Bio
Ing. Jiří Doležel
b.1953 in Olomouc
Motto: „Nature never betray the heart that loved her“ (William Wordsworth)
The artist has pursued photographing since his youth. In 1972–1973 he was active in a circle of young artists gathered around the Olomouc-based ‘Gallery in the Arcades’, where he met Milena Valušková and Vladimír Birgus. Later on he specialized in portrait and landscape photography and exhibited his works on many occasions.
His most recent photographs taken since 2011 have drawn great inspiration from the artist’s passion for the landscape of the Jeseníky Mountains. By searching for the landscape’s spirit through examining its details and structure, largely in artistically portrayed water elements, he reflects the human heart’s craving for finding some sense of balance in the modern (and often inconsiderate) world. This unfailing message may draw spectators’ attention and make them contemplate the priceless values that the nature and landscape have to offer to a careful eye. In 2013, while celebrating his 60th birthday, the artist prepared a series of exhibitions called
Mysteries of Jeseníky Mountains’ Landscape,
and has pursued his artistic interests ever since. His photographs should also help promote the beauty of the Jeseníky Mountains as Moravia’s major tourism and leisure resort.
Author’s word:
Water is a phenomenon that is restless and constantly transforming; water is a source of life and marvellous fount of lights, glints and colours; water brings both anxiety and serenity, warm caress and chilling coldness, it breaks through rocks, carves ravines, and time has no meaning to it. Water has always lived and will live forever . . . And if – God forbid! – our beautiful planet should come to its end, water will not disappear bud will be transformed indo different forms by the fascinating Universe
Having been born in the sign of the Fishes and much united with the Nature, I discovered in the course of my life spent with a camera at my eye that if one decides to portray charms and mysteries of the great phenomenon called water, he or she may satisfy one’s craving for getting in touch with other dimensions, as well as for developing experiences and aptitude of a photographer. Many years ago, my life’s course brought me to the Jeseník Mountains. Since then, they have become part of my life and have made me look for hidden images that do exist but too often are hidden to a newcomer’s eye. It takes some time before they are discovered; it may take some contemplation, but also good graces of Dame Fortune, a specific location and its mood. Only then the right image, fragmented into pixels, is able to quietly sneak into a memory card.
Mountain streams, pools and small waterfalls are typical for the geological structure of the Jeseník Mountains. It is a great challenge for a photographer not to pass them by in a fleeting moment, capturing just the first notion, but to come back and try, humbly and patiently, the right way in which to portray them. That is why I keep trying again and again to capture their nature and energy, even – I daresay – their very spirit, as well as the magically beautiful mystery of water in the landscape.
It is upon the audience to judge whether I have succeeded or not.
Jiří M.Doležel