Podcast Behind the scenes: Four soldiers and two girls in bed. World War 1 images are a treasure

The Ve Věž gallery in Mělník currently has a treasure that gradually appeared in old boxes and in forgotten bags in the attic. There, photographer and curator Jaroslav Kučer managed to exhibit pictures from the First World War side by side for the first time, taken by five Czech soldiers: Jindřich Bišický, Gustav Brož, Jan Myšička, Karel Neubert and Jenda Rajman. So far, their photos have not appeared in a joint exhibition.

“I received the first collection of photographs from the First World War from Honza Mach, also a journalist, plus or minus in 1973. We didn’t know what to do with it. It was not possible to exhibit it then, there was no interest in such things under the Communists. We stored it in an old cupboard, which I had in my studio at home. After thirty years I needed to shut down the cupboard while painting and suddenly I rediscovered boxes full of negatives from an unknown soldier,” says Jaroslav Kučera about how the unique collection was born. “I found it to be a fantastic treasure.

Several exhibitions followed in 2004 and 2009. But it was not yet known who was the author of the photographs. This came to light during the large and very successful exhibition of the “unknown soldier” photos at Prague Castle. “It turned out that he was Jindřich Bišický, the staff photographer of the 47th regiment,” says Kučera.

“When photography theorist and critic Daniela Mrázková saw it (she was a co-curator at the time, editor’s note)wrote that such a collection has no parallels in the history of photography,” states Kučera and adds that although there are excellent individual images from the front line, which were created for example for contemporary newspapers, the images by Czech photographers are completely different. They document in detail and systematically ordinary life of soldiers on and near the front.

“It was known that the famous André Kertész photographed the First World War, but unfortunately his negatives did not survive. He lost them during the Hungarian revolution in 1919,” says Kučera.

After the first exhibitions of Jindřich Bišický’s pictures, no one expected what would follow. Other unique shots from other Czech photographers appeared. “A miracle happened. Josef Moucha, a journalist and photographer, called me. He heard about a person who had a box in his attic with twelve kilograms of negatives. It was Josef Bohuňovský, I immediately went to see him and he really brought a box full of negatives with copies and original labels ,” describes Kučera. “You have never seen such a luxurious collection. They were photos of Jan Myšička.”

Then Gustav Brož’s photographs were added. Another was Jenda Rejman’s photo collection. “He was a book printer from Rožďalovice, his brother arranged for him to serve in military hospitals, so he didn’t have to go directly to the fighting. Although no negatives survived after him, only photographs – but he sent them as postcards. He used them to write messages home to his beloved Anička, to his parents even to his brother and described how he misses him. That is also a treasure above all treasures,” says Jaroslav Kučera in the After the End podcast.

The new discoveries resulted in another large exhibition, but this one lacked Jindřich Bišicky’s original pictures. Everything together can only be seen now in Mělník.

In the podcast, Kučera briefly reflects on one of Gustav Brož’s photographs, whose original caption reads: In our kitchen with local girls. In the picture, dressed soldiers are lying and next to them two girls are sleeping. “And now you imagine what happened when the photographer went out. If anything happened at all, because that time was different than it is today. And guys were probably brought up differently than they are now,” reflects Kučera.

He was equally fascinated by the fact that other photographs depict real “puffles”, i.e. officers’ servants. “We all know them from Švejk, but here you can see them in reality,” he states and adds: “They are wonderful documentary photographs that make you wonder – where did it roll for those ninety years?” Anyway, now we can see them at the exhibition in the Ve věži gallery in Mělník, which will last until mid-June.