1900 Born January 22 in Lásenice (No. 11),
district of Jindřichův Hradec
Father: Ondřej (publican, game warden, head of hunting association)
Mother: Kateřina, née Beránková, 7 brothers and sister
1907 Begins compulsory school education in a small
neighboring town where he has to walk 4 kilometers daily through a
forest.
1914 Ends his apprenticeship as a smith in Nová Bystřice in
the Czech-Moravian Highlands, commuting 10 kilometers on a bicycle.
1914-1918 As smith and locksmith journeyman conscripted in
the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s army, first stationed at České
Budějovice, then relocated in Vienna and Tirol; returns from Italian
front on October 25, 1918, three days before the proclamation of an
independent Czechoslovak Republic.
1918 On Independence Day (October 28) leaves for Prague,
settling there permanently.
1918-1926 Employed as metal worker in the Ringhoffer Company
at Prague’s Smíchov, later as tram conductor and driver (No. 36)
with Prague Transit Authority; active in the Sokol Association in
Malá Strana district.
1920 Takes up photography using a Special Aplanat 9x12 cm
plate camera; enchanted by the medium he takes pictures of his
friends, parents, brothers and sister and his future wife Vlasta;
brings the camera even to work and captures events in Prague streets
from the viewpoint of a tram driver.
1925 Photographs famous singer Ema Destinová (Emmy Destinn)
for the Pestrý týden magazine, his story is printed also in the
magazine’s foreign edition (LIchtbild); as member of the Malá Strana
District Sokol Chapter participates in an athletic championship of
the Bílá Hora Area Chapter, winning first prizes in several
competitions.
Marries his first wife, Vlasta Havlíčková who gives birth of their
son, Miloš.
1926 During summer vacations in his native Lásenice takes
pictures using a special filter, exhibiting them later under his
name.
1928 Invests a sum of 100 crowns in photographic material and
enters his pictures in a contest ran by the Pestrý týden magazine,
winning first recognition including a prize from Lichtbild, the
Berlin edition of the Pestrý týden which prints practically all of
his pictures, giving him even covers.
The acclaim opens new opportunities and he buys a 6x9 cm reflex
camera of an unknown make. He joins the Czech Amateur Photography
Club in Nekázanka Street, enjoying the position of a respected elite
member. After several months he is asked to sit on the Club’s panel
judging pictures submitted by membership, his work attracts notice
at various exhibitions and finds its way into newspapers and
magazines. He buys a Rolleiflex. It is a year of acclaim and
personal rise.
1929 He remains an employee of the Prague Transit Authority
and together with Otakar Wunsch, editor of the transport workers’
monthly Jednota (Unity), he participates in the strike of Prague
tram crews. He photographs danceuse J. Nikolská and actress Leopolda
Dostálová and collaborates with V. Jírů and J. Krupka.
1930 Divorces his first wife.
Together with his friend and assistant, „Sailor“ Škába lives „in the
tower“ on Prague’s Charles Square.
1931 His photographs receive prizes at the Club’s exhibition
in Paris; Hájek contributes to various periodicals and publishes
short stories and photographs in STOP, the humor section of the
Jednota, the Prague Municipal Transit Authority magazine for which
he also writes about his trip to Paris.
1932 Becomes the first card-carrying member of the
Czechoslovak Reporters’ Union (Press Card No. 1); due to his growing
success and popularity receives an offer to work as photoreporter
for newspapers and magazines of the Melantrich Publishing Group;
signs a contract to work exclusively for Melantrich but continues
contributing to the Pestrý týden magazine whose editor-in-chief. dr.
Bohumil Markalous solves the potential problems of breach of
exclusivity by publishing his work under a pseudonym „Lesík“; his
unsigned work is also published by the Tvorba magazine to whose
editor-in-chief, Julius Fučík, he hands over photographs at secret
meetings in the Daliborka Café; more anonymous work is published in
the Letem světem magazine and posing as an unknown amateur named
Kubík he even wins a purse of 1 000 crowns in a photographic contest
held by the Národní politika daily. He buys his first Rolleiflex
camera.
As a photographer he covers major news ranging from industry,
agriculture and sports to social events and politics, portrays
actors, painters, writers, musicians and statesmen including
President T. G. Masaryk.
1933 Covering a major mine disaster, he creates one of his
best-known pictures titled Nelson Mine Disaster Survivor; falling
from a rooftop by accident he smashes both his Rolleiflex and his
elbow.
1935 His first one man show in Prague with a catalog designed
by Jiří Trnka is seen by 30 000 people.
