JindÅ™ich Štreit (Czech, 1946)

Born in 1946 in Moravia, in the eastern part of what is now the Czech Republic, JindÅ™ich Štreit graduated in art education from the Teacher Training Department of Palacky University, Olomouc in 1967. As a student he took part in group exhibitions and in 1967 had his first solo show. He taught in a village school in Sovinec, near the Polish border, where he lived and, in 1973, opened a gallery there, showing avant-garde artists from the Czech Republic and abroad. From 1974 to 1977, he attended the School of Art Photography of the Union of Czech Photographers, Prague.

Štreit's work documents country life in Sovinec and the surrounding villages. In 1982 his prints at an exhibition of alternative art provoked the interest of the secret police and he was imprisoned for ten months. Streit was forbidden to continue his 'criminal' activity and kept under surveillance. Although, he had never ceased taking photographs, following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Štreit was free to openly resume his work as a freelance photographer. His photographs were first shown in the United Kingdom at the Side Gallery in Newcastle in 1989. Since then he has lectured in photography at the Film/Academy in Prague, the Arts Academy in Bratislava and the Silesian University in Opava. Streit's work is included in many public collections in the Czech Republic as well as in collections around the world including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Bibiothèque Nationale, Paris; Musée de l'Elysée, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.