Vladimír Dousek

* 1942

  • "After graduation, I went to study as a photographer because I wanted to go to college to study camera, but I was too young, they haven't taken me yet. So, I went to study as a photographer and only then I went to FAMU to study camera. When I graduated from FAMU, I was serving in military in Milovice, which was occupied by Russian soldiers at the time, because they had some military exercises in the spring and all the Russian, Polish, German, Bulgarian armies were here, and they had their headquarters in Milovice. There was the main command of the whole exercise, it ended sometime in May and they all left, just the Russians stayed there. Back in the year 1968, they knew it from the beginning or were preparing for that August. They kept what they had in those barracks, and then, when the tanks arrived, the whole headquarters was in Milovice, where they had it ready a long time ago. They just said they couldn't leave the exercise, that they ought to stay. So they stayed there for 20 years and I was coincidentally in the war at the time, so I remember it very well."

  • "I got into photography in 1955, I know that very accurately. There's a camera over there, I deliberately brought it here, you can look at it. I got it for Christmas in 1955 and it's a completely primitive camera, East German, her name is Altissa. Something similar was made in our country, it was called Pioneer, it was all made of a plastic named bakelite. But as it was from bakelite, and when it was in the sun, it wasn't completely light-tight. The film was covered in gray from the beginning. But this was a really good camera, for a 6 x 9 film and 6 x 6 centimeters negatives. I had a grandfather who had been involved in photography before the war and had a beautiful villa in the Kokorin valley, where I went on holiday. And he immediately said that when I got there in the summer, he would teach me how to process the photos."

  • "But to go back to why I put together the book about Berounka. They intended to make the dam there in Křivoklát, now they changed their minds that it probably wouldn't. But I thought that it could not be believed whether it will or will not, so I had some photos and I took something else and in that book there is a valley from Pilsen to Křivoklát. There are a lot of photos of what it really looked like there. There are beautiful castles, Krašov castle, Libštejn castle, Týřov castle. And under Skryjem, it flows through the landscape that Ota Pavel writes about. You know his books about Berounka, about fish, about golden eels. There is also his smokehouse in Kouřim. Today there is more traffic, but then it was an absolutely forgotten valley and there were only cottages. Today, Ota Pavel's hall is very nicely done there, at that time it was an ordinary cottage where some people lived. The most beautiful part of the river would be destroyed by some dam, which was already destroyed by the beautiful Vltava valley, which was full of old mills. And it would turn out the same with Berounka. Fortunately, they decided it wouldn't be there, but that can change at any time, and in that book it's preserved the way it once looked."

  • Full recordings
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    Černošice, 01.12.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 01:22:11
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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Through the camera viewfinder

Vladimír Dousek in his youth
Vladimír Dousek in his youth
photo: archiv Vladimíra Douska

Vladimír Dousek was born on January 26, 1942 in Prague, but he spent much of his life in Černošice, near the Berounka River. After graduation, he trained as a photographer and then started studying at FAMU. He completed his basic military service in Milovice, where he also experienced the August invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in 1968. He worked as a cameraman at Czechoslovak Television and participated in the filming of dozens of productions, theatre and concert recordings. In addition to the camera, he has devoted his entire life to landscape photography. He is mainly inspired by the surroundings of the Berounka River. He has published several photographic publications and exhibited his photographic works. He has devoted his entire life to various recreational sports, especially boating. In 2021 he lived in Černošice.