Jindřich Štreit
Jindrich Streit was born on September 5th 1946 in Vsetin na Vlassku (Moravia). In 1956 he moved with his parents to the foothills of Jesenik (Techanov). He attended Gymnasium (Grammar School) in Rymarov (1963) and Pedagogic College at Palacky University, majoring in art education. He has been married to his wife Agnes since 1971 and has one daughter, Monika.
After graduating from university, he began teaching in a primary school in Rymarov. The next year, he became the school principal in Sovinec and later in Jirkov. Besides his pedagogic and photographic activity, he was involved in community work. From 1974 he headed a gallery in Sovinec and from 1997 in Bruntal. From 1981, he closely cooperated with progressive artists in Prague, Brno, Bratislava and other cultural centers in the Czech Republic and abroad.
His first impulse to photography came from his father. In 164, during his studies, his father encouraged him to photograph professor Jan Bukovjan. Streit attended college expositions and finished his studies with his first independent exposition in 1967. From 1972, he was conceptually devoted to portraying rural life. He also focused on portraits with a “Roma” theme. In the years 1975-1977, he attended the School of Art Photography and his final work was a collection of backstage theatre images.
In 1982, he, as the only photograph, participated in a unlawful exposition of unofficial artists on tennis courts in Prague, where his photographs were brought to the attention of the secret police. He was taken into custody and sentenced to ten months in prison with probation for two years. The rationale for the sentence was, according to two paragraphs of the penal law, (seditious libel and his representatives) and the interpretation of the exposed and never published photographs (after the official inspection of the whole photographer’s archive). Included in the sentence was the confiscation of negatives and positives and the camera (as instrument of the criminal act). Jindrich Streit was forbidden to continue in his criminal activity of photographing and was spied on. In the history of photography, this event is rather unique.
After his release, Streit was forbidden to teach. At first, he worked for one year in a library and after the end or legal proceedings he had to work as a dispatcher of the State farm in Ryzoviste. He focused on cultural work and photographing even more intensively. After the revolution in November 1989 Streit’s situation changed. In the years 1991-1994 he was an employee of the district authorities and later of a Museum in Bruntal. Since 1994, he has been an independent photographer. He lectures at the Institute of Creative Photography at Silesia University in Opava, lectured at the Film and Television College Academy of Musical Arts in Prague during the years 1991-2003, where in 2000 he became associate professor in photography.
Since 1991 he has worked on documentary projects in France, England, Austria, Germany, Japan, China, Hungary, Russia (Buryatia, Krasnodar Krai, Ingushetia, Chechnya), but also in the Czech Republic (women’s prison, Břevnov monastery, people of Olomouc region, People of Mikulov region, Path to Freedom, People of Třinec Ironworks, Between Us, Behind the Curtain, Together, the Paths of Life, The people of my region – Bruntal region). At the Institute of creative photography at Silesia University, he participated in leading several students’ projects (People of Hlucin Region, Our Worlds, Zlín and his people, Voluntarily, Opava on the verge of the third millennium, Transportation Authority Olomouc).
He is a member of the Q Brno Association, the Association of Olomouc Artists, Aktiv of independent photography by Prague’s House of Photography and Artistic Forum in Prague. Jindrich Streit has prepared more than 750 author’s exhibitions and attended many collective exhibitions. He has published 22 books. He is represented in many significant collections and several films have been made about his life and work.
