Monday’s KVIFF Talk was dedicated to the Czech cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera. In addition to showing a montage of his films and archive materials, a monography In Between Images: Cinematographer’s Jaroslav Kučera Media Practices was presented, being a critical review of the inheritance of the long-term lecturer at the Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) and collaborator of Věra Chytilová, Vojtěch Jasný or Karel Kachyňa.
The extensive publication, which presents certain never-before published materials, does not focus only on the work of Jaroslav Kučera, but rather provides a general view on the perception of a visual artist, also in the context of the Czechoslovak photography in the second half of 1990’s. “The book strives to identify typical procedures and processes used by photographers, as well as the manner of expressing the artists’ imagination through colour, composition and surface,” Kateřina Svatoňová, the author of the publication, explains.
The contents of the book were further described by graphic designer Aleš Najbrt: “The book includes film screenshots and materials created by Kučera in the preparatory phase of his films – various sketches and photographs, which nonetheless could as such be perceived as artwork. There are also some of his paintings from 1960’s that have been preserved. Kučera’s cinematography was indeed very artistic.”
