Josef Jindřich Šechtl

Josef Jindřich Šechtl (9 May 1877 – 24 February 1954) was a Czech photographer who specialized in photojournalism and portrait photography. On the death of his father, photographer Ignác Šechtl, Josef inherited the photographic studios of Šechtl & Voseček.

Early years Josef Jindřich Šechtl was born in Tábor, South Bohemia, on 9 May 1877, as the second of three children. His father, Ignác Šechtl, had opened his photographic studio in Tábor in 1876, and thus Josef Jindřich was influenced by photography from his childhood.

After finishing lower high school in Tábor, the boy was particularly interested in chemigraphy (a method of printing photographs). In 1891 (at the age of 14) he started to work as a trainee in the polygraphic factory of Jan Vilím in Prague. After two years, in 1893, he changed jobs to work as a photographer in the studio of František Krátký in Kolín. Krátký's studio specialized in stereoscopy and publishing photographs as educational tools, allowing Josef Jindřich to further develop his interests in photographic printing. His work is influenced by photographic pictorialism. He used various visual aids and decorations to help express the personality of his subjects, often with a gentle sense of humor. His skilful use of light and contrast with shadows achieved stunning visual effects.

Josef Jindřich Šechtl became a partner in the Šechtl & Voseček studio in 1904 and took complete control in 1911 after the death of his father. Under his lead the studio prospered, and in 1906 he opened an affiliated studio in Pelhřimov, while the studio also participated in the Imperial Austrian Exhibition in London. In 1907, a new and modern studio was built on the main street of Tábor.

Live statue of poetry, 1911, arranged for the Czech Sokol movement with sculptor Jan Vítězslav Dušek. The photographic work of Josef Jindřich was very much influenced by Anna Stocká, whom he married in 1911. Anna loved art, and thanks to her charm the family befriended several artists living in Tábor, in particular the sculptor Jan Vítězslav Dušek. In 1912 Josef Jindřich and Anna's daughter Ludmila was born, and all seemed well. Josef Jindřich didn't serve in the army during World War I, and thus had a chance to record life in Tábor during this period, including the fire that significantly damaged the Tábor studio in 1917. He recorded the fire in a unique photo-essay, and Autochrome processes.

Photo essays Josef Jindřich Šechtl did most of his work in the limits of the Tábor region of southern Bohemia. However, within these limits, he captured a number of important historical events, and portrayed in great detail life in the Czech countryside. A number of his photo essays have been preserved, either on glass plate negatives or on nitrate films. Until 1911 the photo essays were done in collaboration with his father, Ignác Šechtl, and until the 1930s, with Jan Voseček.

Josef Jindřich Šechtl was, from 1927, among the first photographers in Czechoslovakia to use the Leica 35mm film camera.

Selected photo essays preserved in the archive:

Archive of the negatives

After the death of Josef Jindřich Šechtl the glass plate negatives remained stored in the building of the former Šechtl and Voseček studio and were inherited by his son Josef Šechtl. Josef worked as the head of the new syndicate into which the former Šechtl and Voseček studio was turned, and his wife Marie Šechtlová worked as an employee. The communist regime was afraid of what might be seen in Josef Jindřich's photo essays made during the Nazi occupation, and particularly worried that its own members might be revealed as having collaborated. The family was asked to pass the negatives to the "cultural house" (Dům Osvěty) but decided to keep them in private ownership. As a result, Josef Šechtl was arrested in November 1957 and jailed for one year (ostensibly for taking a photograph of a wedding without permission to practise as a photographer) and the majority of the archive was confiscated shortly afterwards. Marie Šechtlová was tipped off about the impending confiscation, and the night before it brought what she thought were the most important negatives into their new house. A considerable amount of the confiscated material was destroyed but the rest was stored in the Regional Archive in Tábor. In the 1970s the syndicate was relocated to the main square and the Tábor studio destroyed to allow the Hotel Palcát to be built in its place. This led to the destruction of most of the cameras, photographic prints and other items still in the attic of the building. The studio in Pelhřimov (an important example of functionalist architecture by Karel Chochola) survived but was significantly damaged by being abandoned and allowed to decay for years. and the private Šechtl and Voseček Museum of Photography was opened in Tábor.

Chronology Year1877, May 9 Josef Jindřich Šechtl born in Tábor, at house #346, son of Ignác Schächtl (who later changed his name to Ignác Šechtl) and Kateřina Šechtlová née Šťastná. On the same day, [Jan Voseček] started work in Ignác's photographic studio. 1880 Jan Voseček registered as a photographer's assistant 1895, November Šechtl & Voseček studio moved to the former studio of Alexander Seik. 1897 and earlier Studied in studios of J. Vilím in Prague and František Krátký in Kolín. Also, first photographs from sport events (Sokol exercises). 1904 Josef Jindřich Šechtl became a partner of Šechtl & Voseček studio. and the following reconstruction were preserved. 1925, April 26 Josef Ferdinand Ignác Šechtl, son of Josef Jindřich and Anna, born in Prague. 1925, November 1 Anna Šechtlová, née Stocká, died in Tábor, aged 36. 1926, May 12 Josef Jindřich Šechtl married Božena Bulínová (born 20 January 1890 in Jivno). 1936, January 1 Jan Voseček, regarded as a member of Šechtl family, died in Tábor. 1948, May 15 Josef Ferdinand Ignác Šechtl married Marie Kokešová, future photographer and partner in Šechtl & Voseček studio. 1951 Nationalization of the Šechtl & Voseček studio by communist government. 1954, March 17 Josef Jindrich Šechtl died in Tábor, aged 76.