MARTIN MOJZIS.
ABOUT AUTHOR.
My eyes first saw the light of this world one spring Saturday afternoon, April 7th, 1973.
In this year in former Czechoslovakia a unique transmitter and hotel Jested on top of the mountain of the same name opens. The Czechoslovak Post Office introduces postal codes for the first time, and the Treaty on Mutual Relations between the Czechoslovakia and the BRD is signed in Prague, which, among other things, declares the Munich Agreement from 1938 invalid.
Transmitter and hotel Jested at night.
Photograph titled BEFORE START from the gallery ►Different Landscapes XIX.
The Eldfell volcano erupts on the Icelandic island of Heimaey, the World Trade Center opens in New York, and Queen Elizabeth II of England opens the Sydney Opera House. NASA launches the Pioneer 11 satellite and the Skylab satellite station into space. Comet 1973 XII is first observed from the Hamburg Observatory, later named after its discoverer, the Czech astronomer Lubos Kohoutek.
A unique architectural work, a meaningful system, a full stop to an unfortunate past, a dramatic natural event, the development of trade and art, fundamental advances in space exploration ... More or less, all of these events have foreshadowed and influenced my entire life.
Martin Mojzis.
Photograph titled SELF-PORTRAIT from the gallery ►Searching 2009.
FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD.
My father Miroslav (1941 – 2012) was a classical music singer, performed in the Prague Male Choir FOK, the Choir of the Czechoslovak Radio, later in the National Theatre and the Prague State Opera. They gave concerts in many countries, e.g. in West Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Netherlands, Israel, ... Concerts and theatrical performances were broadcast many times on Czech and world television channels. My father also screened films in the Prague cinema Svornost on Dejvicka Street. My mother Jaroslava (*1945) is a librarian. She worked at the Municipal Library in Dejvice, sometimes also in Brevnov or on Petriny. My brother Petr was born in 1981. His greatest passion was motor racing, boxing and martial arts. He tragically died in 2019 at the age of 38.
I resolutely rejected attempts to postpone me to kindergarten. I do not like elementary school, I already knew most of the material anyway or I learned it much better and faster on my own, than with socialist teachers. From the 1st to the 4th grade I only got A's on my reports and I was quite bored at school. The class mostly consisted of rather strange individuals and I had no interest in spending more time with them, than was absolutely necessary. I had older friends and we did a lot of things together, from adventurous exploration expeditions to all sorts of mischief.
WHICH CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES INFLUENCED ME THE MOST?
PRAGUE RUZYNE AIRPORT.
Back then, there were still comfortable observation decks without glass walls there, as well as stands with refreshments and delicious sausages. Airliners still roared like a summer storm, and the smell of burning kerosene above the runway was replaced in the hall by expensive cigarettes and freshly ground coffee. Good-looking, well-dressed people with serious expressions flew in and out, sat in cafes and restaurants, and listened to pleasantly muffled, extremely characteristic announcements in various languages, delivered by a likeable tinged female voice.
SVORNOST CINEMA.
I knew the entire cinema completely, from the projection booth to the transformer room, the spaces behind the projection screen with giant loudspeakers, and even the manager's office. Two large German Pentacon movie projectors fascinated me even then, just like that German again medium-format advertising slide projector. In the Pentacones, the light source was xenon discharge lamps (we can also find them, for example, in studio flash generators), in the slide projector it was necessary to create an electric arc before the projection by setting the exact distance between the electrodes, the intense glow of which we know, for example, from the sparking collector of electric rail vehicles.
LEGO.
The ingenious Danish building set, which I was supplied with (not only) in unprecedented quantities by the standards of the time, allowed me to materialize most of my ideas and dreams.
MY OWN SHOWS.
A high-quality Japanese Crown reel-to-reel tape recorder with a microphone on a stand allowed me to record a number of my own shows. I was four years old and I enjoyed it immensely. In fact, the only thing missing was a television camera; if we had had one, I would have built a complete studio.
PRAGUE CASTLE, ORECHOVKA AND STRESOVICE.
My friend, the painter Pavlina, recently told me how, as a little girl, her grandfather used to show her Skodas and Moskvichs in the Prosek housing estate. My mother used to show me Mercedes and BMWs. There were lots of them in front of the embassies, beautifully clean and shiny, the latest models. At the Castle, there were beautiful foreign buses, tastefully and distinctively colored, most often with the German ...Reisen. The double-decker Neoplans were amazing.
CONCORDE SUPERSONIC AIRLINER.
The most beautiful and fastest airliner in the world (Mach 2.04 = 2180 kilometers per hour at a cruising altitude of up to 18 kilometers, twice the speed of sound). On my wall I had a large poster of a Concorde taking off with its nose down, seen from the front in the swirling, boiling air. It was given to me by British Airways at the time.
TRAINS BEHIND THE WINDOWS.
From the windows of the Dejvice apartment, you can see the regular trains ascending the track from the Dejvice railway station towards Kladno. Little engine trains, Bardotka, Brejlovec, Kocour or Hektor locomotives, occasionally a steam locomotive ...
READING.
