Miroslav Tichy | Untitled | Undated | B/W photography on carton
I got the chance, just about a year ago, to see a collection of Miroslav Tichy's photographs
at the International Center of Photography here in NYC. I was captured by the images,
ideals, and methods to the way Tichy lived at worked. The body of work on display
was from his wanderings throughout Kyjov (communist Czech at this time) during the 60's
and 70's. Very strongly opposed to the modernist infatuation with newness and progress
as well as the communist state throughout this period, his work became
personal pleasure amid public repression.
"The artist devotedly wandered the streets, compiling a meticulous photographic
archive of Kyjov. He mainly photographed the local women; curvaceous contours
of body in motion, captured moments of sartorial revelation, smooth calves truncating
from underneath full skirts, and remote utterances muttered between intimate sororities.
He honored women in bikinis, becoming a regular of the periphery of the local
swimming pool, photographing from the other side of the fence, the metal mesh dissecting
the surface of his images. He worked with a homemade camera that he fashioned
from used materials, such as shoe boxes, rubber bands and tin cans, complete with
makeshift telephoto lenses, polished with toothpaste and ashes.
Tichy would then print on a homemade enlarger.
He would subsequently adorn certain prints with pencil marks, highlighting the
contours of a form, or decorating the edges with colored cardboard borders,
until the works were spilled scatteringly onto the floor, some used as beer mats,
some nibbled by rats."
"I explore every atom. That makes me an atomist." -- Miroslav Tichy
Miroslav Tichy | Untitled | Mixed media on photograph
Tichy | Untitled | Undated | B/W photography on baryta paper,
on blue paper, on carton
Tichy | Untitled | Undated | Silver gelatine print
Tichy | Untitled | Undated | B&W photography on baryta paper
in a passepartout
Tichy | Untitled | Mixed media on photograph
Tichy | Untitled | Mixed media on photograph
Tichy | Untitled | Undated | Mixed media on photograph
Tichy | Untitled | Undated
"These days there are plenty of artists who take photographs. They have modern
digital equipment and the best computer software. They try to make their pictures
look crude. They want something like a document of reality. But can you believe a
30-year-old university graduate? Does he really know what is crude? It is simply
impossible, especially in comparison to Miroslav Tichy. He lurks in a horrible coat
and -- from behind bushes and walls -- takes photographs of fragments of female nudity
or the steps of a woman walking down the street" -- Roman Buxbaum,
who introduced Tichy's work to the world.
Unfocused, not well developed and damaged by weather and careless handling,
never meant to be exhibited and, even now, Tichy objects to the success and fame.
He chooses the people he talks to and shares his opinions with. He has described
exhibitions as a waste and says this world is no more than "a double shit."