Travels to Turkey, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Rumania and
Austria.
1936-1939 Produces as much as 10 stories a day; his unique
sense for composition and gradation makes him grow from a self-taught
amateur into the founding father of the Czech reportage photography;
hires Zdeněk Tmej, a novice photographer, to work as his assistant
and lab technician.
1937-1938 Meeting Pavel Barchan, agent for the U.S. Life
magazine and owner of Paris-based picture agency, results in an
offer of a contract to . become a stringer for Life (receiving a
regular Life press card in April 1939) for a fixed monthly retainer
advance of 23 pounds sterling to produce stories on request by cable
including 1938 All-Sokol Rally , The Great Pardubice Steeplechase,
State Funeral of T. G. Masaryk, The Ruthenian Vološin Government,
The First Session of the Slovak Parliament.
1939 On March 15 in the morning he photographs his Ugly Day,
the fateful snow-bound arrival to Prague of German occupation forces.
Positioning himself in the traffic policeman’s „barrel“ right in the
middle of the crossroads at the bottom of the Wenceslas Square, he
takes unique pictures in the very midst of the events and quickly
sends the negatives by air to Life. As a result, period papers and
magazines carry entire series of his pictures, some of which are
even used by the domestic ČTK agency which publishes them without
giving the author’s name (e.g. The Angry Crowd capturing the people
of Prague shaking clenched fists at German soldiers riding their
motorcycles with sidecars through the streets of the capital). He is
fired from Melantrich.
1940 Holds a permanent job as picture editor of the Národní
souručenství, the only political body permitted by the Nazis; the
German magazine Fotofreud (Joys of Photography) devotes an entire
issue to his photographic illustrations supplemented with a detailed
biography. Hájek continues to work for the Pestrý týden and a number
of other magazines, using a Rolleiflex, a Superikonta, a Primarflex
with a 40 cm Telemegor lens. This superior quality piece of optics
was also used by a number of other photographers who got it from him
on loan. During this period he mostly works on the AGFA Isopan ISS
film, using it even to produce some advertising material.
Marries his second wife, National Theater opera singer Slávka
Procházková.
1939-1945 Works for the Pestrý týden magazine, renamed Svět v
obrazech (World in Pictures) after the war.
1944 His brother Jan is arrested by the Gestapo and
imprisoned in České Budějovice, Tábor and Terezín.
1945 On May 4 starts photographing the Prague Revolt,
processing the pictures in the studio apartment of a colleague named
Mráz located on the first floor of a corner house facing the Old
Town Square which he makes his observation post. When taking
pictures in Hybernská Street he is arrested and taken to Gestapo
Headquarters but using his Life card he manages to talk himself out
of the quandary and is finally released, only to continue taking
more pictures at Pankrác and then during the fighting for the radio
building at Vinohrady.
Becomes member of the SČSVU (Czechoslovak Fine Arts Union)
1945-1963 Works as photoreporter of the Svět v obrazech for
which he produces stories and also larger unfinished cycles
illustrating various human traits, emotions and conditions (Laugh,
Cry, Hands, Sleepers).
Following a validation of the Journalists’ Union membership, his
union card is confirmed.
1946 Photographs the Nuremberg Trials where he is the only
Czechoslovak photographer permitted to take pictures in the
courtroom alongside his colleagues from the United States, Britain,
the Soviet Union and France, capturing the faces of Göring, Goebbels
and other prominent German war criminals and documenting the
conditions of Germany devastated by the war.
1948 On January 1 he is issued a permission to carry an
automatic pistol.
1950 Heads the Photoreporters’ Section of the Czechoslovak
Journalists’ Union.
1953 -1960 Once again captures photographically all major
news ranging from industry, agriculture and sports to culture,
society and politics, this time according to the aesthetics of the
Communist ideology, producing stories with topics such as the
farming cooperatives congress, the regional fire brigade competition,
the industries (meat, dairy, edible fats, canning, egg production,
abattoirs, breweries, sugar mills, etc.), traveling all over the
country and also abroad.
1953 On June 13, agents of the Interior Ministry search his
apartment without a warrant, confiscate and take away by a truck his
photographic archive amounting to some 80 000 negatives. Only
Hájek’s wife Slávka Procházková is present during the search. Hájek
is ordered to keep silent about the search and promised that once
the police check some of the political materials, his archive will
be returned.
1955 The President of the Republic bestows the Meritorious
Labor Award on him.
1958 Interventions with the Interior Ministry for the return
of the archive are unsuccessful and Hájek is told that a part of the
archive had been lost. Visits the Photokina Exhibition in Cologne,
Germany.
