In famous photographer’s family, there was a Nazi and a Sudeten German
Download image
Jiří Havel was born on the 9th of April in 1931 in Horní Branná. His father was a postmaster, his grandfather on mother’s side managed a large farm. Jiří spent the first years of his life in Košice in today’s Slovakia where his father was transferred by the Post but he started school back in Bohemia. Horní Branná became a Czech outpost after the Reich’s annexation of the Sudeten and after the occupation of the whole country, the village survived WWII without any damage. In 1944, the Vlasov army appeared there for a short time and a year later, the Germans on the run passed through the village. Jiří’s grandfather sold the farm; his dad, a National Socialist, refused to be lured to join the Communist Party and Jiří had problems later when applying to college and when searching for a job. In 1953, his grandparents lost their lifetime savings in the monetary reform. Jiří graduated from Railway College and got a job with the state railways. Since his childhood, he was enchanted by the Krkonoše mountains and by photography so he started photographing the mountains for postcards. Later, he would travel with the [state-owned] Čedok travel agency and he published several photography books on Africa, South America and European mountain ranges. In 1978, he joined the Association of Visual Artists [membership in this or similar organisation allowed the artists to be self-employed, otherwise one had to be employed or they would be arrested. Effectively, he didn’t have had to hold a day job]. Two years later he quit his job in the Czechoslovak Railways and became a freelance photographer. During the1980’s, he accompanied the mountain climber, Michal Šmíd, to the Himalayas. He continued with photography after the 1989 revolution as long as his health permitted. In 2022, he lived in Trutnov.
