This publication presents eight Czech photographers of Slovak origin
working in Prague in the 1970s and 80s: Tono Stano, Rudo Prekop, Vasil
Stanko, Martin Strba, Miro Svolík, Kamil Varga, Peter Zupník and Jano
Pavlík, known collectively as "the Slovak New Wave." The
group--described variously as "photographers living in Bohemia" or
"Czech photographers of Slovak origin"--constitutes a kind of shared
cultural asset for both countries and an interesting phenomenon for
anyone studying the links between Czech and Slovak photography. In the
1970s and 1980s, FAMU was the only higher-education establishment in
Central Europe that taught photography, and it is perhaps surprising
that the members of the Slovak New Wave remained uninfluenced by the
Czech photographic tradition and were able to create their own unique
identity at FAMU. Despite--or possibly because of--the fact that this
was never an organized group with a declared statement of purpose, their
relatively homogeneous visual language became one of the first examples
of postmodernism in Czechoslovakia. This volume gives special emphasis
to works that were never exhibited at the time, or were shown only on
the fringe of the scene.
