Czech Central Mountains in the photographs of Zuzana Růžičková

November 9, 2016 - January 29, 2017

Even during her visits to elementary school classes, she became interested in photography thanks to her father, an amateur photographer. She helped him in the darkroom while developing photographs and was amazed by the slowly appearing images, the small miracles in creating black and white photography. She began to fully develop her experiences and memories from her youth during her professional employment in the field of nature conservation. She still works here today, now at the Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic, regional office of East Bohemia. She has been associated with this office for decades and as a documentarian, she fulfills one of her lifelong dreams.

She enjoys working in the landscape and with the interiors of nature. The landscape is one of the main themes of her photographs, especially in the early spring and the beautiful colorful, but often gloomy autumn. Her photographs appear, for example, in a series of publications Protected Areas of the Czech Republic, guides to educational trails, information panels, as well as in exhibitions and in a number of small regional publications of the Pardubice region. Recently, she has been focusing mainly on the area of Králický Sněžník and the protected landscape area of Železné hory.

She has long been dedicated to the landscape, but gradually also to protected species of plants and animals. Her approach to creation can be fully described as emotional. For example, the Czech Central Mountains, which she originally knew only from photographs by other authors, she gradually began to discover, experience, and after several visits in different seasons, it captivated her so much that she has been happily returning here for many years, and the places she already knows well due to their uniqueness are a constant source of inspiration for her.

Pardubice, October 2016