PHOTO GALLERY: Classic Czech dishes staged as photography in new exhibit

A new exhibition has opened in Prague that offers gallery-goers a unique insight into Czech dining culture. "Italian, French, and Japanese cuisine has already conquered the world. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the culinary gems of the Czech lands," Czech-German photographer and curator Kateřina Sýsová says of the images featured in her new exhibit, Kukbuk (Cookbook).

The artist's unconventional guide to Czech dining explores the customs and conventions associated with Czech food with visual humor, and playful scenes like a chicken on a bed of paprika or a drowning man representing various dishes such as paprika chicken (kuře na paprice) or bábovka (Bundt cake).

Sýsová, whose work skillfully employs retro aesthetics to blend elements from both past and present, alluding to a collective memory that shapes the Czech nation's identity, says the images prompt deeper questions about the influence of the past on the present, the interplay between image and word, and observations about gender-related themes.

An UMPRUM graduate, Sýsová specializes in staged photography, where she purposefully incorporates wit and kitsch into her work. In 2020, she received the Association of Professional Photographers' Personality of Young Czech Photography.