The Prague calendars and my photographs of Prague are created out of desire. Out of the desire to capture a miracle where Prague is a canvas, a matrix, a substance, a stone, history, what we know. The second part is made up of light, color, contrast, composition in such an arrangement that I suddenly know that it is worth pulling the trigger. That perhaps something is being created that reaches into timelessness. That has a more permanent validity. That can animate us in itself. That contains an archetypal statement, common to all of us.
I feel that the real magic can most likely arise from the connection of Prague "of stone", which we somehow have intrinsically within us, and a favorable constellation of other conditions so that the image suddenly emerges from the everyday and receives sanctification from elsewhere, begins to breathe a different dimension. I cannot and do not want to photograph Prague in any other way than this. I do not want to create only nice documents of monuments, or, conversely, only exclusively moody photographs. In other words, I try – more or less unconsciously – to capture Prague through the eyes of a child who knows nothing about Prague, but wants to be amazed. To be amazed by the abyss of shadow and light – a metaphor for being and non-being. To be amazed by the harmony of colors, which can arouse even unearthly joy. That is what I am about.
I have been photographing Prague for more than ten years. In recent years, with increasing passion and effort. But only recently have I felt that I “know” it, that I can no longer be completely surprised by the falling light, the angle of view, the new, as yet undiscovered old wall. I felt that Prague, after hundreds of kilometers of walking in it, had somehow become part of me. This is not meant to be boasting or arrogance, no. This is the statement of an acquired partnership, symbiosis, a dialogue with the city, that partly exists and partly does not exist, with the mirage that is constantly changing and which we photographers and artists try to capture in one way or another.
Of course, Prague still manages to surprise me. The multitude of shapes and lighting is not infinite, but it is so immense that being surprised by new views is always possible. And that is what makes me continue day after day and try to touch the miracle, to look for a gem that suddenly shines somewhere between the branches of the Seminary Garden, above the pavement of Hradčany Square or under the arches of Charles Bridge.
