Prague 1968: Spatiality and the Tactics of Resistance

Abstract

In a review written for the Czech-English literature and art magazine Hurontaria, Jan B. Hurych discusses the oeuvre of Pavel Stecha, an internationally acclaimed Czech photographer and a former lecturer at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. 1 Stecha is most recognized for his photographs of the 1968 Warsaw Pact–supported, Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia as well as the photographs of the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the events of which culminated in the overthrow of the Czechoslovak Communist government. Hurych opens his review with the following statement: In our life, we live through various moments: happy or sad, personal or social. Sometimes those are short periods of time, maybe even seconds that come and go—and we will not see them again any more. Those are the moments most convenient for snapshots and we call those photos documentary photography. Then there are photographs which are documentary as well as artistic. They are not only “documenting” but also analyzing those moments or scenes and highlighting all that is complementary and important. The artist is not only concerned with “recording,” but also with creating the atmosphere, the situation. He penetrates the very soul of people and the situations he is capturing. 2