Hynek Alt

Hynek Alt (*1976) studied Photography at FAMU in Prague and subsequently at the State University of New York in New Paltz. He completed his doctoral studies at UMPRUM in Prague. He teaches at the Department of Photography at FAMU, where he leads the Studio of New Aesthetics and contributes to the concept of the doctoral program Research and Theory of Audiovision. From 2008 to 2016, he co-led the photography studio at UMPRUM in Prague with Aleksandra Vajd. Alt’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the Czech Republic and abroad. He has exhibited, for example, at the Rudolfinum Gallery in Prague, the National Gallery Prague, the Prague City Gallery, Lucie Drdova Gallery, as well as at institutions in Berlin, Vienna, Ljubljana, Oslo, and New York. His works are represented in public and private collections and have been presented in the context of international contemporary art exhibitions.

Hynek Alt has been a prominent figure on the Czech photographic and art scene since the 2000s. He is the recipient of numerous international awards and continuously presents his work in leading world capitals. At its core lies an incredibly precise, analytical, yet highly aesthetic view of the world around us, of its mundane and extraordinary phenomena and situations, including those transitioning from the real environment to the virtual. Whether Alt is photographing empty chairs, work gloves, or burning torches, there is always a sense of urgency. A powerful momentum, a freezing of time that allows us to look at the depicted motif down to its very bones, atoms, and molecules. He is interested in the photographic medium as such. An uncompromising lens that reveals every detail, but also what remains hidden—the network of relationships between the human and non-human, the living and the inanimate, the material and the digital.