The collection of photographs is the work of the photographer Josef Sudek. It includes pictures of locations, which this photographer took during the last months and days of the Second World War and first days of peace in 1945. They capture Prague and its residents affected by the most destructive war actions at the turning point of the end of the war. Josef Sudek focused on destroyed historic sights as well as scrapyards with bronze sculptures intended for melting. The collection is a photographic metaphor of the war’s aftermath through the lens of Josef Sudek; some of his pictures are reminiscent of reportages – lively documents capturing people on the Old Town Square towards the end of the war and after it.
Despite its immense artistic and cultural value, the collection remains unknown to people today.
Josef Sudek (1896–1976) is one of the most renowned Czech photographers who has won worldwide fame. He began taking photographs at a young age. Although he lost his right hand in the Great War, he picked studies of photography after the war while living and working in Prague.
His artistic creation focused on still lifes and nature – his collections as Sad Landscape, Janáček’s Hukvaldy or the cycle Window of My Studio are well known.
Centre tchèque de Paris
The Czech Centre Paris is one of the 22 Czech centres across the world, whose mission is to promote Czech culture under all its forms. The history of its Paris seat situated at 18 Rue Bonaparte carries a great symbolic value: it is where the Czech national council, the foundation of the future Czechoslovak government, was founded in 1916.
Since its opening in 1997, the Czech Centre Paris has been offering a number of cultural events every year in one of the most famous quarters of the French capital. It is a privileged place of welcome and exchange between France and the Czech Republic, where all forms of artistic expression coexist: arts, design, music, literature, cinema, theatre, as well as the Czech language courses.