biography

Jitka Hanzlová was born in 1958 in Náchod, Czech Republic. She lives and works in Essen, Germany.

In over 30 years Hanzlová has portrayed the human, the urban, and nature in her photographic series: these are excerpts, moments of entirety, existing in relations that connect us to ourselves, to one another, us to nature and to every surrounding.

Deeply marked by her experience of exile at the beginning of the ‘80s and later return to her native country after the Velvet Revolution of ’89, Hanzlová has developed, step by step, her own visual language; with instinctive gaze focused on questioning identity and belonging, she looks through her subjects, seeking an inner matrix of existence. With time, experience and practice become the true concept behind her photography.

Starting with Rokytník (1990 — 1994) and until her latest Doorway (2022), Hanzlová’s photographs are silent appearances, in which one may gather signs of cultures and contexts she has chosen to capture: these images live within the bodies of her series and in her well-known publications, but also transcend them, drafting together a transforming texture of the world.

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Jitka Hanzlová was born in 1958 in Náchod, Czech Republic. She lives and works in Essen, Germany.

In over 30 years Hanzlová has portrayed the human, the urban, and nature in her photographic series: these are excerpts, moments of entirety, existing in relations that connect us to ourselves, to one another, us to nature and to every surrounding.

Deeply marked by her experience of exile at the beginning of the ‘80s and later return to her native country after the Velvet Revolution of ’89, Hanzlová has developed, step by step, her own visual language; with instinctive gaze focused on questioning identity and belonging, she looks through her subjects, seeking an inner matrix of existence. With time, experience and practice become the true concept behind her photography.

Starting with Rokytník (1990 — 1994) and until her latest Doorway (2022), Hanzlová’s photographs are silent appearances, in which one may gather signs of cultures and contexts she has chosen to capture: these images live within the bodies of her series and in her well-known publications, but also transcend them, drafting together a transforming texture of the world.

In 1993 Hanzlová was awarded the Dr. Otto-Steinert-Preis by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie, in 1995 she received the DG BANK Frankfurt scholarship, in 2003 the Grand Prix Arles, and in 2007 the Paris Photo Prize for Contemporary Photography. She was twice nominee for The Citibank Photography Prize in London. Her noteworthy solo exhibitions include Architectures of life, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan (2021); Jitka Hanzlová. Silences, Národní Galerie, Prague (2019); National Gallery, Edinburgh (2012); Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid (2012); Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany (2005); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2001); Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland (2001); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany (2000); Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany (1996). Selected group shows include Essere Umane, Musei San Domenico, Forlì, Italy (2021); SUBJECT and OBJECT. PHOTO RHINE RUHR, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf (2020); NEUE WELTEN. Die Entdeckung der Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany (2019); The Moment is Eternity – Works from the Olbricht Collection, ME Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany (2018); BEHOLD THE MAN, Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany (2017); The Photographic I – Other Pictures, S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium (2017); Portraits. Photographs from the MAPFRE Collection, Museo de la Ciudad de México, Mexico City (2017); Landscapes and People. From the Photographic Collection of the Albertina, Albertina Museum, Vienna (2016); Mit anderen Augen. Das Porträt in der zeitgenössischen Fotografie, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany (2016), travelled to Kunsthalle Nürnberg and Kunsthaus, Nürnberg, Germany (2016); Human Nature. Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Deutsche Börse AG, The Cube, Eschborn, Germany (2016), travelled to NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany (2016).

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images

WATER

WATER, 2013 – 2019
Human Light, Untitled, 2018 (Landscape stripes)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

Horse

HORSE, 2007 – 2014
Untitled, 2007 (Filly)

Original c-print

29,7 × 21,2 cm

HORSE, 2007 – 2014
Untitled, 2010 (Pissing)

Original c-print

59,5 × 42 cm

Cotton Rose

COTTON ROSE, 2004 – 2006
Untitled, 2004 (Blue wall)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

COTTON ROSE, 2004 – 2006
Untitled, 2004 (Night in Gifu)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

Brixton

BRIXTON, 2002
Untitled, 2002 (Renata)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

BRIXTON, 2002
Untitled, 2002 (Red II)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

BRIXTON, 2002
Untitled, 2002 (Curtain)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

There Is Something I Do Not Know

THERE IS SOMETHING I DO NOT KNOW, 2000 – 2013
Untitled, 2011 (Concamother)

Archival color pigment print

38 × 27,8 cm

THERE IS SOMETHING I DO NOT KNOW, 2000 – 2013
Untitled, 2011 (Jule)

Archival color pigment print

38 × 28 cm

THERE IS SOMETHING I DO NOT KNOW, 2000 – 2013
Untitled, 2011 (Greco)

