Iren Stehli

ISBN: 80-7215-284-X|Published: 2006|Pages: 176
Binding: Softbound|Format: 160 x 180 mm|Graphic design: Pavel Lev, Studio Najbrt

This volume provides a survey of important works by Iren Stehli made from 1973 to 2001. Born in Zurich in 1953, Stehli studied photography at FAMU, Prague, in 1974–79. Uninfluenced by contemporary art trends, her photographs present a realistic look at Czech life during almost twenty years. In her work, human stories, developing over time, alternate with conceptually conceived series without any human beings at all. In their Czech visual poetry and Czech humor, Stehli’s personal engagement is visible in both areas of her photography. The thematically arranged chapters of the book provide examples of Stehli’s photo essays and longer-term projects. The result is a compact picture that subtly but compellingly provides testimony about the last two decades of “real existing socialism” in Czechoslovakia and the transformation into a free-market democracy in the 1990s. The photographs are introduced by articles by Anna Fárová, the foremost Czech historian of photography, and Martin Heller, a Swiss historian and sociologist.