Jan Malý, See Also...

26. 9. 2017

Jan Malý, a Praguer by birth and in death (16. 4. 1954 – 5. 4. 2017), departed this life as the last of a trio of friends who in 1980 revived the once popular photographic genre, the portrait of the whole body. With the passing of Jiří Poláček (1946–2016), Ivan Lutterer (1954–2001) and Jan Malý, his obituary also marks a farewell to the Český člověk (Czech Human) project.  The abovementioned photographers belonged to the generation that finished their studies at the Department of Photography, The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, in the 1970s. They visited many villages and towns to expose and capture quite diverse strata of the society. "When I invite someone to the studio, they get ready for it," Malý said, explaining the advantages of their field studio, "while in the street, they are as they are". Everyone who wanted to be photographed got a Polaroid picture; the photographers kept the negatives. They developed them using the collodion wet plate process to create and exhibit classic enlargements. From more than five thousand photographs, they published a telling selection in Český člověk, 1997, edited by Jaroslav Bárta.

Jan Malý, a Praguer by birth and in death (16. 4. 1954 – 5. 4. 2017), departed this life as the last of a trio of friends who in 1980 revived the once popular photographic genre, the portrait of the whole body. With the passing of Jiří Poláček (1946–2016), Ivan Lutterer (1954–2001) and Jan Malý, his obituary also marks a farewell to the Český člověk (Czech Human) project.