Calm before the Storm

What a picture! The stairway scenario conveys the feeling of a major theatrical production, though it came about quite by chance. In the winter of 1972, the photographer (born 1946) was in the perfect spot at the pedestrian underpass in Wenceslas Square, Prague. There, the pedestrians hurrying by came together in an impressive choreography of daily life: over two dozen people descend the steps, while a number make their way up next to them, or use the escalator; only a few seem to notice the photographer, and wonder what is going on. The central focus of the picture, however, is on a young man, also coming down the steps; he stands out in the crowd, with his newspaper open and seemingly oblivious to anyone else. Henri Cartier-Bresson would have referred to this as a “decisive moment”. Everything comes together, and even the lighting conditions increase the theatrical impression.

“I was simply lucky!” is how the humble photographer describes it. Luck and good fortune. Yet, capturing great moments and small everyday dramas happens so very often when Kučera is out and about in the city with his Leica. At the time, he was looking for motifs for a reportage for a women’s magazine. The picture referred to was one of the first he took, but it remained unpublished for years.

So much the better that this motif is included in the new photo book, Calm before the storm. How we lived at normalization, which is dedicated to the decades between the crushed Prague Spring uprising of the late sixties and the so-called Velvet Revolution of the late eighties. Divided into five loosely thematic chapters, the photo book offers plenty of insight into the photographer’s oeuvre. The images make up an exciting chronicle of a vanished world and, in addition to political scenes – whether resistance to the Soviet occupation, or state-imposed processions and parades –, primarily documents everyday life in Prague. Kučera is a precise and empathic observer who never embarrasses the people he portrays, but rather turns them into the protagonists of his visual stories. In retrospect, he observes that he took photographs “because he had to”, even though most of the pictures were not published till much later. He was only able to survive as a freelance photographer by accepting official assignments: the documentation of technical structures, architecture and sights of interest. At last, works from his archives have come to light – and we are happy to present here a selection from the book, with his written comments. Even today, his images still tell stories, though, looking back, they also convey a certain melancholy.