synopsis
This monograph on the work of czech photographer Jitka HANZLOVÁ accompanied a retrospetively designed traveling exhibition.
Jitka Hanzlová's photographs are equally captivating for their objectivity and their empathy; the composition feels polished yet coincidental, the colors are soft and fragile and yet they lend a tangible materiality to what is portrayed. The catalog accompanying the artist's first survey exhibition at the Fundación Mapfre, Madrid, gathers together her most important series from 1990 till today: "Rokytnik", focusing on the artist's hometown in Eastern Bohemia, is followed by "Bewohner" and "Here", explorations of the Ruhr environment; for "Forest" the artist returned to the forests of her Czech homeland. Presented are also the series "Brixton", "Cotton Rose", and "Leonardo", as well as the most recent horse and flower series. Hanzlová (b. 1958 in Náchod, Czechoslovakia) came to Germany in 1982 and studied photography in Essen. Among other awards, she has received the Otto Steinert Prize and the BMW-Paris Photo Prize. Her works have been exhibited at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Museum Folkwang in Essen, the Fotomuseum Winterthur and Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum. Her books "Rokytnik" (1994), "Bewohner" (1996), "Female" (2000) and "Forest" (2006) are today coveted collector's items.
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technical information
Publisher : Kehrer Verlag
2012
Dimensions : 24 x 30 cm
268 pages, 139 color illustrations
In english
2012
Dimensions : 24 x 30 cm
268 pages, 139 color illustrations
In english
about Jitka Hanzlová
Jitka Hanzlová (1958, Náchod, Czechoslovakia; currently Czech Republic) was awarded refugee status in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1983, a year after leaving the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia. Between 1987 and 1994 she studied communication technology at the University of Essen and began her first project, Rokytnik, centered on the homonymous town in Bohemia, where she grew up.
Exile has influenced the work of Jitka Hanzlová, which revolves around the relationship between individuals and their context and how it influences the construction of personal identity. Her subtle photographs featuring restrained color and careful framing are grouped into series such as Bewohner (1994-1996), which explores solitude, isolation, and the loss of one’s roots in large urban areas; Forest (2000-2005), centered on the forest of her childhood; and Brixton (2002), made as a result of an invitation from the Photographers’ Gallery, in which she portrays Afro-Caribbean women who live in the Brixton district of London.
Hanzlová has been a guest professor at the Fine Arts Academies in Hamburg and Zürich. Since the mid 1990s she has been awarded numerous prizes: the Otto Steinert prize in 1993; the European Photography prize, and the DG Frankfurt Bank Grant in 1995; Citibank Photography Prize runner-up in 2000 and 2003; and the BMW-Paris Photo Prize for Contemporary Photography in 2004.
more information
book in my collection
Publisher : Kehrer Verlag
2012
Dimensions : 24 x 30 cm
268 pages, 139 color illustrations
In english
2012
Dimensions : 24 x 30 cm
268 pages, 139 color illustrations
In english