Antonín Kratochvíl

Antonín Kratochvíl (1947) is an internationally recognized Czech photographer in the fields of reportage, documentary, and portrait photography. After fleeing Czechoslovakia in 1967, he spent several years in exile in Europe, including time in a refugee camp, in prison, and in the French foreign legion. He subsequently studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam before departing for the United States in 1972, where he worked for a number of prestigious newspapers and magazines such as Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Vogue, and Playboy. But he soon decided to follow the path of a freelance photojournalist, which took him to all corners of the world. His photographs capture daily life in areas suffering from war, humanitarian crises, and other disasters – the genocide in Rwanda, refugees from Bosnia and Afghanistan, victims of AIDS in Zimbabwe, drug smugglers in Myanmar and Guatemala. His portraiture work is equally powerful, and he has photographed numerous world-famous people, among them David Bowie, Liv Tyler, Willem Dafoe, and Bob Dylan. But he is interested in more than just glorifying a name; his portraits seek to capture the subject’s mental state, to be an introspective exploration of the human soul, regardless of fame or status. Kratochvíl is a four-time recipient of the prestigious World Press Photo award, a member of the 400 ASA association, and a founding member of the VII Photo Agency.