Jan Lukas People / Lidé 1930-1995

“Reality is so interesting that I want to add nothing to it; I always wanted to just record it.”
Jan Lukas

Renowned Czech photographer Jan Lukas was born more than one hundred years ago (August 10, 1915, České Budějovice – August 28, 2006, New York). He is a legend, one of the principle founders of Czech photojournalism and of humanistic photography. His documentary images reflect the 20th century – and the people that formed it – on such a broad scale and to such depth that is hard to trace in the work of any other Czech photographer. The publication “People 1930–1995” presents the era during which our modern history was formed, not only in Europe, but also in the Soviet Union and in the United States. These black and white images maintain their significance to this day and insist we do not forget, lest we repeat our past mistakes.