1959 His picture The Black Madonna is awarded the Farrington
Gold Medal at a photographic salon in Chicago.
1960 Hájek repeatedly appeals to the then Interior Minister
R. Barák to have his archive returned.
1959-1961 Second and last retrospective one man show in
Prague, later exhibited also in Brno, Ostrava, Karlovy Vary, Martin
as well as Bulgaria, Germany and other foreign countries; begins
work on his publication Krásy myslivosti (The Beautiful World of
Wild Game).
1962 The Czechoslovak Army Film Studio produces a film about
Hájek titled Reporter and directed by Pavel Háša.
1963 The State Belles Lettres, Music and Art Publishers (SNKLHU)
publishes his profile monograph as volume 19 of its Art Photography
Series. Retires from his regular job as reporter of the Svět v
obrazech magazine; fall ill, spends the summer months at his cottage
near Týnec nad Sázavou.
1964 Lectures at the Charles University School of Journalism,
receives invitation to lecture at a school of photography in Vienna.
On February 24 once again appeals in writing to the Interior
Ministry, this time to Minister Lubomír Štrougal, that his
confiscated archive be returned.
Collaborates with the Czechoslovak Television studios in Prague and
Ostrava.
1965 Illness complicates any systematic publication,
exhibition and lecture activities. Visits Vienna as guest lecturer
at a school of photography, takes part in a group show in Brazil,
travels in South America.
The Interior Ministry finally returns a part of the confiscated
archive amounting to some 16 000 negatives.
1966 Created Artist of Merit, collaborates with the
Czechoslovak Television on a profile of the famous actor Zdeněk
Štěpánek.
1968 Works on a publication titled Byl jsem při tom (I Was
There), collaborates with the Czechoslovak Television studio in
Ostrava and appears in a series titled A Year of Karel Hájek, Artist
of Merit, aired from October 21. Due to the subsequent political
developments, the publication as well as the continuation of the
series are shelved. Photographs political events.
1970 Czech Photographers’ Union names him its honorary member
with union card No. 1 and the right to wear a golden union badge
bestowed on him at his 70th birthday. Congratulatory letters include
a personal message from the President of the Republic, General
Ludvík Svoboda. Hájek continues to collaborate with the Ostrava
studio of the Czechoslovak Television on the Ostravské vteřiny
(Ostrava Moments) feature and with Sláva Štochl on a series titled
Lovy beze zbraní (Hunting Without a Gun).
Produces a 16 page color advertising calendar for the Technoexport
Foreign Trade Corporation.
1973 In March sells to the National Museum his unsorted
archive including some 65 000 negatives and positives as well as
various documentation, correspondence, manuscripts, books and
magazines related to his lifetime activities. The contract signed
with the National Museum Director, Dr. Vladimír Zázvorka, and its
Archives Director, Dr. A. Chalupa, presumes the utilization and
gradual inventory and classification of his archive.
1978 Dies on March 31 in Prague.
As Hájek said at the close of his lecture series to his students and
connoisseurs of photography: „Let me end with the toast of Lord
Dačický of Heslov: ‘To the health of all people of goodwill who have
the well-being of the Czech land at their heart.’ Your health!“
Blanka Chocholová
October 1999
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Karel Hájek bibliogrphy
Books :
1938 – Masaryk ve fotografii,Orbis Praha
1942 – Jihočech Emil Hácha, Jihočeské vydav.
družstvo, Č. Budějovice
1946 – Beneš ve fotografii, Orbis Praha
1966 Voláme všichni / z bojů o rozhlas / Krásy
myslivosti,Leningradská symfonie, Jak
fotografovat město, /Artia / Norimberk-Zločin a
soud, 1946
Periodical Press:
Např.
1946 – Svět v obrazech č. 2 – (Německo), 7–
(Norimberský proces),11,12,15,
1947 – Svět v obrazech č. , Klub 47 č.3
1948 – Svět v obrazech č. 37 /věnované E.
Benešovi /, Klub 48 č.7
Čtenář 8/1968,
Yearbooks and series:
Československá fotografie 1931-1949,
Fotografický obzor Praha,ročník XL. – LV.1932–37
Fotorok 1958, Orbis Praha 1959
Fotografie 1928-58, SNKLHU, Praha 1959 (20
originálních fotografií zhotovil Orbis)
Licht und sshatten, Artia ,Praha 1960
Profily: Karel Hájek, Orbis Praha 1962 ( soubor
12 fotografií )
Akt v české fotografii, Orbis Praha 1967 (
soubor 15 fotografií )
Bibliography:
Norimberk – zločin a soud,1946,Svět v
obrazech, vydavatelství Ministerstva informací,
Dějiny Prahy, Nakladatelství politické
literatury,1964 , Terezín, Naše
vojsko,1952,1964?
