Jindřich Štreit

Jindřich Štreit is one of the most important Czech socio-documentary photographers. In his early works he created collections with Roma (gypsy) motifs and also using the stage area of the Olomouc Theatre. One can consider the most important contribution of his works to be his imaging of villages, private life, and interpersonal relationships. In the 1980s he was able to capture the collectivist socialist village during the time of Socialist Realism in several towns where he lived. He expressed the feelings of the time and furthermore added thereto a personalised artistic statement on the human condition. Even at the very beginning of his systematic interest in villages, Štreit shows a characteristic interest in certain motifs, which had earlier been the subject of independent series: interpersonal contact, cigarettes, alcohol, meetings, elections, television, children, farm animals and pets. Headlines, posters and t-shirt prints all bear his important storylines. Numerous motifs also refer to his drawing from traditions in a range of villages. Destruction, loss of cultural values and rupture of traditional village ties are all omnipresent.

Besides this he ran the gallery in Sovinec, beginning in 1974. There he prepared exhibits for children featuring the works of top artists. A number of these became subject to public bans. Since 1997 he has prepared programmes for the Chapel Gallery (Galerie V kapli) in Bruntál, but he also plans exhibits in a number of other towns (Šternberk, Bludov, Moravský Beroun, and at the Sovinec Castle).

In 1982 he was the only photographer to take part in the exhibit of non-official creative artists in Prague. His pictures attracted the attention of the Communist secret police, StB. They called him in for questioning and shortly thereafter he received a ten-month jail sentence, with a two-year paroled (delayed) entry. The grounds for the punishment (defaming the Republic and its representatives) was the interpretation of exhibited, and in some cases non-published, photos (following a search of his full photo archive by the authorities). His punishment also included confiscation of part of his negatives, positives and cameras (the so-called criminal instruments).

After the revolution his situation changed. Since 1991 he has worked on a number of documentary projects abroad. His homeland village can be found in Slovakia, France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Russia. He also regularly returns to the villages in the Bruntál and Olomouc areas.

He elaborates motifs that he had already taken notice of in the 1980s. However, instead of expressions of the Communist ideology of the day, he follows new, trendy icons. He also works on a number of other thematically-focused collections (The Women’s Prison in Pardubice/Ženská věznice Pardubice, Břevnov Monastery/Břevnovský klašter, The People of Olomouc County/Lidé olomouckého okresu, The Mikulov Area/Mikulovsko, and The Path to Freedom/Cesta k svobodě). At the Institute of Creative Photography of the Philosophical-Natural Sciences Faculty at the Silesian University in Opava he provides artistic leadership for a number of students‘ photographic projects (People of the Hlučín Area in the 1920s/Lidé Hlučínska devadesátých let 20. století, Our World /Náš svět, Zlín and Its People/Zlín a jeho lidé, and recently Opava at the Threshold of a New Millennium/Opava na prahu nového tisíciletí).

Vesnice je svět. (Text Antonín Dufek), Praha 1993. 14 pohledů na okres Saint-Quentin, Praha 1993. Le Quai de Rohan – Nouvelle Ville, Lorient 1994. Lidé olomouckého okresu, Olomouc, 1995. Mikulovsko. Mikulov, 1995. Def Hof, Vídeň, 1995. Japonsko-Lidé z Akagi, Opava 1997. Lidé ledkových dolů, Wittelsheim, 1998. Zabavené fotografie, Brno, 1999. A coeur perdu – Doteky srdce, Belfort, 1999. Cesta ke svobodě. Sovinec 1999. Brána naděje. Olomouc 2000. Cesta ke svobodě. (Texty: Bém, P., Doležal, J. X., Halík, T.), Okresní úřad, Bruntál 2000. Fotóhomok/Fotografie z kraje písku/Photographs from the Flatlands. Budapest, 2000. Lidé Třineckých železáren. Třinecké železárny, Třinec, 2000. Na konci světa. Burjatsko-Sibiř. 160 s. Vimperk 2000. Kam /ne/vstoupila noha fotografova. Moravská expedice, Moravský Beroun 2001. Za oponou. (Text Pavel Dostál), Státní opera, Praha 2002. Daleko od domova. Nakladatelství Jaroslav Sedláček, Brno 2002. Dokouřeno !?. Ministerstvo zdravotnictví ČR, Praha 2003. Tak blízko, tak daleko. (Text: Kopřiva, J., Perunová, K.), Sdružení Česká katolická charita, Praha 2004. Jindřich Štreit. Fotografie 1965 – 2005. (Výběr a koncepce knihy Tomáš Pospěch, texty: Jiří Jůza, Pavel Zatloukal, Antonín Dufek, Jindřich Štreit). Katalogy (výběr): Lidé z ledkových dolů. (Text Tomáš Pospěch), ITF FPF SU v Opavě, Opava 1999. People of the Olomouc Region in the 1990’s, Lidé olomouckého okresu 90. let 20. století. Obecní úřad Dolany 2000. Baumer, A. (text): Im Zeichen des Kreises. NO Kulturforum, Volkersdorf 2001. Racek. I. (text): Mezi námi. Společnost přátel umění v Sovinci 2001. Jindřich Štreit. Le Chateau d’Eau, Toulouse 2002. Fotóhomok / Fotografie z kraje písku. Maďarské kulturní středisko v Praze, Praha 2002. Spolu. Spolu, Olomouc 2003. Cesty života. Krajský úřad, Olomouc 2003.

Horký Petr: Vesnický kronikář na cestách, A2 kulturní týdeník. 3/2008, s. 9

Štreit, J.: Netradiční formy výuky dokumentární fotografie. Ilustrační fotografie studentů ITF a FAMU. Univerzita Palackého, Olomouc 2004.