Publication details
Nostalgic Modernism : Redefining ‘Homeland Photography’ in 1930s Czechoslovakia
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Czechoslovak interwar photography is frequently associated with progressive experiments of the avant-garde. Yet, especially in the 1930s, it also had a strong base in the more conventional ‘homeland photography’. In contrast to its German equivalent Heimatfotografie, which was soon occupied by ideologies of the far right, ‘homeland photography’ in Czechoslovakia still represents a barely defined and often romanticised tendency. Characterised by sublime landscapes and people in elaborate folk costume, it offered comforting views of traditional rural life for precarious times. In an interpretation that has prevailed to date, the work of Karol Plicka has come to be seen synonymously with this practice, based on the popularity of his postcards and photobooks, which started to circulate in the mid-1920s. In turn, ‘homeland photography’ in Czechoslovakia has hardly been defined other than through his photographs. In order to expand on this circular definition, my paper introduces a critical reassessment of the variants and functions of ‘homeland photography’ in 1930s Czechoslovakia. It pays particular attention to the fact that images’ execution often relied on modernist photographic techniques, while their circulation profited from technological progress and mass culture. In effect, ‘homeland photography’ was defined by an ambiguous relationship between the nostalgic views it represented and the modernised world it depended on. Considering this to be a form of nostalgic modernism, I show that ‘homeland photography’ encompassed intertwined aspects of tourism, Kunstphotographie, social activism, ethnography and propaganda, and that, as a wide-ranging and ambiguous trend, its significance went far beyond the picturesque world it represented. |
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