Bohumil Krčil

The work of the legendary late photographer and samizdat publisher Bohumil “Bob” Krčil (1952–1992) is little known in his native country. In 1969 he left Czechoslovakia and for the next 23 years traveled through much of Europe and Asia, taking his camera with him. He eventually settled in Manhattan. His documentary-portrait series provide a distinctive look at the atmosphere of the ancient Afghan city of Herat before the Soviet invasion, life in the Indian part of the Himalayas, with its ancient hashish culture, and straightforward views of New York in the 1980s. Like his more famous photographer friends Josef Koudelka and Antonín Kratochvíl, Krčil was an exile. In combination with his innate openness, tolerance, and amiability, that fact opened doors for him to the homes of people of different cultures on different continents.