50 YEARS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHY: EXERCISES FROM THE ARCHIVE

We cordially invite you to the opening of the exhibition 50 Years of the FAMU Department of Photography: Exercises from the Archive.
The opening will take place on Thursday, September 25, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. in Gallery A.1 HYB4, Hybernská 4, Prague 1.

The exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the FAMU Department of Photography takes an unconventional approach – as a return to the period that gave rise to and shaped the early years of the independent department.

It recalls the years 1967–1974, when the Cabinet of Photography emerged within what was then the Department of Film Photography (today the Department of Cinematography), and in particular the time after 1975, when – thanks to the significant contribution of Prof. Ján Šmok – the Department of Photography was established as an independent entity. The profile of graduates at that time was shaped primarily by a system of compulsory exercises that every student had to complete. The exhibition therefore presents the department precisely through examples of these exercises, drawn from the Department of Photography Archive in the Beroun Studio and from the archive of final projects preserved at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague (UMPRUM).

The exhibited works, which shaped the first generations of graduates, bear a strong imprint of the time of their creation. This is not a showcase of “the best,” but rather a reflection of a teaching system that, even in the difficult years of normalization, managed to preserve a space for creative freedom. With the advent of digital photography around the year 2000, the practice of archiving student exercises gradually came to an end – and it is here that our retrospective concludes. The department’s present-day profile is represented in a parallel exhibition at GAMU Gallery.

Curators: Martin Stecker and Jan Havel

The exhibition will run in A.1 HYB4 Gallery from September 26 to November 15.
Gallery opening hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The introductory photograph is by Libuše Jarcovjáková.

The project is realized with the financial support of the City of Prague.
The exhibition is held under the auspices of JUDr. Jiří Pospíšil, Deputy Mayor of the City of Prague.

The exhibition and accompanying catalogue were created at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague as part of the project Archive of the FAMU Department of Photography: Processing, Research, Presentation, supported by institutional funding for the long-term conceptual development of a research organization, provided by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in 2025.