On Czech Photography, DC Cool, and Icelandic Indie Music
What arts/culture movement will come next?
It’s fascinating how different cultures produce specific art in certain times/places. Think the blues, the British Invasion, or Bollywood. Art has the soft-power potential to shape and steer the world around it, at least for a period of time, by electrifying and shaping the perceptions of each of us. And shaping the art that follows - the British Invasion wouldn’t have happened without the blues.
Even on a grand scale, art can shift history by inspiring countless individuals. Ask yourself how someone behind the Iron Curtain must have felt when they heard the Beatles or John Coltrane. Like life was worth living, hanging on even amid the gray stasis of Soviet-bloc communism because amazing things were happening out there in the West. Somewhere beyond the visible, beyond the mundane, life vibrated not just with freedom but with mysterious and exciting frequencies (hope they’re not too disappointed now, but that’s another story). The fall of the Berlin Wall must have felt in part like pounding down the door to get to it.
As a child of the Cold War I went the other way, West-to-East. In post-1989 Prague I discovered a love for Czech documentary photography, which may sound pretty niche until you begin to appreciate the Czechs’ photo…
