Markéta Luskačová (born 1944) is a Czech photographer known for her series of photographs taken in Slovakia, Britain and elsewhere. Considered one of the best Czech social photographers to date, since the 1990s she has photographed children in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and also Poland.

Biography

Luskačová was born in Prague. In 1968 she graduated from

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

there with a thesis on religion in Slovakia.Mellor, ''No Such Thing as Society,'' p. 53. During her stay in Slovakia, she became familiar with the old Christian rites and decided to return with a camera to document the surviving traditions. Her thesis was titled ''Poutě na Východním Slovensku'' (Pilgrimages in East Slovakia).''The Photogeny of Identity'' (2006), p. 205.. Following that she studied photography at FAMU, in this period photographing in Slovakia and Poland. From 1970 to 1972, Luskačová photographed stage performances of the ''Za branou'' theatre, founded by director

Otomar Krejča Otomar Krejča (23 November 1921 – 6 November 2009) was a Czech theatre director and dissident. Krejča was born in Skrýšov (now part of Pelhřimov), Czechoslovakia, on 23 November 1921. In 1956, he became a member of the Prague National Th ...

. However, the theatre was banned by communists in the spring of 1972. The same year, she was allowed to display the cycle ''Pilgrims'' in the Gallery of Visual Arts in Roudnice nad Labem (the curator of the exhibition was the photography theorist and art historian

Anna Fárová Anna Fárová (1 June 1928 – 27 February 2010) was a Czech art historian who specialized and catalogued Czech and Czechoslovak photographers, including František Drtikol and Josef Sudek. She was one of the pioneers of writing on history of photo ...

). In 1971, Luskačová married the poet Franz H. Wurm (native of Prague and a British citizen). Wurm, terrified by the "

Normalization Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Most commonly it refers to: * Normalization (sociology) or social normalization, the process through which ideas and behaviors that may fall outside of ...

" in Czechoslovakia, left the country and Luskačová asked the state authorities for permission to visit her husband abroad. After several short visits she received a form for emigration (1975) and went to live in England. However, in an interview she claimed: "Bohemia, Prague and Šumiac have never ceased to be my home. I always took my life abroad as a kind of stopgap that stretched to be a considerable part of my life." In the 1970s and 1980s, the communist censorship attempted to conceal her international reputation. Her works were banned in Czechoslovakia, and the catalogues for the exhibition ''Pilgrims'' in the Victoria and Albert Museum were lost on their way to Czechoslovakia. Luskačová started photographing London's markets in 1974. In the markets of Portobello Road,

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

and

Spitalfields Spitalfields is a district in the East End of London and within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The area is formed around Commercial Street (on the A1202 London Inner Ring Road) and includes the locale around Brick Lane, Christ Church, ...

, she " ounda vivid Dickensian staging". As a Magnum Photos nominee, Luskačová photographed

Chiswick Women's Aid Refuge is a United Kingdom charity providing specialist support for women and children experiencing domestic violence. It was founded by author and men's rights activist Erin Pizzey. Refuge provides a national network of specialist services, in ...

in the 1970s. Shortly afterwards, she and the photographer Chris Killip had a son, Matthew. The photographs remained unpublished until 2020.Ayla Angelos,
Markéta Luskačová's Chiswick Women's Aid 1976–77 is finally brought to light after 44 years
, It's nice that, 31 July 2020. Accessed 15 October 2020. In 2016 she self-published a collection of photographs of street musicians, mostly taken in the markets of east London, under the title ''To Remember: London Street Musicians 1975–1990,'' and with an introduction by John Berger.

Exhibitions

* ''Photographs from the Beaches'' (with Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen).

Side Gallery Side Gallery is a photography gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, run by Amber Film & Photography Collective. It opened in 1977 as Side Gallery and Cinema with a remit to show humanist photography "both by and commissioned by the group along with ...

