JAN POSSELT: PHOTOGRAPHS

Curator: Jan Mlčoch
Assistant: Jitka Štětková
Graphic design: Štěpán Malovec

Jan Posselt’s Smíchov studio was among the first to prefer artificial lighting. Besides portraiture, he took up documentary photography, advertising photography, and ultimately also reproduction photography – noteworthy in this field is his authoritative book The Royal Capital Prague published in 1912. The scope of his pursuits was very broad indeed, yet he found time to produce independent photographs that he sent to various exhibitions; he also took part in numerous competitions. To make positive prints, he employed the bromoil print process; for his documentary and advertising photography he used modern bromide silver papers. He was among the first to employ the natural colour technique.

Jan Posselt’s legacy was remembered by Rudolf Skopec, Pavel Scheufler and Vladimír Birgus, together with the author of this text. However, his importance was best appreciated by Antonín Dufek in 1981, who – in connection with the Brno exhibition Czech Photography 1918–1938 – described him as “an extraordinarily progressive professional of the earlier generation (of photographers)”. Despite Jan Posselt being a founder of modern Czech photography, this is his first solo exhibition which, in a sense, is a repayment of a debt we owe him and his oeuvre.