Markéta Luskačová facts for kids
Markéta Luskačová (born in 1944) is a well-known photographer from the Czech Republic. She is famous for her photo series taken in Slovakia, Britain, and other places. Many people think she is one of the best social photographers from her country. Since the 1990s, she has focused on photographing children. She has taken these pictures in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland.
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Early Life and Studies
Markéta Luskačová was born in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. In 1968, she finished her studies at Charles University in Prague. Her main project was about religion in Slovakia.
While she was in Slovakia, she learned about old Christian traditions. She decided to go back with her camera. She wanted to take pictures of these traditions that were still happening. Her university project was called Pilgrimages in East Slovakia. After this, she studied photography at FAMU. During this time, she continued taking photos in Slovakia and Poland.
Photography and Moving to England
From 1970 to 1972, Luskačová photographed plays at the Za branou theatre. This theatre was started by a director named Otomar Krejča. However, the government stopped the theatre from operating in 1972. In the same year, she showed her photo series called Pilgrims. This exhibition was at the Gallery of Visual Arts in Roudnice nad Labem.
In 1971, Luskačová married a poet named Franz H. Wurm. He was also from Prague but was a British citizen. He left Czechoslovakia because of the difficult political situation. Luskačová asked the government for permission to visit her husband. After a few short visits, she was allowed to move to England in 1975. She later said that Prague and Slovakia always felt like home to her.
Challenges and New Projects
During the 1970s and 1980s, the government tried to hide her international fame. Her photos were not allowed to be shown in Czechoslovakia. Even the catalogs for her Pilgrims exhibition, which was at the Victoria and Albert Museum, went missing.
Luskačová started taking pictures of London's markets in 1974. She found these markets to be very lively places. She photographed markets like Portobello Road, Brixton, and Spitalfields. She felt they were like scenes from old stories.
She also photographed Chiswick Women's Aid in the 1970s. This was a place that helped women. Later, she had a son named Matthew with photographer Chris Killip. Her photos from Chiswick Women's Aid were not shown until 2020.
In 2016, she published a book of her photos. It was called To Remember: London Street Musicians 1975–1990. These photos were mostly of street musicians in east London markets.
Exhibitions
- Photographs from the Beaches (with Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen). Shown at Side Gallery in Newcastle, 1978.
- North Tyneside (with Isabella Jedrzejczyk, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen and Graham Smith). Shown at Side Gallery in Newcastle, 1981.
- Pilgrims. Shown at Side Gallery in Newcastle, 1985.
- Primary Concerns. Shown at Side Gallery in Newcastle, 1989.
- Photographs of Spitalfields. Shown at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, 1991.
- Poutníci. Shown at Fotografická galerie Fiducia in Ostrava, 2001–2002.
- No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1968–1987. Shown at Aberystwyth Arts Centre; Tullie House, Carlisle; Ujazdów Castle, Warsaw. Markéta Luskačová was one of many photographers in this show.
- The Photogeny of Identity – The Memory of Czech Photography. Shown at the National Museum of Photography in Jindřichův Hradec, 2008.
- The Third Side of the Wall: Photography in Czechoslovakia 1969–1988 from the Collection of the Moravian Gallery in Brno. Shown at the Moravian Gallery in Brno, 2008–2009.
- Markéta Luskačová. Shown at Tate Britain, London, January–May 2019.
