The Current Make-Up on the Face of Eternity
Famous photographer Jindřich Štreit has been working for two years on the documentary project, "People of the Olomouc District of 90´s of the 20th century. In the first period (1993), he caught the life of the inhabitants of the districts of Šternberk, Litovel and Uničov. The pictures of Olomouc, Náměšť and Hlubočky were taken the following year. Jindřich Štreit (born in 1946) has taken, in total, more than 24 000 pictures. The documentary value of the cycle is not irrelevant. It catches the world of actual people in the actual time of the reversal of society. In no way is it merely reportage. The author printed his own pictures, even in their unique artistic sizes. Along the edge of the published book of pictures from this, Antonín Dufek wrote: "Štreit… doesn't build his collection as a confrontation of an new one and a old one. He always concentrates on the continuation of the life values, to the eternity of the motto of human behavior. Many foreign documentaries specialize on extreme social demonstrations, ... he manages to incorporate something organic to what he sees. The present time for him is like make-up on the face of eternity. He reports on the tradition of humanistic photography and the tradition of Czech culture that is influenced by surrealism. Because of his sense for generally communicative values, Štreit's work can speak to the people in photographed region, like to the audiences all over the world."
The project arose from the request from the District Office in Olomouc, that has been inspired by similar photographic series Jindřich Štreit created for the French district of Saint Quentin. The understanding of the mayors of cities and municipal offices, the management of the firms working in this district, created the possibilities of this project. It was above all their understanding, and their acceptance of Štreit into their life.
We can compare the artistic side of the photographic series, "People of the Olomouc District", with the famous domestic cycles of the Sixties - "The Pilgrims of Markéta Luskačová" or "The Gypsies of Josef Koudelka" - as well as with the work of many of the World masters of documentary photography. But it is relatively the first realization of his sort in so great an extent. (…)
Ivan Matějka, Hospodářské noviny, 25. 4. 1996