Josef Jindřich Šechtl (May 9, 1877 – February 24, 1954) was a
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
photographer
A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographers
As in other ...
who specialized in
photojournalism and portrait photography. On the death of his father, photographer
Ignác Šechtl
Ignác Šechtl (26 May 1840 – 6 July 1911), also known as Ignace Schächtl or Hynek Šechtl, was a pioneer of Czech photography (especially photojournalism) and cinematography. He moved from Prague, to Kladno, Plzeň, Bucharest, Prachatice and ...
, Josef inherited the photographic studios of
Šechtl & Voseček.
Early years
Josef Jindřich Šechtl was born in
Tábor
Tábor (; german: Tabor) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
Administrative parts
The followi ...
, South Bohemia, on May 9, 1877, as the second of three children. His father,
Ignác Šechtl
Ignác Šechtl (26 May 1840 – 6 July 1911), also known as Ignace Schächtl or Hynek Šechtl, was a pioneer of Czech photography (especially photojournalism) and cinematography. He moved from Prague, to Kladno, Plzeň, Bucharest, Prachatice and ...
, had opened his photographic studio in Tábor in 1876, and thus Josef Jindřich was influenced by photography from his childhood.
After finishing lower high school in Tábor, the boy was particularly interested in
chemigraphy (a method of printing photographs). In 1891 (at the age of 14) he started to work as a trainee in the polygraphic factory of Jan Vilím in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
. After two years, in 1893, he changed jobs to work as a photographer in the studio of
František Krátký in
Kolín
Kolín (; german: Kolin, Neu Kolin, Collin) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
Administra ...
. Krátký's studio specialized in
stereoscopy and publishing photographs as educational tools,
[František Krátký: Pictures from Italy, 1897]
, 8th Exhibition of Šechtl a Voseček Museum of Photography on-line (a biography of František Krátký). Accessed 8 May 2007. allowing Josef Jindřich to further develop his interests in photographic printing.
His certificate of a completed apprenticeship, written in 1906 by his father Ignác Šechtl, also certifies his studies in the Šechtl & Voseček studios in the period 1892–1895, apparently in parallel with his jobs in Prague and Kolín. At 22, after serving in the army (1898–1899), he started work in the affiliated Šechtl & Voseček studio in
Černovice u Tábora, a town near Tábor. At this time his father Ignác was travelling with his cinematograph (motion pictures), and the Tábor studio was run by Ignác's partner
Jan Voseček.
Photographic career
Josef Jindřich Šechtl had a wide variety of interests in photography, including
portrait photography
Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait photograph may be artistic or clinical. Frequentl ...
,
photojournalism, documenting changes in the town of
Tábor
Tábor (; german: Tabor) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
Administrative parts
The followi ...
, photography of architecture,
film, color photography using the
Autochrome process,
street photography
Street photography (also sometimes called candid photography) is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Although there is a difference between street and ca ...
using an early
Leica camera, and
fine art photography
Fine-art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as artist, using photography as a medium for creative expression. The goal of fine-art photography is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion. This stand ...
influenced by photographic
pictorialism
Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...
(including use of the
bromoil process).
Since the photographs from the Šechtl & Voseček studio are not usually signed by the particular photographer, it is not clear which photographs taken during 1897–1911 were taken by Josef Jindřich or Ignác Šechtl. Josef Jindřich's influence on the work of studio is however apparent. Soon after the start of his career, the studio started to publish large photo essays on important events, and produced postcards signed Šechtl & Voseček. The earliest of these larger photo essays — from an exhibition in
Sedlčany, the
Sokol
The Sokol movement (, ''falcon'') is an all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech region of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was based upon the principle of " a strong mind in a ...
gymnastic festival (Slet), or the arrival of
Austrian
Austrian may refer to:
* Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent
** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law
* Austrian German dialect
* Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
Emperor
Franz Joseph I
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...
— contained about twenty photographs each. The essays however quickly grew larger, and the Regional Exhibition in Tábor in 1902 was recorded in over 100 photographs.
The main source of income for the studio however remained its studio work, in which Josef Jindřich excelled: despite the provincial location of the studio, his works were comparable with those of the best Czech portrait studios.
[Portraits by Šechtl & Voseček studios](_blank)
Šechtl and Voseček Museum of Photography. Accessed 8 May 2007. His work is influenced by photographic
pictorialism
Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...
