CzechDesign.cz

Obecní dům – 30.12.2005

Following the last year's successful exhibition of Robert Capa, the Municipal House and Art Link in cooperation with Marco Bischof and the Magnum Photos present this year's exhibition of photographs of another Magnum photographer - Werner Bischof. Though Bischof died a tragic, premature death at the age of thirty eight already in 1954, his work is today seen as one of the peaks of socially concerned photography.

Bischof's photographs capture post-war Europe and major political and social changes of far-away exotic lands like Japan, South Korea, India, Indochina and South America in the first half of the 20th century.

Werner Bischof started his career as an artist in 1939 in Paris, where he opened a studio and soon started enjoying a growing reputation in fashion and advertisement photography. Soon, "the war came and with it the destruction of my ivory tower. My attention focused henceforth on the face of human suffering." Soon after the war, Bischof left his studio, mounted his bicycle and with two cameras, knapsack and a Swiss passport set out for the occupied Germany. For the next three years, he crisscrossed Europe, taking pictures in Germany, France, Holland and other countries (including Czechoslovakia), recording damage caused by war, disease and floods.

In 1949, Bischof married and also accepted an invitation to join the Magnum group of photographers. Magnum Photos was organized as an independent, socially committed cooperative that included some of the most famous names in the world of photojournalism - Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, "Chim" Seymour and others.

Two years later, Magnum sent Bischof to India. He had hoped to portray the "new India" but instead he found only suffering and famine. In the village of Dighiar, "The women . . . . come to us and beg for food and clothing. 'Sir, we are dying,' they call to us.

It was the first time I used the camera without inhibition." The photographs were published in the Life magazine, created a sensation and won Bischof instant international recognition. His next journey took him to Japan, where he covered the Emperor's visit to Hiroshima through the face of an expectant child. He was captivated by the subtle beauty of Japanese art and the traditional harmony of man with nature. Here he produced some of his finest work.

In 1952, still on assignment for Life, Bischof flew to Hong Kong to cover the plight of refugees from Mainland China. That same year, Bischof was hired by Paris-Match to go to Indochina and take "heroic shots" of French soldiers in the face of intensifying Vietminh attacks. He disliked the editors "newsreel-style" shooting script but took the obligatory "heroic shots." He wrote, "I detest this kind of sensation mongering … I've been prostituting myself … now I've had enough. Deep inside me I still am, and always will be, an artist."

Soon after, Bischof wrote to his friend Robert Capa: "I want to leave for South America. It is the only place I'm interested in - as far as possible from civilization, back to nature." He flew to Panama, Chile and Peru through New York and Mexico City. From Lima, he went on to Cuzco, and photographed Pisac and the ruins of the Inca city Machu Picchu. Struck by the rugged majesty of the Andes, he decided to join a friend and his driver and journey by car "to the mountains, to the jungle, and to unknown people." On May 16, the car slid off a narrow mountain road and plunged 1500 feet into a gorge. All three men died on the spot.

On the occassion of this exhibition, a brochure in Czech and English, featuring twenty reproduced photographs by Werner Bischof and with texts by Marco Bischof, son of Werner, and by Ramon Esparza will be published by the Municipal House.

Exhibition Halls of the Municipal House, náměstí Republiky 5, Prague 1, November 25, 2005 - February 19, 2006, open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.