Dull life under communism in photographs

CzechNews
11. 11. 2009 11:15
Have a look at pictures capturing the "uniquely dull" atmosphere of life under communism
Foto: Lubomír Kotek

Prague - The exhibition of photographs by Lubomír Kotek is expressively called "Here is Husák-ville", referring to the last communist president Gustav Husák.

It takes twenty years of democracy to see the unique greyness that surrounded people living under communism. In their uneventful life they forgot to look around and see some extraordinary scenes. Lubomír Kotek didn't.

He went out there and took pictures of everything that was there - be it ever-present tin fences that covered never ending construction sites, dilapidated buildings or old Škoda cars being repaired on a parking lot.

Aktuálně.cz photographer Ludvík Hradílek lived in the same city like Kotek.

"I never thought this way. I never saw the things Lubomír Kotek did. It all was just so dull to me," Hradílek commented Kotek's pictures.

"To take pictures of egg throwing at a well-known politician is a piece of cake. You just have to crawl through the crowd of people, focus and shoot. To take pictures of famine in Sudan is easy, too. Buy a ticket, hire a translator and if they don't kill you, you will get plenty of humanistic pictures," says Hradílek.

"But try to take pictures of a place where nothing is happening and everything looks so grey. Try to take pictures of the normalisation era. Kotek did that and his pictures are very powerful," Hradílek adds.

The exhibition takes place in Prague's Louvre Gallery (Národní třída 20) and lasts through 3 January 2010.

 

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