. He used various visual aids and decorations to help express the personality of his subjects, often with a gentle sense of humor. His skilful use of light and contrast with shadows achieved stunning visual effects.
Josef Jindřich Šechtl became a partner in the Šechtl & Voseček studio in 1904 and took complete control in 1911 after the death of his father. Under his lead the studio prospered, and in 1906 he opened an affiliated studio in
Pelhřimov
Pelhřimov (german: Pilgrams) is a town in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 16,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
Administrative parts
The ...
, while the studio also participated in the
Imperial Austrian Exhibition in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. In 1907, a new and modern studio was built on the main street of Tábor.
The photographic work of Josef Jindřich was very much influenced by Anna Stocká, whom he married in 1911. Anna loved art, and thanks to her charm the family befriended several artists living in Tábor, in particular the sculptor
Jan Vítězslav Dušek. In 1912 Josef Jindřich and Anna's daughter Ludmila was born, and all seemed well. Josef Jindřich didn't serve in the army during World War I, and thus had a chance to record life in Tábor during this period, including the fire that significantly damaged the Tábor studio in 1917. He recorded the fire in a unique photo-essay,
with several snapshots made on small-format sheet film, and for a record, a "reconstructed scene" made afterwards as an exact reconstruction of one of the snapshots, on a 13×18 cm glass plate negative.
Much more disastrous for his life than the fire was the death of Anna from a kidney disorder in 1925 just six months after, and precipitated by, the birth of their son, Josef Ferdinand Ignác. His second marriage, to teacher Božena Bulínová, in 1926, wasn't as happy; and Josef Jindřich began to concentrate more on work in the studio and less on family life.
In 1928 Josef Jindřich bought a
Leica camera and started recording life on
35mm film. His collected work on 35mm much of it for the illustrated weekly ''
Pestrý týden
Pestrý týden was a Czech illustrated weekly magazine published from 2 November 1926 to 28 April 1945, during the First and Second Czechoslovak Republics and during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It helped establish top photo-reporters ...
'', gives an interesting insight into the daily life of the photographer, his vacations in
Jáchymov
Jáchymov (); german: Sankt Joachimsthal or ''Joachimsthal'') is a spa town in Karlovy Vary District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,300 inhabitants.
The historical core of the town from the 16th century is we ...
and Yugoslavia, and his trip to the
Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 with his friend the sculptor Jan Vítězslav Dušek, as well as events of the Second World War and the early years of communist
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
.
During the life of Josef Jindřich, photography changed from a job that could be taken up and practised fairly freely to a regulated craft: first for portrait photography in 1911, and later in 1926 (despite the protests of many amateur photographers) it was declared a full-scale craft, requiring apprenticeship and a permit to practice. In 1948, the new communist government socialised all services, including photographic studios. The Šechtl & Voseček studio was turned into a syndicate and nationalized in 1951 and, as a former tradesman, Josef Jindřich Šechtl was granted a small pension (200
Kčs per month).
Josef Jindřich Šechtl died in Tábor on February 24, 1954, aged 76.
Fine art photography
The Šechtl & Voseček studios were advertised as artistic studios with a special focus on portraits of women and children. Josef Jindřich Šechtl did a number of works in fine art photography; however, most of these photographic prints either have been lost or are in private collections. Many of his architectural photographs have a great artistic quality, in particular those of the old town of Tábor, and his booklet ''Kutná Hora'' on
that town.
He was among the few professional photographers in the
Bohemia experimenting successfully with the
bromoil process[Bromoil prints](_blank)
by Josef Jindřich Šechtl, Šechtl and Voseček Museum of Photography. Accessed 8 May 2007. and
Autochrome processes.
[Autochromes](_blank)
Šechtl and Voseček Museum of Photography. Accessed 8 May 2007.
Photo essays
Josef Jindřich Šechtl did most of his work in the limits of the Tábor region of southern Bohemia. However, within these limits, he captured a number of important historical events, and portrayed in great detail life in the Czech countryside. A number of his photo essays have been preserved, either on
glass plate negatives or on nitrate films. Until 1911 the photo essays were done in collaboration with his father, Ignác Šechtl, and until the 1930s, with Jan Voseček.
Josef Jindřich Šechtl was, from 1927, among the first photographers in Czechoslovakia to use the
Leica 35mm film camera.