Archival color pigment print

36,70 × 27 cm

THERE IS SOMETHING I DO NOT KNOW, 2000 – 2013
Untitled, 2011 (Pepe)

Archival color pigment print

41,53 × 28 cm

THERE IS SOMETHING I DO NOT KNOW, 2000 – 2013
Untitled, 2011 (Collom)

Archival color pigment print

39 × 28,4 cm

Vielsalm

VIELSALM, 1999
Untitled, 1999 (Morning fog)

Color photograph

40 × 30 cm

VIELSALM, 1999
Untitled, 1999 (Waterfall)

Color photograph

40 × 30 cm

VIELSALM, 1999
Untitled, 1998 (Tree Sky)

Color photograph

40 × 30 cm

VIELSALM, 1999
Untitled, 1999 (Three Roofs)

Color photograph

40 × 30 cm

Here

HERE, 1997 – 1998, 2002 – 2010
Untitled, 1998 (Autokino)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

HERE, 1997 – 1998, 2002 – 2010
Untitled, 1998 (Dilek)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

HERE, 1997 – 1998, 2002 – 2010
Untitled, 2007 (Arles)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

HERE, 1997 – 1998, 2002 – 2010
Untitled, 2003 (Pia)

Original c-print

60,7 × 50,6 cm

HERE, 1997 – 1998, 2002 – 2010
Untitled, 2010 (Haniel)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

Female

FEMALE, 1997 – 2000
Tereza, Central Park, 2000

Color photograph

40,6 × 30,5 cm

FEMALE, 1997 – 2000
Daphne, Long Island, 1999

Color photograph

28,8 × 19,2 cm

FEMALE, 1997 – 2000
Ivana, Coney Island, 2000

Color photograph

40,6 × 30,5 cm

FEMALE, 1997 – 2000
Sylvia, Chelsea, 1999

Color photograph

40,6 × 30,5 cm

FEMALE, 1997 – 2000
Blue Door, London, 1999

Color photograph

40,6 × 30,5 cm

FEMALE, 1997 – 2000
Maryanne, Upper East Side, 1999

Color photograph

40,6 × 30,5 cm

Bewohner

BEWOHNER, 1994 – 1996
Untitled, 1995 (Airplane)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

BEWOHNER, 1994 – 1996
Untitled, 1995 (Bus)

Original c-print

40,5 × 30,5 cm

public exhibitions

Palazzo da Mosto

Reggio Emilia, Italy

DOORWAY. Fotografia Europea

6.5 – 12.6.2023

Musei San Domenico

Forlì, Italy

Essere Umane

18.9.2021 – 30.1.2022

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf

SUBJECT and OBJECT. PHOTO RHINE RUHR

21.3 – 16.8.2020

Installation view at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. Photo: Katja Illner

National Gallery Prague

Trade Fair Palace

Prague

Jitka Hanzlová. Silences

15.11.2019 – 16.2.2020

Museum für Photographie

Braunschweig

Between Continuum

6.10 – 2.12.2018

© Jitka Hanzlová/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018; Foto: Laura Ludwig

press

Jitka Hanzlová, Silences

Silvia Mazzucchelli

Doppiozero

February 10, 2020

Jitka Hanzlová: atención máxima

Antonio Muñoz Molina

El Pais

July 26, 2012

Jitka Hanzlová

Gigliola Foschi

ZOOM

September-October 2006

Jitka Hanzlová

Galleria Raffaella Cortese | Via Stradella 7

Angela Madesani

Artforum

2006

Vulnerabilità e cedevolezza, il nuovo ritratto fotografico sceglie la gente comune

Chiara Coronelli

Ipso Facto

May–August 2001

publications

Silences

Edited by Adam Budak

König Books

London

2019

VANITAS

Edited by Barbara Hofmann-Johnson

König Books

London

2018

Cotton Rose

Texts by Ulf Erdmann-Ziegler

Steidl Verlag

Göttingen

2017

HORSE

Text by John Berger

König Books

London

2015

Hier

essay by Terezia Mora

Koenig Books

London

2013

Jitka Hanzlová

Text by Isabel Tejeda, Zdenek Felix, John Berger, Terezia Mora, Jesus Carillo Castillo

TF Editores

Madrid

2012

Forest

essay by John Berger

Steidl Verlag Göttingen

2005

Bewhohner

text by Urs Stahel

Fotomuseum Winterthur

2001

Female

text by Zdenek Felix and Peter Brinkemper

Schirmer

Mosel Verlag München, Deichtorhallen Hamburg

2000

Vielsalm

Sunparks Art Project

1999

Rokytnik

text by Leo-Fritz Gruber

Museum Schloss Hardenberg

1997

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