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“Three years ago, I was asked by the Czech Philharmonic to document its 120^th season in photographs. It was a big challenge for me, as until then I had had no experience with photographing classical music. In addition to performances, I started photographing everything related to the Philharmonic; I was introduced to the orchestra’s environment and tried to get “under the surface” of people who played together in this large musical ensemble. I also wanted to capture the genius loci of the Rudolfinum – the place where, week after week, musical feasts take place in the form of concerts. Each is preceded by a days-long ordeal in the form of rehearsals and fine-tuning of the final version of the performance down to the smallest detail. 

The result of this year-long work is the book Czech Philharmony 120th season. Concert photographs are interwoven with stories from backstage, rehearsals and tours. You can browse through the book or buy it here. 

I have been photographing the Czech Philharmonic until today and have recently begun to work on portraits of individual orchestra members. I would like to show them to their audience from a different angle – as they do not normally know them. As people who, in addition to their musical lives, have hobbies, families and human stories. At Leica Gallery Prague, I am exhibiting the first series of this project: the Music in Pictures/Pictures in Music portfolio, featuring Ondřej Balcar, Czech Philharmonic bassoonist, whose world is filled not only with music, but also the visual arts, mainly painting, which he focuses on when he puts his bassoon down. However, even in his paintings he does not leave the world of music, which is often a huge part of his creations.”

Petr Kadlec (1959) was born in Prague. He is the founding member of the 28 mm group, which focuses on documentary photography (www.28mm.cz). In addition to documentary photography, he focuses on music photography where he combines musical and documentary elements.

Leica Gallery Café