Dates:
20 September – 7 October 2018
Entrance fee:
80 CZK / 40 CZK, including entrance to adjacent exhibition in the CPC Small Hall
Venue
Large Hall CPC
Seydlerova 2835/4
Prague 5 (Nové Butovice)
See on map
A man with an incredible memory who had seen the whole world before he had reached his forties, legendary traveller and ethnographer Miloslav Stingl has managed to record human stories not just through words, but also through photography. We sat down with the author of Stingl’s biography, Adam Chroust, to select his most fascinating shots which we have used to put together this exhibition. It begins in the Czech Photo Centre gallery on 19 September and continues until 7 October. His portrait photographs are accompanied by the iconic suitcases he used to travel to many different destinations.
The selection of photographs represents an excursion to the travels around the world the ethnographer has undertaken. There are shots of the characteristic Cuban Indians whom Stingl discovered on his expeditions. Visitors will also see photos from his secret trip to the residence of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama. All his photographs offer above all unique testimony to their time. Over the twenty years Miloslav Stingl spent travelling, the world changed before his eyes.
At a time of sealed and closed borders and at the height of the Cold War, he travelled through a hundred and fifty countries across the world. He experienced the Cuban blockade, discovered the ruins of Mayan cities, assisted at the birth of Inuit babies in the Arctic, and has mastered seventeen world languages and dialects. Key to his success was his approach to work: he did not push for an official role, did not weary himself in battling with rivals, and made sure he did not give anyone reason to find him bothersome. In 1962, Miloslav Stingl’s travel and research career moved to a new level. The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (ČSAV) was recruiting for a researcher of Latin America. He managed to get the position, which over six hundred other candidates had also applied for. Over his ten years at ČSAV, Miloslav Stingl spent time studying and working at over fifty universities and research institutions abroad.
With increasing liberalisation within Czechoslovakia, in 1967–1968 he undertook an extensive journey around the world, during which he visited native Inuits in the Canadian Arctic, North American Indian tribes in the USA, travelled across dozens of islands in Oceania, stayed with the Maori in New Zealand, visited the descendants of cannibals in New Guinea, native Aborigines in Australia and the Batak and natives from the island of Nias in Indonesia. It was the very first time he had been allowed to visit this world-renowned focus of research into ethnography and social anthropology. In 1969–1970 he travelled to the Caribbean and the South American states, including Easter Island, visiting the whole of Micronesia a year later.
The exhibition will be open from 20 September to 7 October every day except Mondays. From Tuesday to Friday always from 11.00am until 6.00pm, and at weekends from 10.00am until 6.00pm. Standard entrance is 80 CZK, or 40 CZK for concessions. The gallery is located 100 metres from metro station Nové Butovice at the address Seydlerova 2835/4, Prague 5.
Contact and further information: Czech Photo Centre: Public relations – Anna Vacková +420 777 09 36 90, vackova@czechpressphoto.cz, www.czechphoto.org
Press release for download in .docx Press release along with photographs for download in .zip
Photo: Miloslav Stingl
