Hana Hamplová / The Pictures around Us

Burgrave’s house at Klenová castle
25. 8. - 31. 10. 2024

Hana Hamplová began as a documentary photographer when, as a seventeen-year-old, she captured the atmosphere in Czechoslovakia following the country’s occupation by Soviet troops in August 1968. She later also documented the funeral of Jan Palach. She nevertheless soon moved away from documentary photography and began to focus on structural photographs in which she tried to find close-up images of reality that reflect the environment in which we live.

Her first works of this type were black-and-white photographs whose limited color range lent them an air of the abstract. She later concentrated on color photography, which in a way is more precise in its depiction of her chosen motifs. In these images, she emphasizes a strict and sober composition.

Hamplová does not use new technologies or techniques. Instead, she chose a different path in which she seeks out interesting relationships that are just waiting to be discovered. She calls our attention to motifs that we can encounter every day. She creates neither collages nor photomontages but finds compositions in real life, many of which are like cut-outs from reality. It is through these images that she expresses her visions.

The world around us offers a wealth of remarkable subjects. From this endless and changing reality, Hana Hamplová chooses the things that catch her attention. Her art has evolved naturally, with her creative periods following a logical and natural progression.

Exhibition curator: Jiří Machalický