We're all going to die anyway. Photograph

My name is Ondrej Szollos, I am an artist and a photographer living in Prague. For the past 17 years I have been taking pictures all over the world, in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Cambodia, Thailand, France, USA, Poland, and other places in Europe. In my pictures I try to reproduce the stories behind the images, as well to exhibit the oddities, and strangeness of the lives of people from diverse, marginalized parts of society. My photographs aim at preserving and recreating the events, happenings, and stories that lead to the one specific image that is captured. I am interested in the lives and stories of people from different backgrounds, countries, and cultures, and my pictures try to catch the differences and similarities of people from all over the world. I am interested in the world of those marginalized and excluded, in their daily routine, their free time activities, their customs, and quotidian life style. For many years I have documented the life of so called “working class heroes” in impoverished places in small towns and villages in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Knowing these people personally I take pictures of their daily life. While these people suffer from poverty, unemployment, and lack of opportunity, they nevertheless lead rich, interesting lives. Influenced by the stories of Bohumil Hrabal, I search the pearls in the lives of these seemingly hopeless people, contrasting their rugged everydayness with their fantastic lives and stories. I seek these people in peripheral, sometimes seedy, neighborhoods (i.e. Prague’s Zizkov, Vrsovice, etc.), villages, (Maslovice in Czech), and towns (Roznava, Dobsina, Revuca, in Slovakia on the Hungarian border). I wish to discover forgotten places, where people lead their anonymous lives, abandoned by time and actual events. In a recent stay in New York City, I explored the creation of a fictional story in images with the leading multidisciplinary artist Petr Nikl. We are currently collaborating on an exhibition and a book based on our work in New York City, Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and Prague. In my studio work I explore the lives and personalities of unique characters through their faces, poses, and gestures. Before and during the shooting session I befriend these people, making sure they feel comfortable in my presence, and are able to exhibit their bare inner selves and free themselves from inhibitions they might have with strangers.