Oldřich Škácha, 16 October 1941–29 March 2014

A reportage and documentary photographer best known for his unique photographs from the occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and portraits of important representatives of Czechoslovak and Czech culture, dissent and exile, dominated by the personality of Václav Havel, dissident, president and citizen.

After an apprenticeship as a photographer he studied at the State School of Graphic Arts in Prague ● in the 1960s he worked for various domestic and foreign publishing houses, getting fired from the magazine Svět sovětů (World of Soviets) for his political views ● he joined the Union of Journalists and the Fine Arts Fund and remained an independent photographer throughout his professional life ● he photographed for Czechoslovak theatres and leading Czechoslovak periodicals: Mladý svět, Svět v obrazech, Květy, Svobodné slovo, Lidová demokracii, Kino, Im Herzen Europas, etc. ● he documented the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops, creating a unique set of photographs from the first days of the occupation in Prague ● with the onset of normalisation he was excluded from public life and was no longer allowed to publish in newspapers and magazines ● in the 1970s he photographed for Strojimport and Čedok, occasionally published under the names of others, and moved in the world of the Czechoslovak dissent, documenting in particular the Charter 77 circle around Pavel Kohout and Václav Havel ● he worked as an assistant gardener at Kratochvíle Castle ● after 1989 he published in Lidové noviny, Salon Práva, Mladé fronta Dnes magazine, Reflex, Týden, Xantypa, the magazine 365 and other periodicals ● he continued his previous work as one of the photographers of President Václav Havel, carrying on in this role after Havel's departure from Prague Castle ● he created the most comprehensive and complete collection of photographs of the former Czech president from the final years of his life.

Exhibitions

From the 1990s he exhibited around the world, including in Vienna (1998), Istanbul (1999), Dubrovnik and Zagreb (2000), Prague (2001), Paris (2003), New York and Washington (2004), Litomyšl (2012), Prague (2015), Wrocław and Pristina (2016). In 2006, on the occasion of Václav Havel's 70th birthday, he prepared an exhibition of 94 large-format photographs entitled Václav Havel in the Transformations of Europe, which was used under various titles by Czech embassies and Czech Centres to promote the Czech Republic practically all around the world.

Publications

Minuty z třistašedesátipěti dní roku 1990 (Minutes from the 365 Days of 1990), Interpress, 1990; 68/89. České křižovatky na cestě do Evropy (Czech Crossroads on the Path to Europe): Jaroslav Bárta, Bohdan Holomíček, Oldřich Škácha, Pavel Štecha, Studio JB, 2004; Václav Havel: Dissident, President, Citizen, 2006; Havel navždy (Havel Forever), Arbor Vitae, 2012