browseThe Village is a Global World
Jindrich Streit (Photographer)
From the original Side Gallery exhibition text, 1995:
These photographs are drawn form the work of Czech documentary photographer Jindrich Streit, produced during his visit to South West Durham in Spring 1995. He was invited to offer an outsider’s eye on villages, which have lost their original, mining-related, identity. Since the West Durham pit closures of the 60s and 70s, villages like Bearpark, Witton Park and Tow Law have experienced a slow transition towards an uncertain future. Rookhope, towards the top of Weardale, is experiencing a similar fate after its lead and fluorspar mining past ended during the same period.
The exhibition forms part of an ongoing project, which Streit has set himself, documenting villages around the world. He didn’t come to South West Durham to produce a cold, analytical and ‘representative’ document of the area. Rather, Streit is seeking something much more elusive in his photography. In his strongest works, the people in his pictures become symbols of humanity, ‘heroes of commonness’ as they were once described.
Streit is looking for the humanity, which we all carry around in us, and could be captured at lunch, in the car, at the shops, in the street, or, yes, at the fun day. We appreciate his art when we can see the essence of what he has captured. As Streit once wrote about his photography: To take a picture of a fire or a strike is attractive, but to take a picture of two people having lunch is a real art.
Note: Jindrich Streit first visited South West Durham as part of the 1993 Unclear Family international photography workshop.