Based in Prague, I am a street photographer with over 30 years of experience capturing life across the globe. My work has taken me from the vibrant streets of major cities like London, New York, and Hong Kong to the extraordinary landscapes and unique communities of remote destinations, including the Yali tribes of West Papua, North Korea, and Socotra Island.
While I began my journey in landscape photography, street photography has become my primary art form over the past two decades. I see it as a way to candidly capture the world, sharing my perspective as a simple witness to the human experience.
I've been privileged to learn from masters like Peter Turnley and Ed Kashi, enhancing my storytelling skills. My projects reflect a deep curiosity about diverse cultures, from a photo essay on the "Hermit Kingdom" of North Korea to portraits captured during my two decades living in Asia. My work has been featured in publications like Asian Geographic and showcased at Leica Conversations events and exhibitions. sharing unique stories from my travels.
I attended in October 2023 an Ed Kashi workshop in Amsterdam organised by Eyes in Progress to enhance my street photography storytelling skills. It’s my first time photographing based on a theme – in this case, the symbols on Amsterdam’s streets with the title Amsterdam Unplugged. While I’m experienced in photography, crafting a compelling and credible story quickly on a specific theme is a new and fascinating way to share my perspective with others.
Ed Kashi is a renowned photojournalist, filmmaker, speaker and educator who has been making images and telling stories for 40 years. Ed Kashi is a member of VII Photo Agency.
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La Corniche in Havana
Near Viñales in Cuba
Café in Paris
Le Trocadéro in Paris
With Peter Turnley in Paris and in Havana
I attended two workshops with Peter Turnley in Paris, France and in Havana, Cuba.
Both were an extraordinary opportunity to practice and improve my storytellings skills while exploring and photographing. Peter introduced us as well to Voja Mitrovic who is a Serbian black-and-white photographic printer widely considered one of the most important in the history of photography. He is renowned for his masterful technical skill and his ability to collaborate with photographers to realize their artistic vision in the final print. Voja printed for Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Koudelka, Sebastião Salgado, Peter Turnley and many others.
Peter Turnley is renowned for his photography of the realities of the human condition. His photographs have been featured on the cover of Newsweek 43 times and are published frequently in the world’s most prestigious publications. He has worked in over 90 countries and has witnessed most major stories of international geo-political and historic significance in the last thirty years.
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Asian Portraits
During covid times, I had the awesome opportunity thanks to my friend Ricky to present some of my portraits from Asia where I lived almost two decades primarily in Hong Kong and Singapore, some going as far as 1992.
It was great to revisit and share these memories. I have met countless of very friendly people across many asian nations.
The photograph of a taxi driver on the left was taken at Daocheng Yading Airport in Sichuan, China shortly after arrival. It is the world's highest civilian airport at 4,411 meters (14,472 feet) above sea level.
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Where waters run wild and forests grow free, there are groups of people who live alongside Nature in perfect harmony. Tribes across the world have always been a keen point of interest, conjuring up curiosities of how they live, worship, speak, dress, and what they eat.
In the Wood Edition of Asian Geographic, featuring Asian Tribes, we immerse ourselves in Yali life in the village of Angurruk, in West Papua, Indonesia, through my photography bringing us to the people and their traditions. Join us on the mountain paths from Angurruk to Kurima, along the trails taken by the Yali people who walk for several days to connect with the rest of the world.
You can also view the story and my photographs when I visited the Yali tribes here, truly away from the world most of us know.
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In July 2021 I had the opportunity to present my photographs from North Korea at a Leica Conversations event hosted by Lukas Schmidt from Leica.
You can access the hour long discussion here.
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North Korea Interlude
I made two visits to North Korea in 2019. The first one was in early February 2019, shortly after the first meeting on June 12, 2018, in Singapore, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un and shortly before their second meeting in February 27-28, 2019, in Hanoi, Vietnam, at the French Colonial Hôtel Métropole.
Photographs from North Korea were not legion and few persons have been there.
I got then the opportunity with Leica to present my photographs from the "The Hermit Kingdom" at their Marina Bay Sands gallery.
Exibart Street did also a great entry on my visits to the Hermit Kingdom. You can read and see it here.
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Podcast with Asian Geographic
If you like photography and traveling you can listen to my podcast on street photography with Asian Geographic
I share my love for street photography and how that pathed my journey to expeditions to Yali Tribe in West Papua, Indonesia, North Korea, and more.
You can click on link here Asian Geographic Library:Podcast | Podcast on Spotify
Asian Geographic Magazine - Impressions from the DPRK, North Korea.
Happy to have my photo essay on North Korea published in Asian Geographic Magazine. An unusual story of some aspects of life in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea which is closed since early 2020.
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My visit in 1993 was during a unique period in Bagan's history, a moment when the site was more of a "living ruin" before the large-scale restorations and the international recognition that came with UNESCO status.
I experienced the temples in a way that is no longer possible for most visitors today, making this memory a truly special one.
Here is the story and my photographs bringing back some of the memories of this unique journey.