Photographer Jindřich Štreit exhibits in the National Museum of Agriculture in Prague

If you are surprised by the connection between the National Museum of Agriculture and photography, you should know that the museum has an extensive photo archive which dates back to the very beginning of the museum’s history and which documents the rural environment and lives of people working in agriculture.

Natural and human cycles

When he was working in agriculture for eight years in the 1980’s, the photographer took a series of as yet unpublished photographs documenting people and human relationships in agricultural life. Last year, Štreit followed up the museum’s request and took a series of photographs of present-day Czech agriculture. These images are exhibited alongside the original photographs and thus offer an interesting comparison between the two eras and document not only how agriculture has developed and changed over the years, but also how Jindřich Štreit has evolved as an artist.

The exhibition introduces important cycles for agriculture as well as for everyday human life, such as the water cycle and other biogeochemical cycles, but also astronomical cycles and the life cycles of plants and animals, which create a balance around us. The theme is relevant since this balance is so delicate today.

Jindřich Štreit

Jindřich Štreit was born in 1946 in Wallachia (Valašsko), a region in the easternmost part of Moravia in the Czech Republic, near the Slovak border. His family later relocated to the foothills of the Jeseníky mountains.

In his photography, he is devoted to depicting village life since 1972. Since the 1990s, he has been working on documentary projects in France, England, Brazil, Moldova, Austria, Germany, Japan, China, Hungary, Russia, and the Czech Republic.

Jindřich Štreit had more than 1,400 exhibitions and has participated in many collective exhibitions. Apart from collections in the Czech Republic, his work is exhibited in major foreign cultural institutions such as MoMA in New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC., among others.

A renowned photographer and art students

In addition to the large collection of Štreit’s photographs that will be exhibited for the first time, the exhibition also includes the work of art students who applied for the exhibition in an open challenge, resulting in a multidisciplinary exhibition project combining art, science, playfulness and creativity.

For further information, please visit: https://www.nzm.cz/en.