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Czechoslovakian photographer Frantisek Drtikol was born in 1883 in the city
of Pribram. He is considered a master of photography. His work can be very
harsh and geometric reflecting the direction of artists and the burgeoning
industrialization of the world during the period. His photographic work has
some of the same elements of Roye and Gerhard Riebicke. Frantisek worked as
an apprentice in his hometown of Pribram. He then went to Germany to study
photography at the Munich Lehrund Versuchsanstalt fur Photographie during
1901-1903.
When he finished his study, he returned to his homeland where he had a stint
in the military. He then worked for other studious and eventually opened his
own studio in Prague. His studio was very successful and well known in Europe
during the 1920s. He specialized in portraiture of artists and writers.
Drtikol painted some of the backdrops for his models. He eventually replaced
his models with painted cutout versions, a process he called photopurism.
Frantisek continued in this direction and eventually turned his creativity
entirely towards painting. Sometime during the early 1930s, Frantisek Drtikol
sold everything he had related to photography including all of his glass
plates, negatives and his studio. He continued painting living his life as a
hermit and enjoyed studying eastern mysticism. Drtikol was buried in his
hometown of Pribram in 1961 without flowers or an obituary to celebrate his
life and work.
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