The Scottish National Portrait hosts the first major retrospective by Jitka Hanzlová, showing work made over the last two decades by this major contemporary photographer.
Hanzlová was born in the former Czechoslovakia, growing up in Prague before defecting from this Communist regime to Essen in West Germany in 1982. Since then she has sought to explore her experiences through photography.
Hanzlová’s work belongs to the technical tradition of German photography and most frequently depicts the human figure in landscape or cityscape settings. She also references Renaissance portraiture and post-soviet industrial landscapes, in an exploration of belonging and alienation. Emerging from her experience of two different cultures and political systems, her work is a profound meditation on European identity in a post Cold-war world.
Joining us to discuss the work of Jitka Hanlová will be Duncan Forbes, Senior Curator of Photography at the National Galleries of Scotland. We also welcome our new Spin co-ordinator, Grainne Rice.
