Viktor Kronbauer

Description

The monograph Viktor Kronbauer – Theatre Photography is the 700th publication of the Institute of Arts – Theatre Institute. It is a representative book whose main narrative value is, of course, the image – photography. The selection of images illustratively and impressively presents Viktor Kronbauer’s artistic journey from his photographic beginnings (school work, the first steps of his free work), through the period when he worked as a photographer (mainly as a portraitist) in the Czech Philharmonic, to foreign productions (with special emphasis on the Prague Theatre Festival of the German Language).

The main section, which is dedicated to Czech theatre productions, performances and projects, traces the journey of Czech theatre from the early 1980s to the present day, with its flagship and semi-forgotten, yet interesting productions. The National Theatre, the Theatre on the Balustrade, the Comedy Theatre, the Brno-based Husa na provázku Theatre, as well as alternative projects of the Continuo Theatre, the Farm in the Cave and the site-specific projects of Miroslav Bambušek are represented. The concept of the book reflects the development of Kronbauer’s work, both from a technological and artistic point of view.

In the first “black-and-white” phase of his work, he processes the influence of his teacher Jaroslav Krejčí in an individual creative way. The transition to digital colour format in 2003, in which not every photographer succeeded, in turn gave Kronbauer the impetus for a new stage of his career, in which he found his unique artistic signature. He was able to make the most of this fundamental technological change, his work with colour composition is unparalleled in Czech theatre photography. The book speaks both of the great, time-honoured, irreplaceable talent of the photographer and of the theatre.

The publication won the Divadelní noviny Award in the category of Publication in the field of theatre in 2017.

The editor of the publication is Denisa Št’astná, the author of the graphic design is Karel Aubrecht. The authors of the accompanying texts are Viktor Kronbauer, Ondřej Černý, Eva Stehlíková and Vlasta Smoláková. The book has 408 pages and is in Czech-English version.