The photography of Jaroslav Rössler is an integral part of any early 20th-century photography exhibition today, though he was shamefully overlooked in several landmark group shows of Czech avant-garde artists during his lifetime — even those organized by his friend Karel Teige, one of the most influential Czech artists of the time.

Rössler was hardly a lesser figure on the avant-garde art scene in the 1920s and '30s, and in some ways his achievements were more significant than those of Josef Sudek, Jaromír Funke or František Drtikol. His experiments with light and shading, and his exploration of Constructivist, Futurist and Cubist imagery rivaled the concurrent innovations of the world-renowned photographers Man Ray, El Lissitsky and László Moholy-Nagy.

Even at recent major exhibitions of Czech modern photography, it seems there is always too little of Rössler's work. The current exhibition at Galerie Caspari centrum presents a rare chance to see a wider selection, with about 50 photos from 1923 to the 1960s.

Born in 1902 to a German father and Czech mother, Rössler began his career in 1917 working as an apprentice to Drtikol (1883–1961), who had gained international recognition for his striking nudes made in the spirit of Art Nouveau pictorialism.

In Drtikol's Prague studio, Rössler was only allowed to do lab work and retouching, excepting the occasional portrait of a less-important customer. On his own time, however, he made use of his access to the studio and photo lab and started producing his highly stylized works with geometric shapes influenced by the latest trends in abstract art: Futurism, Cubism, Expressionism and Constructivism (combined with Symbolism).

On the basis of this experimental work, Teige invited Rössler in 1923 to join Devětsil, the legendary group of Czech avant-garde artists. Rössler was the only professional photographer among the poets, painters, dramatists and architects, and because he was an extreme introvert, was even more distinctly apart from the group, both socially and artistically.

Rössler avoided Devětsil's daily gatherings in wine bars or cafés as well as regular meetings and debates. He did contribute to the group's publications, such as ReD and Disk, though he was not represented in its first major exhibition, "Modern Art Bazaar," in Prague in 1923. Indeed, he wasn't included in any Devětsil show until May 1926.

In 1925, Rössler moved to Paris with Gertruda Fischerová, eight years his senior, who was his colleague in Drtikol's studio (and also a love interest of Drtikol, who was married and had a daughter). He lived there from 1925–26, then again from 1927–

35, and though he had previously had a well-received exhibition in that city (together with Drtikol and Funke in 1924), he had little contact with local avant-garde artists such as Man Ray. Instead, he made advertising photos in a variety of styles, always with his particular eye for composition.

In 1935, Rössler was inexplicably expelled from Paris after taking pictures of a civil servants' street demonstration. He never fully recovered from this shocking episode. Back home in Prague, he opened a small photography studio in Žižkov, though his noncommissioned work waned. He revived his work in the late 1950s through the 1960s after a shift in the political climate, and in the late '60s his career enjoyed a boost after he was rediscovered by younger curators and art historians.

Rössler died in obscurity in Prague's Smíchov district in January 1990. Not a single major Czech newspaper noted his death the next day.

The photographs at Galerie Caspari

centrum are from two periods in the artist's life: the early 1920s and the 1960s. His work from the '20s most clearly shows the influence of abstract art. In these black-and-white photos, mysterious sharp-edged objects contrast with recognizable shapes — bubbles, eggs, apples, grapes. Spheres and globes tend to be in a pitch-black void, so that they seem to be floating.

His lesser-known work from the 1960s resembles pure abstract painting in black-and-white or gray tones. These works are more exploratory in their use of overexposure or collage. Overall, his oeuvre is a literal smoke-and-mirrors production, and viewers may leave the show somewhat mystified by this enigmatic artist.