“Until the last minute, he was preparing more and more negatives, so until the last moment we did not know what would actually be displayed at the exhibition. He kept saying: this should be here and that photo should be there, there just wasn‘t enough room for many of the photographs,” said Jovan Dezort’s wife Venda Dezortová, who helped with the selection. There are fascinating pictures of e.g. Myslbek gap site, fountains at Výstavište, works on tram tracks and others.
Hairy Janda and the others
The exhibition makes many realize just how quickly time flies. There is Petr Janda with a thatch of hair, fifteen-year-old lad – violin virtuoso Václav Hudeček and many other celebrities, all of them unrecognizably young. And then there is a parade of cultural icons – Jean Paul Sartre, Radek Pilař looking like the knight of Řáholec Forest, Jan Werich with Miroslav Horníček and many others. “A lot of photographs are not there, I regret that there wasn’t enough room for Kamila Moučková and her interview with Jan Werich. Maybe next time,“ said Venda Dezortová. Jovan Dezort’s friend Vráťa Ebr revealed that another exhibition is going to be held in autumn.
Collectors‘ secret wish
For a number of years, Jovan Dezort has been making lovely calendars in which he presents his photographs of the Prague of his youth. It is a pity that they are not for sale, as they would certainly be the pride of Pragensia collectors. Maybe the public will wait to see an official publishing of one of his calendars. There is, for instance, an interesting view of Stalin’s monument, events of 1st May and other recollections of that time.
