Třinecer Hütte / Les gens de l'usine métallurgique de Třinec. Třinec: Třinecké železárny; Moravia Steel, 2000. (in Czech, English, French, and German)
People of the Olomouc region / Lidé Olomouckého okresu. New York: Soho Photo; Czech Center New York, 2000. ISBN80-900054-6-2. (in Czech and English)
Štreit, Jindřich. Fotóhomok / Fotografie z kraje písku / Photographs from the Flatlands. Budapest: Budapest Galéria, 2000. ISBN963-00-4339-4. (in Hungarian, Czech, and English)
Jindřich Štreit ze Sovince, aneb, Kam (ne)vstoupila noha fotografova. Moravský Beroun: Moravská expedice, 2001. ISBN80-86511-01-4. (in Czech)
Mezi námi / Among Us. V Sovinci: Společnost přátel umění, 2001. ISBN8023874535. (in Czech)
Štreit, Jindřich; Sedláček, Martin (text). Daleko od domova. Brno: Nakladatelství Jaroslav Sedláček, 2002. ISBN80-238-9393-9(in Czech)
Cesty života / Ways of life. Olomouc: Krajský úřad Olomouckého kraje, 2003. ISBN80-239-1356-5. (in Czech and English)
Spolu / Together. Olomouc: Občanské sdružení SPOLU, 2003. ISBN80-239-0602-X. (in Czech and English)
Jindřich Štreit - Tváře za zdí / Jindřich Štreit - Faces behind the wall / Yinderehe Shitecaide - Weicheng zhi nei. Sedliště ve Slezsku: Lašské muzeum a galerie; Prague: Čínský kulturní institut, 2003. ISBN80-239-1330-1. (in Czech, English, and Chinese)
Štreit, Jindřich; Kopřiva, J.; Perunová, K. (text). Tak blízko, tak daleko. Čečna a Ingušsko 2003 / So Close and Yet So Far. Chechnya and Ingushetia 2003 / So nah und doch so fern. Tschetschenien und Ingutschien 2003. Prague: Sdružení Česká katolická charita, 2004. ISBN80-239-1950-4(in Czech, English, and German)
Jindřich Štreit: Fotografie 1965-2005 / Jindřich Štreit: Photographs 1965-2005. Prague: Kant, 2006. ISBN80-86970-05-1. (in Czech and English)
Paměť času. Rýmařov: Městské muzeum v Rýmařově, 2006. ISBN80-239-8204-4. (in Czech)
Identita reality. V Bruntále: Muzeum v Bruntále, 2007. ISBN80-87038-04-5. (in Czech and English)
Ocelový svět / World of steel. Hranice: Dost, 2008. ISBN80-902942-5-1. (in Czech and English)
Antonín Dufek, preface to his Vesnice je svět / The Village is a Global World / Das Dorf ist eine globale Welt / Un village, c'est tout un monde (Prague: Arcadia, 1993; ISBN80-901423-5-4), quoted in: Moucha et al. (2006), p. 227
Moucha, Josef; Musilová, Helena; Hodek, Eva Marlene (2006). Fotogenie identity: pamět̕ české fotografie / The photogeny of identity: The memory of Czech photography. Prague: Kant; Prague House of Photography. pp.218–227. ISBN80-86970-12-4. (in Czech and English)