Literatura:
V. Rýpar K. H.,Umělecká fotografie
sv.19,SNKLU,Praha1963
V. Rýpar : Profily – K. H. úvodní text k souboru
12 pohlednic, Orbis Praha, 1962
J. Jiránková: Reportér, který musel u všeho být,
Lidová demokracie, 30.9.1967
M. Jetel: Hovoříme s K. H., Politika č. 9,1968
D. Mrázková, V. Remeš – Cesty čs. fotografie,
Mladá fronta, Praha 1989
K. Dvořák: Několik poznámek k osobnosti K.H.,Čs.
fotografie č.6,12 /1971
Čs. fotografie č.1 /1961, č. 5 /1966, č.1 /1970,
č.12 /1971,
Novinář č. 3/1970, č. 1,2,4,/1989
Encyklopedie českých a slovenských fotografů
ASCO str. 96-97
Hořká léta 1939-1947, Evropa očima českých
fotografů, katalog ITF, Opava 1995
Karel Hájek – archiv 1925 – 1978; CHOCHOLOVÁ,
Blanka. Praha : Asociace fotografů, 1999.
ISBN 80-902629-4-5
ITF Opava, 1998
Honorary titles and awards:
Artist of Merit; Labor Order of Merit, 1956;
Honorary medal for Contribution to Socialist
Development; honorary member of Union of
Czechoslovak Photoreporters, with union card No.
1 and the right to wear its Golden Badge; Prague
Municipal Authority Award, 1964, 1965; honorary
member of Hunters’ Association, with 1st degree
medal; member, EFIAP (International Association
of Photographers); full member, St. Hubert’s
Order of Hunters; honorary member, The Božena
Němcová Order; honorary member, Yugoslav Union
of Photographers, Soviet Reporters’ Union and
Hungarian Reporters’ Union; in England named
among world’s top 7 photographers; bearer of the
Farrington Gold Medal awarded by the 1958
Chicago Salon of Photography for his picture The
Black Madonna; honorary member of the board of
the Soviet magazine Folografiya; bearer of
silver medal awarded by Vienna’s First School of
Photography; many awards bestowed on him by
foreign dignitaries and statesmen; exhibition
medal and awards from all former Communist bloc
countries, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Federal
Republic of Germany, France, Greece.
Personal exhibitions:
1936 – leden – Souborná výstava,Ústřední
knihovna hlavního města Prahy,katalog a
instalace- Jiří Trnka, text v katalogu V.
Vančura, Dr. B. Markalous,K. Hájek
1960 – Karel Hájek 1900-1960, katalog: text -
V.Rýpar,Staroměstská radnice, Galerie hl. m.
Prahy, úvodní slovo národní umělec Zdeněk
Štěpánek, /Ústřední dům osvěty, hl. m. Prahy
1961 – repríza Brno,Ostrava, Karlovy
Vary,Martin,Varna,Berlín a další naše i zahr.
města.
1967 – S kamerou za zvěří našich lesů a
polí,Výstavní síň B.Němcové
1964 – 100 fotografií K.Hájka , Městské muzeum v
Benátkách nad Jizerou
1965 –
1968 – Lovecká fotografie K. H., Rakousko-čs.
společnost, Vídeň, Beograd
1971 – Karel Hájek,souborná výstava,
Fotosalónek, výstavní síň Vlastivědného muzea
Šumperk,text Karel Hájek
1995 Praha ,Opava, Ostrava, Edinburg, Londýn,
Hořká léta 1939-1947
1996 Retrospect, Biennale of International
Photography, Skopelos
1998 Karel Hájek – archiv 1925 – 1978, Ostrava
TV Spots, Interviews:
1965 – K. Hájek a Jar. Spousta – současný
ved.redaktor Čs. Fotografie- Beseda o fotografii
s K. H. - kult. dům SEPAP Jílové u Děčína
1968 – Čs. Televize Ostrava – seriál : „Rok
zasloužilého umělce K.Hájka
1970 – Čs. Televize Ostrava – vysílání-Ostravské
vteřiny – Besedy „Lovy beze zbraní“
Reportér-
1971 – Beseda, promítání diapozitivů,součást
výstavy, Vlastivědný ústav Šumperk
Publishing of content, photographs or other segments
come under copyright law and is restricted
without authors agreement
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