Selected photo essays preserved in the archive:
Archive of the negatives
After the death of Josef Jindřich Šechtl the glass plate negatives remained stored in the building of the former Šechtl and Voseček studio and were inherited by his son Josef Šechtl. Josef worked as the head of the new syndicate into which the former Šechtl and Voseček studio was turned, and his wife
Marie Šechtlová worked as an employee. The communist regime was afraid of what might be seen in Josef Jindřich's photo essays made during the Nazi occupation, and particularly worried that its own members might be revealed as having collaborated. The family was asked to pass the negatives to the "cultural house" (Dům Osvěty) but decided to keep them in private ownership. As a result, Josef Šechtl was arrested in November 1957 and jailed for one year (ostensibly for taking a photograph of a wedding without permission to practise as a photographer) and the majority of the archive was confiscated shortly afterwards.
[Chronology of Josef Šechtl's life](_blank)
2nd Exhibition of Šechtl and Voseček Museum of Photography. Accessed 9 May 2007. Marie Šechtlová was tipped off about the impending confiscation, and the night before it brought what she thought were the most important negatives into their new house. A considerable amount of the confiscated material was destroyed but the rest was stored in the Regional Archive in Tábor.
(Marie Šechtlová's memories), 2nd Exhibition of Šechtl and Voseček Museum of Photography. Accessed 9 May 2007. In the 1970s the syndicate was relocated to the main square and the Tábor studio destroyed to allow the Hotel Palcát to be built in its place. This led to the destruction of most of the cameras, photographic prints and other items still in the attic of the building. The studio in Pelhřimov (an important example of functionalist architecture by
Karel Chochola) survived but was significantly damaged by being abandoned and allowed to decay for years.
A result of these events was that the work of Josef Jindřich Šechtl was rarely presented during the communist period.
After the
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...
in 1989 the Pelhřimov studio was returned to Marie Šechtlová. A book that was already in preparation presenting photographs of Ignác Šechtl, Josef Jindřich Šechtl, Josef Šechtl and Marie Šechtlová was published.
In 2004 a project to digitize and publish on the internet the surviving negatives by Šechtl and Voseček studios was started,
[Archive Digitization Project](_blank)
Accessed 9 May 2007. and the private Šechtl and Voseček Museum of Photography was opened in Tábor.
Accessed 9 May 2007.
Chronology
References
Further reading
* Albrecht, V. ''25 roků ve službách černého umění.'' Praha 1930. Pages 52–53.
* Augusta, Pavel, and Hana Klínková, eds. ''Kniha o městě Tábor.'' Praha: Milpo, 2001. .
* ''Český svět,'' Vol. 1-18., 1918. (Published photographs of
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Tomáš () is a Czech and Slovak given name, equivalent to the name Thomas.
It may refer to:
* Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937), first President of Czechoslovakia
* Tomáš Baťa (1876–1932), Czech footwear entrepreneur
* Tomáš Berdyc ...
with captions.)
* Krajíc, Rudolf, and Bohumil Smrčka. ''Tábor, jak jej fotografovali v letech 1876-1996 Šechtlovi.'' Tábor: Město Tábor, odbor školství, kultury a tělovýchovy 1997.
* Scheufler, Pavel. ''Galerie c. k. fotografů.'' Praha: Grada, 2001. .
* Scheufler, Pavel, et al. ''Jižní Čechy objektivem tří generací.'' České Budějovice: Jihočeské nakl., 1989. .
* ''Slovanský sokol, Cizinecký ruch.'' 1912. pp. 258–260. (Published photographs of Serbian
Sokol
The Sokol movement (, ''falcon'') is an all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech region of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was based upon the principle of " a strong mind in a ...
.)
* Hubička, Jan; Musil, Josef, ''Šechtl & Voseček: A History of the Studio'', Tábor: Marie Šechtlová 2009.
* Moucha, Josef, ''Josef Jindřich Šechtl: Photographer's Diary, 1928–1954'', Tábor: Marie Šechtlová 2013,
* Hubičková, Eva; Vybíral, Zdeňek, ''Tábor'', Prague: Paseka, .
External links
Digital archive project of Šechtl & Voseček studios*
ttp://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/josef.html Biography on Šechtl & Voseček webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sechtl, Josef Jindrich
1877 births
1954 deaths
People from Tábor
Czech people of German descent
Czech photographers
Portrait photographers
Austro-Hungarian photographers