International Center for Photography – Czech it!

Miroslav Tichý's Camera No.1, © Roman Buxbaum

I was so curious when I saw a photograph of this make-shift camera –– thinking it was built by a team of sixth graders in the 1950s I was blown away when I found out the story of the creator, Miroslav Tichy.

Now in his eighties, Tichy is a very mysterious and reclusive Czech artist and photographer. He studied painting in Prague just following WWII and eventually turned his back on the art world, withdrawing from “mainstream” society, primarily because of his political beliefs. The social repression of communism stifled this gifted artist –– and his world became smaller. He suffered greatly from mental illness and after long periods of confinement in institutions, he lost his studio and never really recovered. He still lives in near isolation in his hometown of Kyjov.

His equipment is all hand made, ” … save for the film, chemicals, and photographic paper he bought from a nearby drugstore, all his photographic equipment was self-made. Using cameras inventively constructed from found materials—shoeboxes, tin cans, clothing elastic, toilet paper rolls, even cigarette boxes…. “

And most of his images were taken in and around Kyjov. ” … he conceived a world of his own, populated by the women of his home town…”

Personally, his haunting and distorted images of women, many of them taken surreptitiously, kind of creep me out. But, turn the tables and be the voyeur! Check out the exhibit of his work at the International Center for Photography. I am sure you won’t be disappointed!