Photographers Andreas Feininger and Dana Kyndrová

By Filip Šenk and Stephan Delbos

STAFF WRITERS

If journalism is the first draft of history, photography is a visceral recreation of it. Two photography exhibitions on Old Town Square provide a glimpse into history with stunning black-and-white portraits of life in the mid- to late 20th century in the United States and Czechoslovakia.

Andreas Feininger's This Is Photography at House at the Stone Bell displays the mastery of this German photographer who documented American society and architecture after emigrating to the United States in 1939. Dana Kyndrová's The Rituals of Normalization at Town Hall depicts with gritty realism the period of Normalization, the decades between Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution when the communists sought to bring back the status quo. The two form a striking juxtaposition that is a testament to the stark power of black-and-white photography to capture the range and depth of aesthetics, emotions and, often unbeknown to its subjects, history.

Andreas Feininger's This Is Photography

Black-and-white photography always gives one the feeling of looking at real art. While sometimes bad photographers use the method to cover their inability to take a good shot, in the hands of a real master, black and white shows the best photography can offer.

Andreas Feininger (1906-99) is one of these masters. He can no doubt be labeled an artist, but his true photographic nature better corresponds to that of an alchemist or even a scientist. Feininger's self-portrait, shown on the poster for this exhibition, only reinforces this perception, showing the spectacled photographer looking attentively at film prints through a magnifying glass. This is not a man who waits for the kiss of the muses, but someone who uses a solid methodical approach to make art happen.

Feininger is no doubt already a classic of 20th-century photography, but has never had a significant exhibition in Prague. Tomáš Pospěch, curator of This Is Photography, tells The Prague Post that Feininger was a follower of the same German and American "New Objectivity" that was popular in the Czech lands in the 1920s and '30s.

"Feininger made good use of these impulses together with his studies at Bauhaus while doing custom-made architecture shots as well as in his later editorial work with LIFE and in his photography textbooks. These became evident in his focus on technical precision and his effort to meet demands for simplicity and legibility of view required by U.S. photo magazines, including the very prestigious one, LIFE magazine," he says.

Feininger, the son of the famous abstract painter Lyonel Feininger, had art in his DNA. He first studied cabinetmaking at Bauhaus and, later, architecture before leaving Germany in 1932 because of growing political tension. Feininger first traveled to Paris, where he worked in Le Corbusier's studio for a short time before moving to Sweden. When the Soviet Army entered Finland in 1939, Feininger and his family made a final move to the United States.

Practically unknown in his new country, the photographer was forced to start his career from scratch. Based in New York and working for $20 per week plus royalties when his shots were published, Feininger captured the growing and pulsating city life in many unforgettable photographs, such as his shot of Coney Island's beach resembling a lazy anthill, or a massive crowd negligible next to the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

Feininger's architectural studies clearly helped him present architecture superbly. His photo of the Empire State Building shining in the sun gives the structure deserved magnitude. But Feininger's photos are not only about architecture.

"What I enjoy most about Andreas Feininger is his 'sharp look,' which doesn't hide his promotion of the fathers of New Objectivity," Pospěch says. "The same fascination he gave to city architecture when he captured its structure, he gave to seashells, grass, a chimpanzee skeleton or a Chrysler's chrome radiator."

- Filip Šenk

Dana Kyndrová's The Rituals of Normalization is a watershed for the Prague photographer and a testament to a particular era in Czech history: Normalization. This is the first time Kyndrová's photography from the '70s and '80s is being shown collectively, and to mark the occasion, they are also being published in a book of the same name, with accompanying texts by Ivan Klíma. Writing about Kyndrová's work, Klíma notes that the most significant attributes of these evocative photographs are their austere depictions of raw reality:

"Dana Kyndrová's images are modest, classic documentary records as offered by life to the humble observer. No one is posing in them, no one is looking into the lens, because usually they did not even register the photographer's presence. It is this documentary objectivity, the resistance to platitudes or the spectacular, which ranks this book of photography among the great testimonies to life under Normalization."

Born in 1955, Kyndrová took up photography in 1973 while a student at Charles University. Working in the 1970s and '80s, Kyndrová photographed communist ceremonies in Prague, including May Day in Letná Park and the Spartakiads, displays of calisthenics at Strahov Stadium.

Photos of the Spartakiad games are a testament to a kind of athleticism specific to the era. There is an air of nervous energy one finds difficult to ascribe simply to the thrill of competition. Nervous women huddle together in white one-piece dresses. A group of male competitors kneel in the dirt in the huge stadium, striking a pose that is nearly triumphant, but ultimately seems supplicant.

Alongside these photographs of official ceremonies are personal moments such as dancing lessons and graduations. These are the most touching photos in the collection, especially for those familiar with Prague; we can see how little Prague has changed physically even while regime changes have transformed society. A group of men and women wait outside a fruit and vegetable shop; except for the women's horn-rimmed glasses and the sheen of the sign, the photo could have been taken yesterday.

Still other photos show touching traces of kitsch, such as the photo of a kitchen, where a portrait of the dashing singer Karel Gott hangs like a shrine above a shelf on the crumbling wall. It could very well be Husák.

Kyndrová's photos give a startling glimpse into the Normalization period in Czechoslovakia. Her photos are at times nostalgic, at times humorous and at times bleak, but always stark and evocative.

- Stephan Delbos

The writers can be reached at features@praguepost.com