( Newcastle), 1978.Side Gallery Exhibitions 1977–1994
, Amber Online. Archived by the Wayback Machine on 3 March 2016. * ''North Tyneside'' (with Isabella Jedrzejczyk, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen and Graham Smith). Side Gallery (Newcastle), 1981. * ''Pilgrims.'' Side Gallery (Newcastle), 1985. * ''Primary Concerns.'' Side Gallery (Newcastle), 1989. * ''Photographs of Spitalfields.'' Whitechapel Art Gallery (London), 1991. * ''Poutníci.'' Fotografická galerie Fiducia ( Ostrava), 2001–2002. * ''No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1968–1987.'' Aberystwyth Arts Centre; Tullie House, Carlisle; Ujazdów Castle, Warsaw; Luskačová is one of a number of photographers shown. * ''The Photogeny of Identity – The Memory of Czech Photography,''

National Museum of Photography The National Museum of Photography (''Nationale Fotomuseum'') is located in the Black Diamond, a modern waterfront extension to the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. History The National Museum of Photography, founded in 1996, moved into its cu ...

(Jindřichův Hradec), 2008. * ''The Third Side of the Wall: Photography in Czechoslovakia 1969–1988 from the Collection of the Moravian Gallery in Brno.'' Moravian Gallery in Brno, 2008–2009. * ''Markéta Luskačová,'' Tate Britain, London, January–May 2019.

Publications

Books of work by Luskačová

* ''Pilgrims: Victoria & Albert Museum.'' London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. . Exhibition catalogue. * ''Pilgrims.'' London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1985. . Exhibition catalogue, with text by John Berger. * Judlová, Marie. ''Markéta Luskačová.'' Prague: Galerie hlavního města Prahy, 1991. * ''Markéta Luskačová: Photographs of Spitalfields.'' London: Whitechapel Gallery, 1991. Exhibition catalogue. With 72 pages, 32 plates, and a preface by Catherine Lampert and texts by

David Widgery David Widgery (27 April 1947 – 26 October 1992) was a British Marxist writer, journalist, polemicist, physician, and activist. Biography Widgery was born in Barnet and grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire. He contracted polio as a child and ...

("Ripe bananas and stolen bicycles"), Mark Holborn and Chris Killip. * ''Markéta Luskačová: Fotografie ze Spitalfields (Londýn 1974–1990).'' Brno: Dům umění města Brna, 1995. . * ''Unknown Remembered: Photographs of Children, 1968-98.'' rague Galerie G4; Sydney: Stills Gallery, 1998. Exhibition catalogue, with text in Czech and English by Colin Osman. * ''Markéta Luskačová.'' Prague: Torst, 2001. . Book with introductory texts by Marie Klimešová, Gerry Badger, and

Josef Topol Josef Topol (1 April 1935 – 15 June 2015) was a Czech playwright. In 1965, he co-founded ''Divadlo za branou'', a theatre in Prague which was closed in 1972 after being banned by Czechoslovak government. In 1977 he signed Charter 77. He was ma ...

. * ''O smrti, o koních a jiných lidech / On Death and Horses and Other People: Maškary–Masks: 1999–2010: Roztoky–Únětice.'' oztoky Czech Republic: Sdružení Roztoč, 2011. . Catalogue of an exhibition, with short texts by Howard Bossen and Robert Silverio. * ''To Remember: London Street Musicians 1975–1990.'' rague: Markéta Luskačová 2016. . With texts in English and Czech by Luskačová, Howard Bossen and John Berger. * ''By the Sea: Photographs from the North East, 1976–1980.'' Bristol: RRB, 2019. Edition of 600 copies. .RRB's description
of ''By the Sea''.

Zines of work by Luskačová

* ''Chiswick Women's Aid 1976–77.'' Southport: Café Royal, 2020. Edition of 500 copies.Café Royal's description
of ''Chiswick Women's Aid 1976–77''. * ''Ireland 1972–73''. Southport: Café Royal, 2021. Edited by Craig Atkinson.Café Royal's description
of ''Ireland 1972–73''.

Notes

Sources

* * Mellor, David Alan. ''No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–1987: From the British Council and the Arts Council Collection.'' London: Hayward Publishing, 2007. . *

References

External links

*
Luskačová's work
at World Webphoto Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Luskacova, Marketa Living people 1944 births Photographers from Prague Czech women photographers Czech expatriates in England Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alumni Charles University alumni 20th-century photographers 20th-century Czech women artists 20th-century women photographers