Famous+Photographer

= = __Miroslav Tichy__



1) Born on November 20th, 1926, Miroslav Tichy lived in Kyjov in the Czech Republic. He was the only son of Antonìn Tichý and Žofie Adamcovà. As an introverted child, he was always very interested in art and language, and, in his twenties, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. There, he became known as a very reputable painter, and studied for two years under Professor Jàn Želibský. Unfortunately, with the Soviet seizing of the Czechoslovakian government in 1948, the Academy’s ideals were forced to change, and Tichy started withdrawing from the mainstream art world, and then from society altogether. He left the Academy, and, after two years of mandatory military service, returned to his hometown, where he continued to paint, and even exhibit his work with other communism nonconformists. At one group show, Tichy suffered a psychotic episode, and was admitted into the Opava psychiatric ward. He was from then on under constant eye of the authorities as a dissident, resulting in being locked up in State clinics as an attempt to assimilate him. This treatment threw him further into withdrawal, and so began his journey into photography. He made his own cameras out of whatever trash he could find -- thread spools, roof shingles, drain pipes, or anything of the like, stuck together with asphalt for the body, and pieces of plexiglass sanded and polished with cigarette ashes and toothpaste for the lens. He began neglecting his personal appearance, wearing the same clothes every day and repairing them with wire and thread until they looked more like a fish net than clothing, and growing out his unruly hair and beard.

Turning away from painting, Tichy began roaming the streets of Kyjov for hours every day starting as early as 6 in the morning, looking for a particular photographic interest: women. Capturing upwards three rolls of film a day, Tichy especially frequented the town bus stop, swimming pool, and various parks, taking pictures sometimes through windows and fences, and from across the street. With most of his subjects not realizing he was surreptitiously taking photos of them, Tichy was able to capture hundreds of pictures of women, focusing a majority of them on the lower body, or framing them from behind. In the developing process, he used a homemade enlarger and cooking pots full of chemicals in a small shed lit by a bare bulb painted red. Though Tichy developed an average of almost 100 pictures a day for almost 50 years, only 6,000 remain known, as part of his post-processing procedure was to let the pictures lay strewn all over his home to be trampled on, forgotten, and feasted upon by rodents. Even so, he still cared about his photographs, framing them with coloured pencil lines and redefining curves within the shot, or mounting them on pieces of cardboard so they wouldn’t distort. With no attempt to categorize or even make a full collection of his photographs, many are lost or destroyed beyond repair.

In 1981, Tichy’s childhood neighbour started a 25 year venture to create an organization dedicated to preserving some of the remaining photographs as well as the 200-some pieces of oil paintings and sketches. Though Tichy did not fully approve of this because of his strive for self-sufficiency and the severing from society, the organization was the sole reason of Tichy’s recognition. Tichy denied all ties to the organization in 2009, but at that time already gained a substantial amount of notice due to a solo exhibition in 2004. Never having left Kyjov again, Miroslav Tichy passed away on April 12th, 2011, leaving behind thousands of examples of his surreptitious art form and carefully imperfect photographs.

2) As a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in the years following World War II, Tichy was exposed to the pre-war Modern art style, and was especially drawn to the Neoclassical type works by Picasso and Matisse. As well, nude models were used in abundance at the Academy until they were banned by the Communist Party. As a result, he turned to photography partly in secret to spite the Soviets, and capture the similar motifs of women and the female body. Tichy rejected the socialist realism of clean, precise, and proper, which is greatly reflected in his photography.

3) As a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in the years following World War II, Tichy was exposed to the pre-war Modern art style, and was especially drawn to the Neoclassical type works by Picasso and Matisse. As well, nude models were used in abundance at the Academy until they were banned by the Communist Party. As a result, he turned to photography partly in secret to spite the Soviets, and capture the similar motifs of women and the female body. Tichy rejected the socialist realism of clean, precise, and proper, which is greatly reflected in his photography. He worked under his maxim: “If you want to be famous, you have to be worse at something than everyone else in the world.”

4) Tichy’s work can be called Contemporary art, for he was active as a photographer after the 1950‘s, but is not set in one genre of photography. Rather, it includes aspects of outsider art, and more specifically, a surreptitious, voyeuristic, primitivist branch of photography. Though some critics have seen some of his work as borderline pornographic (brought upon as well by the negative connotation of the word “voyeurism”), others think the whole process of him making the camera, as well as the post-processing, make the pictures more creative, mysterious, and “beautifully flawed” than anything. Outsider art defines Tichy’s work a bit more, as it is described as “art created outside the boundaries of official culture” by people who have very minimal contact with the mainstream art world; Tichy made it a point to shun society’s expectations in every way possible.

5) Design elements apparent in this shot include framing (by the fence and the tree branch), direction (both of her head facing down, and the motion of her walking), and depth (use of foreground and background). The light is natural sunlight, cast overhead just in front of the subject's left arm. There is also a washed out corner, though it is most likely a post-processing error.This is a good representation of Tichy's work because the subject is unaware of the photo, and is also in a bathing suit, walking along what looks like a deck of a swimming pool, which is also very typical of Tichy. Also, the picture has been pen-framed and mounted on a crookedly cut piece of paper -- another trademark of Tichy.

Diagonal lines are the most notable in this picture. It is also interestingly cropped to suggest direction, and puts a obviously intended focus on the woman's lower body. The lack of depth and definition also also creates a somewhat simple and single point, highlighted by the streak of sunlight on her leg. Since she seems to be laying on the grass, and is speckled by shadow, the lighting is probably sunlight coming through tree branches from somewhere overhead. This picture displays in particular Tichy's hand-drawn frames, very typical of his favourite pictures.



The use of the fence as the foreground in this picture creates a subtle bit of depth, and also adds diagonal lines, complemented also by the slope of the woman's back. Also used is balance between the brightness of the subject and the darkness of her background, which effectively makes her stand out. The light shines onto the back of the woman from overhead. As like a majority of Tichy's photos, her face is obscured, and her whole head is particularly unnoticeable in this picture. The fence in the foreground is also very typical, since he shot candidly. Again, we see the decorated frame around the picture, this time slightly more elaborate.



Use of simple ad single point is powerful in this shot, which really reflects Tichy's strive for "beautifully flawed" pictures. The triangle created by the three most noticeable points on her face draws the viewer into the picture, and the lack of depth adds a definite sense of mystery. As well, her gaze off the shot is a good use of direction. There's no distinct light source in this picture, but it can be assumed it was taken outside with the sun overhead somewhere. Though this is not a very typical Tichy photograph because it is a close up on only the face of a woman, the mysterious tone the picture suggests and obscurity of her face is still very Tichy-esque.



Most notable about this picture is the multiple triangles produced by this woman's pose: in her arm, between her thigh and her torso, between one thigh and the other, and between the back leg and the ground. Direction is also suggested by the pointing of her leg and the direction her head is looking. The lighting illuminates her whole right side, and slightly from the top right corner. This pictures represents Tichy because he loved photographing women who inadvertently posed for him on his surreptitious shoots. The unknown woman will never know this fleeting pose was captured as a work of art.