69 1989
NATIONAL GALLERY IN PRAGUE
EXHIBITION CATALOG
How did photographers reflect the year of 1989 in Czechoslovakia? This exhibition catalog commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. It also seeks to examine 1989, a turning point in many respects, from the distance of the three decades that have passed. It was critical for both Czech society at large and photography in particular. It marked 150 years since the discovery of the medium, and probably without photographers suspecting this, it was the final year they would spend working in the institutional framework they had been used to for years. The lives of many changed radically after the revolution, as they could now enjoy the freedoms, engage in business, hold exhibitions and create freely. The very medium of photography dissolved in a syncretism of new approaches and shortly afterwards also underwent a transformation of its technological foundations.