Václav Havel – Tomki Němec, Photographs (2001) | Photography Book
Product detailed description
About the Book
Václav Havel – Tomki Němec, Photographs is my first photography book dedicated to Václav Havel, independently published in 2001.
The publication features 88 black-and-white photographs capturing Václav Havel in the years following the Velvet Revolution. I wanted to create a small, simple book that could fit into a pocket, inspired by the legendary Photo Poche photography series.
The book was published in English, with a foreword by political scientist and historian Jacques Rupnik. The graphic design was created by Jan Zachariáš. Although the print run was relatively small, great attention was paid to the quality of printing and production.
The edition eventually sold out and has since become a sought-after collector's publication.
Technical Specifications
- Publication year: 2001
- Number of pages: 196
- Number of photographs: 88 black-and-white
- Format: 125 × 190 mm
- Weight: approximately 500 g
- Language: English
- Photographer: Tomki Němec
- Foreword: Jacques Rupnik
- Photo captions: Jiří Oberfalzer, Tomki Němec
- Translation: Derek Paton
- Graphic design: Jan Zachariáš / Atelijeur Půda
- Printing: Daniel
- ISBN: 80-238-6371-1
- Publisher: Tomki Němec, independently published
The Story Behind the Book
In 2001, I self-published a book featuring 88 black-and-white photographs of Václav Havel. It was my first hands-on experience of how a book is made.
I wanted it to fit "into a pocket", inspired by the legendary Photo Poche photography series. Its design was simple and restrained, yet very well printed by the standards of the time, with a foreword by political scientist and historian Jacques Rupnik.
The print run wasn't particularly large, and the book eventually sold out. Today, collectors write to me offering unbelievable sums for this little book, which I no longer own myself.
But I do have a story connected to it. And it involves Václav Havel himself.
At the very beginning of 1990, Václav offered that we address each other informally. I was so taken aback that I couldn't imagine doing it. With some awkward, stammered excuse, I politely declined.
After a while, Mr Václav insisted again, using words I won't repeat here, so you don't think he was being rude. That was after I refused for the second time.
To find a way out of the situation, I told him I would gladly accept once I had published a book about him.
Originally, that was supposed to happen by the end of 1990. I had discussed it with colleagues from the student agency Radost, founded during the revolution by my former classmates from FAMU's photography department. But that's another story.
In the end, I published the book myself in 2001, long after I had stopped working as the president's personal photographer.
I brought the freshly printed book straight from the printing house to Václav at the Open Air festival, also known as Trutnov Woodstock. He regularly attended the festival from his nearby cottage in Hrádeček.
He was sitting backstage with Ivan Martin Jirous and some friends. I greeted them and mumbled something along the lines of, "Well, now we can finally address each other informally."
He smiled. That gentle, familiar smile of his.
What exactly he said, I no longer remember. I'd be making it up.
I was so overwhelmed that my very next sentence still ended with "Mr President."
I never quite got used to addressing him informally, but gradually I learned. Carefully, a little at a time. Sometimes, when we were alone, it felt right.
Unfortunately, I was never able to show him the newer, much more extensive book I published in 2016.
Václav Havel forever!