Celebrated fashion photographer Bruce Weber gets Prague retrospective

Art and photography aficionados in Prague should save the date: on Sept. 20, Dům U Kamenného zvonu (the Stone Bell House) will open its doors to “Bruce Weber: My Education,” an exhibition presenting the works of the American photographer. Weber's first ever major European retrospective charts five decades of his work, which spans portrait, reportage, and landscape photography, along with his fashion campaigns, music videos, and feature films.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2002, Baker said that his movie Chop Suey matches his personal journey from his birthplace, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to the upper echelons of the New York art world. “I wanted to show people,” he says, “what it was like to be somebody who had a life that was contained in the Midwest, and who went on this journey, this adventure, and what his life became as a result.”

His early years created a “huge kind of fantasy life,” Weber says, centered around fashion magazines, which shaped his worldview and made him aware of the currency that beauty represents.

“I'd always be looking at Vogue. Sometimes now, when I am photographing young people, and I'm with a whole group of perfect bodies, it seems to me they have no fantasy life at all,” Weber says, adding “perhaps that's the payoff.”

Jiří Pospíšil, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Tourism, highlighted the “rare opportunity” presented by the exhibition, which exposes audiences in Prague to a contemporary artist combining “with great empathy and creativity such different worlds as street life and the world of film and fashion industry.”

What sets Weber apart in the world of photography is his “broad thematic scope,” Pospíšil says, together with his “truly profound insight and understanding of the peripheral, burlesque and vibrant events of contemporary events.”

Speaking about the choice of location, which is the stunning 13th-century gothic gallery space Stone Bell House, Eva Lindemann-Sanchez, the co-producer of the exhibition, told Expats.cz she felt “an immediate connection” when visiting the building.

This is not just because of its location on the Old Town Square, and its historic beauty, but due to an informality that matched Weber’s work. “The floors are not even, every gallery has a different wall space, which is in line with Weber’s style, of things not being formal, but having a history behind them,” Lindemann-Sanchez says.

For those who aren’t acquainted with Weber’s works, Lindemann-Sanchez describes it as “naturalist, using natural light, focused on the physical form, beauty, romance, whimsy, dreams and fun.” She adds that, despite the span of Weber’s career, his work continues to be as relevant today as it was when he started out due to its timeless qualities. The ultimate goal of the exhibition is to offer visitors “an emotional experience” while connecting with the photographs, Lindemann-Sanchez concludes. 

Creative producer Milosh Harajda, an avid fan of Weber’s since his teenage years, told Expats.cz that the upcoming exhibition is innovative because it shows the photographer through an art history lens.

The exhibition title, “My Education,” is an homage to everybody who influenced the photographer; Harajda adds, “All the people who educated and shaped his vision, authors, intellectuals, sportsmen,” echoing Weber’s impression that whenever he photographed someone, he was “invited into their world.”

On another level, Harajda adds that, as a visitor, one can be educated “about a multitude of topics, ranging from fashion to politics to art history” through Weber’s works, making the dialogue work both ways.