I needed to know, what was written in books and magazines, my dad brought wonderful catalogs from abroad ... so at the age of four I taught myself to read.
CARTOON SERIES.
The unforgettable Ctyrlistek, later also cartoon stories in Abicko (Abc of young technicians and naturalists), sometimes there was something interesting in Ohnicek or Sedmicka. I myself created several notebooks of Professor Dugan's cartoon stories, which I painted from 5th to 8th grade at school under the desk (some of them also was took away by teachers and refused to return them until the end of the school year, so I always started new parts in a new notebook).
RUDOLFINUM, NATIONAL THEATRE, CONCERT HALLS, CHURCHES.
Sometimes I would go with my dad to rehearsals or concerts. I knew the backstage, the stage, the technical parts, the organ balconies in churches, etc.
OWN PHOTOGRAPHIC ATELIER.
As a child, I occasionally tried to take photographs, and I started doing it more purposefully around 1988. My parents systematically discouraged me from any artistic profession, they wanted me to become a doctor, teacher or engineer. However, after successfully completing my high school diploma at the Nad Aleji High School on Petriny, I knew that I had enough of all schools. I changed jobs and tried various businesses. At the same time, I took more and more photographs. It became increasingly clear, that stopping the moments of life and preserving them was the right thing for me to do in life. In 2005, I decided to establish my own photography studio. My friend ►Jan Pischnoth helped me a lot with this. And so, in the spring of 2006, I opened my Atelier of Fine Art Photography in Prague 6 on Hanspaulka.
PHOTOGRAPHIC GEAR.
Fujifilm GFX 100 II and Fujinon GF lenses. Top-notch medium format camera with large image sensor. 100 or 400 Mpx, 48-bit RAW. According to many (and my experience only confirms it) in terms of the combination of quality of the photographs, lenses, control and price, the best photographic camera in the world.
THE EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUAL ART PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERIES.
Then, in the freezing months of the turn of 2005 and 2006, the first photographs of my free work were born. First the collection ►Searching 2006, then ►Welcome to my House, depicting the transience of earthly existence and the general limitations of materialism. ►Searching 2006 is loosely followed by ►Searching 2009. They were followed by the two most extensive collections to date – ►Different Landscapes and ►Diaries. Out of a desire to recall the atmosphere of the original ►Searching 2006, the collection ►Searching 2017 was created in 2017. In 2024, two more galleries were opened, ►Lights of the Night and ►Still Life. Both are closely related to the transition to the cutting-edge medium-format photographic technology Fujifilm GFX. ►Lights of the Night is a collection of night photographs of illuminated, glowing places and objects, where exposures of up to an hour can be used. ►Still Life arise from a growing desire to photograph in the peace and privacy of my atelier, where I can perfect everything in terms of content, composition, lighting and exposure, and at the same time fully utilize the enormous potential of medium format technology.
TIMELINE OF THE OPENING OF INDIVIDUAL GALLERIES.
2006 – ►Searching 2006.
2009 – ►Welcome To My House.
2009 – ►Searching 2009.
2010 – ►Different Landscapes.
2010 – ►Diaries.
2012 – ►Diaries – The Story Of The Airplane.
2012 – ►Diaries Of Light And Shadow.
2017 – ►Searching 2017.
2024 – ►Lights of the Night.
2024 – ►Still Life.
ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS.
I have written and published almost 150 articles so far about my photographic journeys, photography and photographic gear. You can find them ►here.
PRINTED PUBLICATIONS.
TROJICE. Author's photographic monograph about the three most important monuments of Melnik. First edition in 2020. ►More.
MELNIK 2019. Author's wall calendar.
PRAGUE CORNERS 2014. Author's wall calendar.
WHO IS WHO ENCYCLOPEDIA.
CLIENTS AND MEDIA.
Only some companies, in alphabetical order. However, my most frequent customers are private persons - art lovers and collectors.
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3A Adidas Affinity Media All Services Alqush Hotel Alter Amigo Hotel Astra Lighting Avydon Babylon Restaurant Bara Hotel Base Diming Batavan Bonaparte Caravan Point City Museum and Library Caslav Creative Manufacture Czech Tourism Diana Company Emirates Airlines Galen Golden and Silver Goldtime Helma 365 Hippomachine (Enteria) Immedia Inbar Diamonds Indian Restaurants Masala Incheba Izozek K4 Architects & Engineers Katja Design – Catherine Simo KMD Plus Kores Labdent Mako Butterfly Medicop Europe Melnik City Mitsubishi Motors Peal Purohome Quadral Radio Impuls Sanoma Magazines Scanquilt Sennheiser Smart Hero SOS Decorations SPT Telecom Studio Jewel Time Out etc ... |
1x Economic Newspaper Elle Expres Radio Flowers GFX Artist Grand Prince Harmonie High & Style Marianne Metro Melnik Melnik Daily Perfect Woman Prague Out Radio Impuls Stereo & Video Story Websites for Men Websites for Women Wedding Catalogue Woman Yellow Young Front Today etc ... |
© Martin Mojzis, 2025.
Photographs with the MM symbol and publications covers: © Martin Mojzis.
Other photographs and images: © British Airways, © Fujifilm.