Who is Petr Daniel
Why do I take photographs? I have never asked myself the question in this way, because I have considered it as a mission. Should you have the privilege to be a painter, then you would paint and seldom ask yourself for the reasons of doing so; if you do not break through, you get forgotten, and if you do (be it due to the quality of your achievement or to good marketing), then only the reasons will be analysed by art historians, and the most bizarre explanations and original associations will arise.
While searching for reasons is not easy, I seem to have a clear idea on what I do photograph. When disregarding colour photography, which I consider to be a specific discipline, then I focus mainly on people in their natural setting, if possible without any preparation and, in line with Henri Cartier-Bresson, without interfering in the action. Photography has got one wonderful quality, that of being truthful, and another less wonderful one – that is the ephemeralness of the moment. When you manage to grasp the ephemeral moment and everything fits in together, then a good photograph may appear, and this is what I find marvellous about photography. Sometimes, you see the ephemeral moment and only save it in your memory (such latent photographs are the best, although one must be perceptive so that to catch sight of it); another time you may be ready, but not everything comes out as it should, and only seldom all fits in together more or less perfectly.
When taking photos of people, I always try not to hurt human dignity and integrity, and to keep a certain distance and maybe even a detached view of people’s swarming over this world. From this point of view, one can make photographs with humour or at least with a story, with the possibility to guess the story’s continuation – in brief, thought-provoking ones. This is not easy to express precisely. And besides that, the borderline between a good, banal and bad photo is very subtle, and it is not easy at all to keep oneself on the right side.
Petr Daniel
Antonin Dufek, on the book Dobry den Brno (Good Morning Brno):
Petr Daniel works as a civil engineer who gives now more and more to photography. The main line of his works is photography, mainly colour, in which he concentrates on graphic impressive interpretation of the natural and civilizing motives, separated from the real context. Over recent years, he has also worked the collections with a fixed linkage to the time and place of their origin. After the collection 89/98, in which he brought people face to face with the physical culture of the previous and today's regimes, he presented his exhibition Israel a year ago, and now he has finished „his“ Brno.
Because of Brno, he has walked many kilometres through Brno City centre and on its periphery, he also climbed on the roofs and flew in a balloon. The book that he finally compiled after careful selection from many pictures, represents an important step in his work which has not lost its individuality, and which can respect both the existing tradition of city depiction, a particular place and object, and not least light which gives a temporary appearance to reality and the graphic components of the picture.
Round about one century ago, the old tradition of the books on cities started with depicting urban shapes and monuments. In the second half of the past century, photographers brought and immortalized the life in streets to the persons, while traditional depiction of architecture was mainly perceived pejoratively. However, that time is over and Petr Daniel knows it quite well. People have not disappeared from his pictures, but they are usually representatives of period habits and phenomena. The main part of his attempts have been devoted to physical culture, and he has vividly depicted a great many buildings, streets and squares and other places without which one could scarcely imagine the city of Brno. It was not easy to continue the work of the foregoing photographers, in particular Miloš Budík, Karel O. Hrubý, and Vilém Reichmann. Perhaps thanks to Daniel's profession, he quite well understands the structure and the nature of individual buildings, and he is able to find which light suits them and which spoils their appearance. In addition, the book depicts today's Brno, and contains many unknown views of the notoriously known places. The book with dignity continues the present tradition of the depictions of Brno.